old geezer
Member
I don't think things are any different today than they have ever been. Same behavior, even used to be the same myself.
We are doomed
- Thread starter barkerd
- Start date
JonL
Lunatic Member
Yup. And part of the reason those kids don't hear a difference in the SQ is because they're focused on the music, and the music speaks to them regardless of the SQ. Not a bad thing, IMO.
Scuzzer
Fixed Bias
+1
My 12 year old daughter is equally happy listening to her ipod using the internal speaker, the boombox in her room or the living room stereo system. Instead of being flabbergasted by it I'm somewhat in awe.
In looking at any subject with extremes in refinement, be it automobiles, cooking, music reproduction, or sandlot baseball vs. the World Series, a person needs to be in a receptive mindset to appreciate the magnitude of the extremes. If you try to force that appreciation onto a person not ready for it you are wasting your time, much like leading a horse to water...
And just last night I went to a live show (Welsh psych-folk artist Cate Le Bon) and thought just the opposite. "kids these days are awesome". There weren't many there but I've seen so many live shows from young people who just blow me away with how varied and interesting their taste and skill is compared to the bands when I was in college.
KeninDC
Hazy Cosmic Jive
I didn't give a crap about SQ in high school. Loud and new was all I cared about.
Most portable music we listened to was a tape dub from a scratchy LP or a 2nd generation dub of a tape dub. Or, we taped the song off the radio. The first time I heard London Calling, it was on a 2nd generation tape dub on a Sony Walkman. The music, and not the SQ, changed my life just a wee bit.
Taking off from JohnVF's observation, my 12-year-old son has buddies who come over and pick up my acoustc guitar and start playing old Zep tunes. Just two years ago, they were throwing hotdogs at one another in my back yard. Now they're channeling Jimmy Page. Kids change. Often for the better.
Most portable music we listened to was a tape dub from a scratchy LP or a 2nd generation dub of a tape dub. Or, we taped the song off the radio. The first time I heard London Calling, it was on a 2nd generation tape dub on a Sony Walkman. The music, and not the SQ, changed my life just a wee bit.
Taking off from JohnVF's observation, my 12-year-old son has buddies who come over and pick up my acoustc guitar and start playing old Zep tunes. Just two years ago, they were throwing hotdogs at one another in my back yard. Now they're channeling Jimmy Page. Kids change. Often for the better.
When I was in college, you had your good nationally recognized indie/punk bands, and dozens of terrible local bands or lesser known bands down the roster. It seems that every band that I see now, regardless of popularity, is at the very least really interesting because they aren't copying somebody else- usually its just a mish/mash of a whole bunch of interests, because the one thing I've noticed about kids around here at least is that they aren't as glued to specific genres like everybody when I was growing up. We listened to one type of music, and were very closed minded about anything else (hmm, that sounds familiar).
Maybe its how these kids listen- so many are hopping on youtube, and listening to a song, then hopping to something from the recommend list, and then following that trail. Its a WAY more varied way of being introduced to music than just eating up what the FM rock station is feeding you. The kids who are really into it, get schooled in a whole variety of genres.
Maybe its just a city thing, or a thing that is apt to be in the kids that move to the city- but these kids have such a taste in music. Its not just new, but old random stuff that they're dragging up as its reissued on vinyl. Speaking of which- if our record stores are anything to go by, the kids are keeping the record pressers in business.
audiodon
Addicted Member
Dnewma04 is right.
I did sound for bands for years and I used to delude myself that people came for the good sound.
They didn't.
They came for the social environment.
Some of the smart ones hid the fact that they thought it sounded good.
Frank Zappa showed up one night and called it, "listenable", which is probably as high praise as could be hoped for.
Most people will never get it and will consider us oddities. I'm fine with that.
I did sound for bands for years and I used to delude myself that people came for the good sound.
They didn't.
They came for the social environment.
Some of the smart ones hid the fact that they thought it sounded good.
Frank Zappa showed up one night and called it, "listenable", which is probably as high praise as could be hoped for.
Most people will never get it and will consider us oddities. I'm fine with that.
squirrelnest
Lunatic Member
Most kids at that age don't care about sound quality....they want the music NOW....and LOAD....
KeninDC
Hazy Cosmic Jive
Simon Reynold discusses this Youtube phenomenon in his excellent book Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past.
When I was in high school, we had the Brit-based groups that did the whole Stones/Who/Beatles thing. We had Southern Rock bands that basically sucked (and I dig two or three lead gutars). Then, we got the punk bands that were painfully DIY.
In today's world, we have Brooklyn's "Twin Guns" as an example of a band that is all over the place when it comes to rock & roll genres. They channel BRMC, Yardbirds, VU, and even GnR. The War Against Drugs is another band all over the genre map. And who would have thought that The Horrors would be all over New Order, Jim Morrison, and early 70s Krautrock.
