Music and Me Reflections

This discussion was really interesting as it allowed us to understand why in the past large groups of us were drawn to the same sorts or different kinds of music. Not only this but we also all saw a natural progression in how our music taste changed and shaped itself to what it is today, with a large part in this based on the technologys now avaliable to us and how much more we utilise them now being older, such as web 2.0.

 

The main discoveries we found throughout the lesson was that during our early childhood most of the music we listened to was a result of family influences and preferances, as they were the source of our music at the time, as being young we could hardly buy or get any music of our own and so had to almost put up with or bring ourselves to enjoy what we heard around us everyday. Computers and iPods were not created (or very basic) at the time and so this meant people had to actually pay for cd's and records, almost making music taste alot more niche compared to nowadays, where downloading is so easy we generally cross genres. I think its strange and great that some of the songs we heard as children have influenced our music taste today, my dad being a big 80s punk rock fan, and me now, being the same, giving me an emotional connection to most of these sort of songs.

Going into the era where were just able to source our own music, our music taste generally changed to either follow the crowd with mainstream artists (s club 7 for a younger self or rihanna for an older me)or delve into more underground artists. This has become even more evident as the internet has grown because we now have access to YouTube and iTunes to broaden our music tastes.  Its interesting  that compared to the past, we are able to have much wider tastes than our parent's generation because of these sites and devices allowing us to consume mass music collections rather than focusing on one specific genre, going to gigs and concerts, downloading, just watching youtube videos etc.

 

I found the lesson was useful as it allowed me to think about why i was influenced and attracted to genres of music and then in our coursework i will be able to try and give our target audience the same effect. Not only this but it has shown me the massive impact technological advances have had on the music industry and music tastes, so i will look to utilise this greatly in the coursework task.