Wie geht's?
Icons Of Rock is a book by Jenny Boyd (yes, Pattie's sister). It's a collection of interviews conducted by her with a huge range of musicians and rock stars - mainly from the late eighties.
Someone I wasn't previously familiar with is British musician Francis 'Eg' White who started making music in the eighties and is still working currently.
He makes some interesting comments about how songwriting and music has changed in this new, Spotify age.
During his interview he compares mid-sixties, seventies, early eighties to now.
Then, 'it wasn't just self-expression people were aiming for. I think people were genuinely trying to touch something, if not divine, then at least something transformational in themselves that they could then bring into the world. I think the aim was very high at that point'.
He calls the sixties to seventies period 'the golden age', and I agree with him.
Spotify only pays an artist if you listen to a song for 31 seconds. If people skip before then they pay nothing. Clearly a lot of people skip in the first 30 seconds - otherwise why make that the threshold?
Spotify has made music much more accessible, and disposable.
To hold an audience, artists have to capture their listener quickly, and hold them. This means modern pop music has changed a lot, and for me and Eg White - not for the better.
I like that he calls my initial years of collecting music, the golden period. I agree, and I'm very thankful that I was hearing all of those great sixties and seventies bands at first hand.
I also come from a time when we listened to not only whole songs, but, shock horror probe, whole albums! While we were hosting my sister-in-law and brother-in-law during Matariki weekend, Jacky was using Alexa to change songs quickly and it drove me bonkers. But only me.
Love and peace - Wozza
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