My kids are fascinated by the Youtube video of Ah-Ha's Take on Me. They sure as hell won't hear me play Ah-Ha and it ain't on the radio.
This is it, really. 'Twas ever thus, and as it should be.
As a kid in the 60s and 70s, it was all about the music. Still is. And how loud we could blast it before the authorities came. (Still is, sometimes!)
Forming your musical tastes while young is probably more important than listening for sound quality. Kind of like having long hair back then: "I care more about what's in your head, not on your head," my dad once told me.
That said - yeesh, no kidding, mp3 and iTunes and YouTube music is noticeably bad-sounding. But 97 out of 100 people want the convenience.
=K
ev13wt
Super Member
This self shoulder patting has got to stop.
Its all about the music. If the reproduction is of high quality, good. But don't hate on people that are just enjoying music.
Heck, my Dad listens to youtube using a bose wave radio and rocks out like that, and he always had the totl stuff when I was young, with huge speakers. See my sig, parts of that are his old gear.
Its all about the music. If the reproduction is of high quality, good. But don't hate on people that are just enjoying music.
Heck, my Dad listens to youtube using a bose wave radio and rocks out like that, and he always had the totl stuff when I was young, with huge speakers. See my sig, parts of that are his old gear.
KrisM
Lunatic Member
When I was a kid, traveling to hockey tournaments, one of the highlights was bringing a package of blank tapes and high-speed dubbing as many tapes as I could. My copy of a copy of a copy of Master Of Puppets sucked sonically, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. Then I grew up, ended up with turntables and SACDs players, and listen to every bit of detail that I can. Hard to say who has it better, me today or me at 14? I like where I am, but saving my weekend's food budget money so I could buy beer and steal Metallica tapes had its upside, too.
Buddshepherd
New Member
I took my daughter (age 10) with me to look at a pair of Dynaco A-25's to replace my failing baby Advents. (I have a little high range hearing loss anyway.) She got quite excited about the Dynaco's which also happen to sound quite good for their age. I often call her into listen/evaluate the results of my efforts to revive some old stereo equipment I've acquired.
On the other hand my older brother had his wireless MP3 player going in the farm shop. It was turned up too high, the radio was a little off the station and with every bass note you could hear the clipping. He was quite happy to go all afternoon. I started going insane after five minutes.
But, on the other hand, I have been listening to those Baby Advents with no high range for years and most recently bombarding the help with an ancient and squeaky George Jones tape on a reel to reel I'm trying to fix.
So I suppose my point is that it is all relative. Most folks just need background noise to fill the empty space between their ears...
On the other hand my older brother had his wireless MP3 player going in the farm shop. It was turned up too high, the radio was a little off the station and with every bass note you could hear the clipping. He was quite happy to go all afternoon. I started going insane after five minutes.
But, on the other hand, I have been listening to those Baby Advents with no high range for years and most recently bombarding the help with an ancient and squeaky George Jones tape on a reel to reel I'm trying to fix.
So I suppose my point is that it is all relative. Most folks just need background noise to fill the empty space between their ears...
I think a good many audiophile-types could take a lesson from these kids. I don't know how many times I've sat myself down in front of a really nice stereo, to be confronted with the same Norah Jones track I've heard on a dozen other nice systems. Does the race for sound quality erase the chase for new music, or what? Maybe we are doomed, but it's by our own obsession with sound over music.
FWIW, pretty much any genre that you're after is probably being lovingly recreated by a bunch of kids, somewhere, with decent home recording capability, and a computer to distribute it with.
FWIW, pretty much any genre that you're after is probably being lovingly recreated by a bunch of kids, somewhere, with decent home recording capability, and a computer to distribute it with.
similost
Rockin and Rollin....
It's not about quality any more.. it's about content and quantity..
Not much different than has happened in most every bit of manufacturing any more... They just don't build it like they used to... It's a disposable society any more, and kids have never experianced anything well made.. so they have no clue.. thank us, and our generations past that keep ruining it for the future generations.
Not much different than has happened in most every bit of manufacturing any more... They just don't build it like they used to... It's a disposable society any more, and kids have never experianced anything well made.. so they have no clue.. thank us, and our generations past that keep ruining it for the future generations.
AnalogDigit
Realistic fan.
That is how it was when I was growing up. We listened to Panasonic Dynamite 8 track portables, transistor radios, all-in-one stereos (Panasonic, Soundesign) and suitcase turntables.
Scuzzer
Fixed Bias
Just wait, someone will be along shortly to wax nostalgic over the superior sound quality of those units compared to an evil ipod.
Amen brother. I had to pay $800 in 1978 to get decent sound quality and these know-nothing brats of today can get it with an ipod, a T-Amp and a pair of speakers. When you add in that extra 300 to 400 hours of work it took me to save up for my crappy BOTL Pioneer system they surely don't know what they're missing.
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