"RichL" <rpleavitt@yahoo.com> wrote in a message
>> Zappa had a pretty clear message... is it a negative that people are
>> more apt to discuss the controversy rather than the message?
> Can you really separate the controversy from the message, though? Isn't
> it part of the message, in a way?
I think the controversy and the message are easily separated. Who here, in
all this discussion, has brought up any points about an apathetic society or
any of Zappa's messages? The discussion here, up until recently has been
pretty limited to;
Zappa sucks
No he doesn't, he's a genius
No, he's highly overrated
No, You suck
No You suck
... but then, that's pretty much a good half of all Usenet discussion - just
plug in a different topic.
>> Which is one of the reasons I so much love the internet, and Usenet.
>> Music has moved into a new era where there isn't a small handful of
>> people who decide what we will hear. One has access to every type of
>> music available from every artist who chooses to put his/her stuff
>> out there. There's almost a downside to that, in that it has grown so
>> large, one may miss something for simple lack of clicking on a single
>> link among the millions available.
> There's another downside also: lack of common ground.
>
> I started playing guitar in 1963, and during the '60s rock musicians
> were all basically hearing the same things. So if you ran into a
> handful of musicians, chances were that you all knew many songs in
> common. You'd get asked to sit in, and you could pull it off without
> missing a beat.
>
> The net provides the diversity that was missing somewhat then (although
> stations played a variety of different sounding stuff on the radio), but
> genres have fractionated to the extent that, of the subset of people
> posting here who play any sort of *current* music, I'd be willing to bet
> that there isn't much overlap among them. So the net is good, and the
> net is bad. Overall good, I'd say, but there's some experiences that I
> had the pleasure to be part of that the younger folks will miss out on.
Very cool point. The net, while expanding horizons and avenues, limits the
interaction of musicians on a regular level. I hadn't considered that, but I
think you're dead on there.
The flip side though, is I have done some collaboration with musicians I
have never met, just using online means. Perhaps that is something that will
grow to be more common. Likewise, I have personally met many musicians as a
result of first "meeting" them online.
So, while some doors may be closing, others are opening.
In the end, the overall effect - good or bad, remains to be seen.
