Qualitative Analysis on Technology and Music's Ever-changing Relationship

Technology’s Ever-growing Negative Effect on Music

Patrick Newkirk

Kennesaw State University:??Media & Entertainment Journal

Technology’s Ever-growing Negative Effect on Music

Many people already know that music has played a huge role throughout various aspects of people’s lives worldwide arguably since the dawn of time. However; many don’t know that music has had lasting effects on everything from shaping and modifying society, to bridging gaps between generations while establishing cultural relevancy. Being that this form of art has been and will continue to be so poignant to society on countless (levels), you’d think that there would be a different attitude towards protecting it’s prestige, nevertheless it has been quite the opposite. Music and technology, both can be traced back to the dawn of man and one could even argue that technology has always been involved in music in some form or fashion since some of music’s earliest types. As a result of man being on a long found constant trajectory of growth through various societal mediums mainly technology (and art, i.e. music), one could say that the only aspect that changed within music and technology’s relationship would simply be the level of advancement in technology itself. However, people rarely speak about the negative changes that technology has not only did to music but also various aspects of the music world. Some of these facets that have been negatively affected by technology include: audience members and listeners, creator’s ownership of music and small or local business owners. Music has taken a huge blow since the first forms of computers were created and many researchers say that technology is the main reason as to why music has a pivotal relationship with many people in society today. My grounds of research will be to digress the attitudes of various groups of people towards music and technology through scholarly research, while tying these same attitudes back to societal norms which shape why many of these same people have the opinion that they do on music.?

?“Does analyzations of technology’s lasting negative effects on music prove that technological advancements within music are not so great after all??” Music and technology are both two of the most important facets of American life in the 21st?century. With an ever-changing relationship, that wreaks havoc of both positive and negative effects moreso on music and its many slants, many technology critics’ questions surface about whether or not present-day technology is good for music. Constant progressions in present day technology has arguably been occurring ever since the early 1990s through fairly new tech creations like: radio, computer, mp4, and music streaming platforms (i.e. Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora).??These changes have helped to break down barriers and have opened various doors for musicians and even given audience members access to unfamiliar territories within present day music and its many arenas. Though some of these mediums mentioned earlier have all had questionable impacts on music and music’s growth as a whole, the implementation of these technologies into music has helped: create new ways to educate, grow political involvement of all groups of people, construct mental health arenas and allow music to be convenient to all and etc. Technology has made it possible for people like me and you to be able to have healthy conversations about American Pop Culture (Semenza, 2018).?

There is a myriad of positive things that technology has been able to accomplish for music in the past 30 years. So coincidently as a result, these accomplishments have created mixed feelings towards whether or not technology is a?solemnity or travesty. For example, the music world, which was once dominated by CD stores, major retail stores and mom and pop shops,?now accredit majority of the housing of its physical and or digital music, to music platforms that have unlimited access to thousands of catalogues, and ways for audiences to buy and stream music. Another example includes the way in which technology has transformed music’s once fringed frontier in American culture, into one of the biggest key players in aiding in ushering positive attitudes and effectively growing various areas of American culture like: education reform, mental health and political awareness and etc. (I.e. these are only a few positive things). It is through the positive aspects that technology have created for music, that many critics argue in favor of the use of such advancements in the music world. Tech creations like iPads have made it possible for children with learning impairments and disabilities to use music as a basis of learning. Music can be a fundamental tool for educators that could help to lead to successfully funded proposals that provide additional resources in support of music and education (Bugos, 2020). For instance, as kids are in chorus class with their MP4s and iPads, the traditional learning setting embarked upon by their predecessors many years ago is now a thing of the past to them. Lastly the incorporation of music through technology has even helped with people suffering from critical mental health issues like severe depression and schizophrenia. Increasingly, electronic assistive technologies are enabling access to work and leisure pursuits for people with severe and complex disabilities (Magee, 2006).??It seems like the adding of technology into the music world has only brought about good change in American Culture, but as the story is told throughout history very loudly: with all change comes good and bad results.?

