The future of music

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
Fast forward 100 years. I have to wonder what music will become. Will there be any humans playing acoustic instruments anymore? I hope so but think not, it's too hard and takes too long to get good on. There will be electronic saxophones where all you have to do is think of the lines you want to play and voila, pure perfection from beginners. The only thing you could improve would be your own musical thoughts.

I have vision, scary visions of a concert (if they still exist) being a bunch of people in different parts of the world, brought together on a stage in the form of holograms, playing music that is void of any humanness, because before it reaches your ears, the signal is beat detectived, autotuned, sterilized, and God knows what else.

Thoughts?
 
I've thought about that often. The modern era in music pushed tonality to the limit, some say that modern music is the death of music (Schoenberg).
I like your idea on electronic instruments that can play what the user thinks. I wonder what impact that would have. Would people have to learn music theory and practice instruments?
I can only hope that music survives, and that big business does not turn music into the homogeneous crap they try to shove in everyones ears.
And, if you could play with people long distance via a hologram, I'll sign up for that!
 
I have vision, scary visions of a concert (if they still exist) being a bunch of people in different parts of the world, brought together on a stage in the form of holograms, playing music that is void of any humanness, because before it reaches your ears, the signal is beat detectived, autotuned, sterilized, and God knows what else.

Thoughts?

Larry, I see you've been listening to your local pop stations. lol
 
100 years is a long time! look how much has changed in the last 100 years, and it seems like the pace of change is accelerating.

i'll bet anything that in 100 years the mind/machine link is perfected and it'll be possible to just think of something and it'll be played. that'd be kind of cool actually! i'd like to try that.

even so, i'm sure there will still be history buffs and lovers of the old ways who keep the tradition of actually playing instruments alive, but they'll be out there on the fringe.

this is all assuming we haven't destroyed ourselves with nuclear weapons (or worse) by then, or the robots haven't taken over and made us their slaves.
 
Nope, won't happen. They tried it in the 80's with synthesizers and drum machines and look at early 90's grunge and rock, totally blasted that idea away.
 
As long as there are instruments, there'll be people to play them.

The majority of young kids are far more likely to pick up a guitar than a cello these days, yet symphony orchestras still manage to play to sold out auditoriums all over the world.......all that is needed are a few to carry the torch.

Could Mozart have imagined the Beatles? :)
 
We shall see. Has anyone in the history of man been able to predict what will happen in music?
Like P-Funk said Could Mozart have imagined the Beatles?
 
There will be electronic saxophones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4Ex1sC4xMc

I'd be surprised if people were not still playing acoustic instruments though. I don't think it's a stretch to say that we're in the most pluralistic era ever with music--pretty much ANYTHING that you'd be interested in, from the most traditional world musics to the most cutting edge electronic stuff, people playing music from all eras on instruments from those eras, every genre, etc.--is pretty easy to find. That's fostered by the wealth of information and ease of communication available now, which probably won't change. Additionally, the way that the Internet has pulled the rug out of some of the big business aspects of the music industry a bit has helped level the playing field. I like a pluralistic and more democratized milieu like that.
 
I guess I'm old fashioned. Its all too weird for me Brew. I don't like it. It just sounds 2 dimensional to me. It lacks that genuine "user generated" imperfection that really PROVES a persons skill.

Which probably is a hangup of mine because in the end... what's more important...the skill of the musician, or the message that the music delivered???

Bob Dylans songs and his vocal style comes to mind.

Still, I like things that are hard to do. If drumming were easy, would I seek more of a challenge?
 
I don't think we have anything to worry about. In the end, it's what people decide to buy that keeps a thing going. And what's strange, I meet more and more younger teens that are into bands from the 60s and 70s because their parents hipped it to them (hell, that's not too different from what's available now).

But I get the whole electronic bend, but we grew out of it in the '80s, not because it was bad, but we needed some yin with that yang. Balance usually wins out and those kids that you see that are totally entranced with the likes of Lady GaGa or whoever the new Disney Hit is nowadays suddenly find that their minds go beyond it and decide to let it go and move on. (And besides, I've yet to meet a guy who declares that playing the {insert instrument here} for Justin Bieber was his proudest and most musical gig ever! - I find it strange that there is a lack of those magazine articles, don't you?)

