Is it just me or are most things these days shallow, hard, loud and cheap?
In the old days, things were deep, soft and rich -- because we liked them that way. These days, however, everything sounds, looks and feels like an ersatz clone of its older self. Strangely, however, the technology to produce and consume those things is vastly more sophisticated today than ever before.
And before you start calling me old-fashioned or just plain old, let me remind you that this is about fine taste, not about age or about living in the past.
Take music for instance. Sound engineering today is amazingly hi-tech but the quality of the sound sucks, inasmuch as it lacks in richness of texture, tone and timbre. And when it comes to the music, today's arrangements seem to lack in range of instruments as also in depth of harmony. The few times I hear an interesting sounding instrument, or a fragment with good counterpoint, the piece grabs my attention regardless of what I am doing -- that's how rare it has become.
The music producer's goal these days is to capture, even if ephemerally, the attention and wallet-share of a fickle attention-deficit audience that is constantly hankering after the next cool thing. And what they produce has to sound as good on a small electronic gizmo with earplugs that reproduce that sound with remarkable fidelity, as it would on a 5.1 home theatre system. Most of that music is intrinsically tinny. It has become that way simply because tinniness is what it got from how we listen to it. And there's the preponderance of heavily accentuated percussion that can really push your sub-woofers to their limit and overwhelm your eardrums -- it got that way because of how we listen to it.
Back in the old days we didn't have mp3 players and we didn't have sub-woofers. We didn't need them; we didn't need five point ones. Just a regular stereo system -- consisting of a turn-table an amp and two speakers -- was enough. Enough to be able to enjoy the beautifully orchestrated music they produced back then. Enough to recreate the deep and rich sound of an acoustic double-bass that would let you wallow indulgently in the booming resonance of its vibrancy as it filled the room and enveloped you, only to be broken by the rasp of the bow drawn sharply across the strings.
I'm not sure they even use acoustic instruments any longer. They have synthesized electronic sounds that mimic the original instrument. Sounds almost the same, they say. Almost. For me, almost doesn't quite cut it.
And before you start calling me old-fashioned or just plain old, let me remind you that this is about fine taste, not about age or about living in the past.
