But do you agree that - er, someone - has live performances confused with rehearsals? How about Pink Floyd, Tool, etc? Do you agree that playing live with a metronome is unfair? That amplification and effects and light shows have never got in the way of human elements of playing? That a metronome being used live suggests a crutch for someone who hasn't learned time? That we're being goofy and cheating ourselves by not requiring every emotional experience music takes us on to be click free?
And does anyone have the slightest idea which listeners aren't real exactly?
Nah, I think all's fair in love, war and music. Whatever works IMO.
DD is a blues purist. I'm not a purist with anything - totally pragmatic. Anything goes. I can enjoy incredibly crass, crappy music if I'm in the mood.
Usually I'm just a sucker for a good melody or beat or vibe or well put together song ... I don't care how that's achieved. I couldn't care if they stuck a pulsing mechanism in the bum of a robot and got it farting out the time ... just as long as the music hits the spot, I'm happy.
The idea of "fairness" or "cheating" when it comes to using clicks seems to stem from competition for gigs or kudos. You get the "help" of a click to allow you to play better gigs because every second song isn't speeding up.
It's about purity. The romantic view is that the more technology added, the less direct human expression there is. You could argue that electric guitars and keys made music a little less subtle and personal (as compared with acoustic music). People seem okay with that. I am. I think the trend is against the subtle and personal in an increasingly crowded, noisy and digitised world.
That's my other theory - if the environment holds up then we'll evolve into cyborgs.
Getting back to "fairness" ... The idea is like those swimsuits they banned from international swimming because of the unfair advantage. Or maybe a javelin with a tiny invisible rocket installed at the tail. Or how about the outcry about Oscar Pistorius competing in races with his super functional artificial legs?
"Not fair!" the other athletes cried. (Of course, since Oscar P has it so good they could always arrange to have a catastrophic accident so they lost their legs too).
It's only natural that in the competitive hurly burly that protests are made when people use technology to gain some kind of advantage. Situation normal.