Music and Technology

In light of the development of technology, the music production market has exploded. We have countless methods of listening to music now, through out computers, MP3s, ipods, radio, CD, etc, the list continues. In addition, we have the highest quality sound systems ever developed, speakers that can fill a stadium with full noise, to the popular bose headphones. In addition, the amount of music currently produced has grown exponentially. While all these things are true, however, is the quality of the music now produced as it was "back in the day"? Because of how easy it is to now produce music, I believe that the quality now created has paid the price. Music now has no sustenance, it simply doesn't last. Compare the current itunes top son, "Jump then Fall" by Taylor Swift. In two months, will the vast majority of those currently smitten with that song listen to it? Doubtful. Conversely, must produced a few decades ago, while the production and distribution of it was slow, it was high quality and has lasted ages. For instance, the beatles, are still listened to today. I do not believe that my children will listen to my generation's music, despite the fact that I listened to my parents. Don't get me wrong, technology has done great things for music, without it, the whole "techno" genre would not even exist, which I genuinely believe would be a shame. I am simply an idealist and wish that in the rose could come without thorns.

Can we communicate?

I have found technology to be a somewhat contradicting "thing". One of its greatest dichotomies is the concept of communication. There is no doubt that technology facilitates so much communication, just consider the effects of the following: email, skype, IM, facebook, twitter, blogging,text messaging, just to name a few. I can video chat with my friends in the US, 6,000 miles away, yet seem as if we are just sitting across a table. Yes, technology is allowing us to connect with each on whole new levels. However, although this may seem contradictory, have our communication skills deteriorated? I think because we are able to communicate so easily in written word, we have forgotten how to communicate in person. I cannot even count how many people I would feel more comfortable talking with over facebook than in person. Is this healthy? Isn't human contact one huge aspect of being? We are growing numb; we enjoy the luxury of being able to consider, edit, move, send, revoke, and ect. Because of this, when we are in situations when human communication is mandatory we freeze up- we can't compose ourselves, we are uncomfortable. I feel that technology-like anything- is twofold. We just need to learn how to combat these issues.

Is the success of the internet indicitive of the world's economy?

It goes without saying that the world's economic situation is not a good one. However, many internet-related goods have made a come back, despite the recession. I recently read an article in the New York Times by Miguel Helft about how great google's third quarter results were, even better than predicted (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/technology/companies/16google.html?_r=1&ref=technology). In the article, one of the executives at Google insinuated that the success of the internet-based companies is a preamble for the success of the rest of the technological market. I simply wonder if that is a realistic expectation. Technology is most defiantly an expensive luxury, and usually produces normative goods. Normative goods are goods that are in higher demand as peoples' incomes increase. Technology is a producer of such goods. Right now, will people really be willing to spend money on ipods and kindles when some are struggling to make ends meet?