And I think the education system is cranking out more people than we need that are "music purists". Thanks to that institution, we'll never be free of people who don't think the jazz quintet was the coolest thing ever, or the string quartet, or the concert band, or the medievel choir, or even the four-piece rock band. And America is still a country that believes in the educational college for the development of their children, so when you look at the money that goes to those institutions and put it in relation to what the kiddies are buying in popular music, pop music certainly pales in comparison.

I feel confident that, if anything, in 100 years, we'll probably still be having this same conversation.
 
Who knows.

50 years ago, no one would have ever conceived of extreme metal or hip hop.

100 years year ago, no one had a clue bebop or rock n roll would ever exist.

I'm sure whatever people are listening to 100 years from now will be much different.

Will acoustic instruments go away? Not entirely. I mean, the violin still exists, even though it's not been a main instrument in popular music in quite some time.

We may see that acoustic drums and electric guitars eventually fade away from being dominate instruments, but I don't think they'll ever entirely go away.
 
At the pace and direction this global economy is changing, there won't be much music at all.

The 'mom and pop' stores are gone already for the most part, and local music is part of the same philosophy.

We have outsourced our culture.
 
And I think the education system is cranking out more people than we need that are "music purists". Thanks to that institution, we'll never be free of people who don't think the jazz quintet was the coolest thing ever, or the string quartet, or the concert band, or the medievel choir, or even the four-piece rock band. And America is still a country that believes in the educational college for the development of their children, so when you look at the money that goes to those institutions and put it in relation to what the kiddies are buying in popular music, pop music certainly pales in comparison.
.

I think you're right there. lol

The is also this Pat Metheny contraption.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsYEOUKS4Yk

One of the things about Dylan is that he can communicate with the simplest of language but also has an impeccable sense of phrasing. It is often imitated, and people know it when they hear it.
 
One of the things about Dylan is that he can communicate with the simplest of language but also has an impeccable sense of phrasing. It is often imitated, and people know it when they hear it.

Exactly. He transcends the vehicle of expression be it voice, or instrument and conveys a feeling. How you phrase stuff puts certain spin on meanings... musicality (yikes!) in practice. The message not the messenger.
 
Fast forward 100 years. I have to wonder what music will become. Will there be any humans playing acoustic instruments anymore? I hope so but think not, it's too hard and takes too long to get good on. There will be electronic saxophones where all you have to do is think of the lines you want to play and voila, pure perfection from beginners. The only thing you could improve would be your own musical thoughts.

I have vision, scary visions of a concert (if they still exist) being a bunch of people in different parts of the world, brought together on a stage in the form of holograms, playing music that is void of any humanness, because before it reaches your ears, the signal is beat detectived, autotuned, sterilized, and God knows what else.

Thoughts?

Larry, you know those visions of the not-so-far-off future from the fifties up into the eighties? They seem ridiculous even now, and a lot of them aren't happening fifty years from their conception. In some cases, the ideas are unlikely to happen at all, which can be either a good or a bad thing.

I think these fears are kind of unfounded. Arts will always survive, as computers are directly linked to mathematics, which are quantifiable. Arts are unquantifiable, and thus are superior to anything produced by mathematics or computers.

We're safe for a long, long time.
 
Larry, you know those visions of the not-so-far-off future from the fifties up into the eighties? They seem ridiculous even now, and a lot of them aren't happening fifty years from their conception. In some cases, the ideas are unlikely to happen at all, which can be either a good or a bad thing.

I think these fears are kind of unfounded. Arts will always survive, as computers are directly linked to mathematics, which are quantifiable. Arts are unquantifiable, and thus are superior to anything produced by mathematics or computers.

We're safe for a long, long time.

But what about when the bomb goes off and the apes take over? Then what?
 
100 years from now?

I imagine the music will be louder. That seems to be the one constant over the past 100 years.
 
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