Fake Musicians

There are hundreds of emerging technologies that have been developed to allow more people to become a so called "musician". The sounds of virtually any instrument can be achieved by playing an electric keyboard or even by using a program such as GarageBand. People can create an entire song, an entire album with one of these programs and the most ironic part is that there are bands on the mainstream that have become famous this way such as a recent emerged band called Owl City.



Owl City is Adam Young, it is a one man band that uses synthesizers. Music is not about just recording an album, it's about playing that music for a live audience. A live audience consisted of fans that want to hear and witness the recreation of that music. How can it be considered music when only a single part is played live while the rest is recording? Many other techno artists have been utilizing this technology for over a decade and the majority of the beats that rappers lay vocals over are produced this way as well, but rap is another topic that we will cover in a later blog entry.

The Noise
Firstly, people no longer have to pay studios to record their material to make a demo, they can record it from home on their very own computer. Personally, I do not have a problem with that, but as stated in an earlier post it just makes it that much more difficult for your band to be heard amongst every other band that now has access to this technology.
Secondly, everyone has their own musical taste, but there are so many different genre's that one would get lost just trying to name them all off. From Jazz to blues, country to rock n' roll, from heavy metal to death metal; how can some of these be considered music anyways? Just like the words that were sung by Bob Seger, "I like that old time rock'n' roll...That kind of music just soothes the soul". But how can a person screaming their brains out to the point that every single word is incomprehensible be classified as music?
Finally, can it really be considered musicianship to take another artists music and add one simple beat to make it sound more uptempo? To make it so that people can dance to the song? Or can it be considered musicianship to take two songs from different artists and splice them together on a computer to create one song?
I believe that although many opportunities have been provided for those who desire to be a musician, to those who have a real band, and play actual instruments, but the number of setbacks that have occurred with these developments in technology have actually made it harder to lead the life of a musician. It has also lead to the up rise of wanna-be musicians who cannot play very well, but continue to try. So this one question must be asked, when does it stop being about the music that is being produced and becomes more about the poetry and lyricism?