In that same galaxy a long time ago there existed Pure Volume. Pure Volume allowed you to follow your favorite artists, listen to their music, vote for them to become featured artists or artists of the week- and more often than not, they recognized their fans! It seems like a once in a lifetime thing, but with Pure Volume, this dream became a reality.
Since MySpace has fallen from its reign as supreme social network and FaceBook has taken the throne, the connection between music and social media has become very different. Sure, we can follow our favorite rapper on Twitter and "like" our favorite band's FaceBook status update, but you can't listen to that local band's new EP right on Twitter, and that band can't upload their latest song on FaceBook without downloading a new app to make the file accessible.
It is my personal opinion that modern social media is making it increasingly more challenging to support music. While we still have iTunes and we can still torrent until the feds catch us, it's not easy to communicate with musicians anymore. With the billions of tweets Kanye gets in a day, the chances of him even seeing yours are slim. We as the 99% who are not multi-million dollar recording artists are inspired by our favorite musicians. We can send them fan mail and tweet them until our fingers bleed, but there is not guarantee that they will feel our support.
This post doesn't come with a solution to this problem- it is merely a recognition that social media does not support music the way it once did. It is important for us to support our favorite artists, but it is equally as important for us to feel supported by our artists. Music appreciation is not a one-way street.
That galaxy does seem far away! I remember decorating my myspace page with Andy Warhol art work, no wonder I became an art major!
ReplyDeleteDid you ever hear of Spotify? Its a great way to listen to music without downloading it, it is more like a music database. It is a program partnered with Facebook where your friends can see what music you are listening to and vic versa. I feel this is a great way to socially relate musically with friends and find new music one may not have listen to otherwise.
In my art classroom this could be a great way for students to listen to appropriate music that they enjoy while creating art!
MYspace wow after reading this I searched for mine and it is still there and I have no idea how to delete it! Social media and jus the web in general has really hurt major artist every song is leaked and most people go to concerts just to see the artist in person and not hear the music. Apps and social are controlling everything these days!
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