Throughout?the last three decades, there has been great speculation surrounding the creation and implementation of certain technologies and the world of music is not an exception. Technology has always been a generator of fear to traditionalists who believe that certain aspects of everyday life should always be off limits.??Throughout human history there have always been great anger towards change, sometimes warranted and other times solely based off of fear itself.??The relationship of technology and music has great reasoning to be suspect. Some of these reasons include: negative effects on school youth, increase in violent crimes, negative economic effects, lack of interest in new artist (i.e. saturation) and music creator and composure ownership (issues). As humans we have various aspects that make us suspectable to various things and I want to use a birthday cake analogy to prove how a negative correlation between technology and music could easily be ignored by the masses. Anyone could agree that though a birthday cake may taste delicious and may have positive emotional effects on party goers who eat it, if the cake was baked using, red food coloring, large amounts of unhealthy sugar, chemical based flour, etc, then the cake may be more harmful then beneficial. The same goes for music and technology’s relationship. Though the implementation of technology into music has brought about various positive emotional changes in American Pop culture, often times these changes could surely be overshadowed by the great number of negatives created by their unwavering relationship as well.

Throughout the last 30 years within traditional western world science, there has been an increase in research that proves how music has a lasting effect on many groups of stigma’s mental health. Various studies’ findings have helped to prove why sad and violent music has astounding vast effects on school children and young adults. A mediation analysis revealed that absorption mediated imagery in response to sad music, as predicted, and rumination predicted attraction to sad music independently of the other traits (Schubert, 2018). Things like this prove why a convenience of sad music, thanks to technology, to children and young adults may not be such a good thing after all. Once you add in the everyday stress factors, undiagnosed depression and other mental health issues, it could be something simple as a song that sends someone over the edge. In increase in violent crimes has even persisted thanks to American Music and Technology Culture that has a measurable effect on the audiences who are its counterparts. It is known that if he or she is constantly exposed to violent and or violence, that they too will begin to resonate with such frequencies and music is not off limits. As a result of technology, violent music has begun to be more accessible to various groups of people leading to a higher than average crime rate in America (arguably the world.) Even though I know its next to impossible to censor music because of its convenience to everyone now solely based on technology, various studies have found why it may be necessary to begin to discuss such things especially when pertaining to certain groups of people throughout American Culture. Another example of how technology has negatively impacted music would be composure ownership. An artist in the 60s or 70s had different careers from present day artist. Ways in which these artists were able to interact generically with their fans (or at least the ones that wanted to) and had greater amounts of control and ownership over their rights and masters. It wasn’t until the implementing of the first computers and sophisticated technologies in the 80s, did we start to hear artist complain about ownership and “slave contracts.” Many artists have had to go without control of their rights based off of 360 deals which are standardized around, touring, merch and technology. One could only imagine if technology wasn’t such a huge portion of creator’s careers in present day music, that these individuals could be able to safely take back control of their masters and rights as an artist and not commit career suicide whilst trying to do so. These two negative examples alone are far greater than the four positive effects that I previously listed in the paper. Thence how the birthday-cake Analogy exposed, how the emotional and psychological effects of the cake were good but it caused harm in far greater aspects of the party goers’ lives.?

In conclusion, technology is going to be a major part of the human race for eons, but we can do our part right now by lessoning the negative effects that it brings upon simple arenas of our everyday lives. In no way am I saying through my research that technology is completely bad or good, but that the bad outweighs the good and throughout history that has always been a recipe for disaster. My solution to the controversial relationship between music and technology is simple, bring back the very trends that artistic people are working hard to incorporate back into American Pop and Music Culture like: retro vibes, stereo players, record players, CD stores, TRL, and the aesthetic of creatorship and ownership. We have to let the culture heal itself and after this healing has occurred, then we can start over with the implementing of technology into American Music culture with goals, dreams and hopes for both audiences and music creators alike to thrive and grow in positive ways.?

References?

Bugos, J. (2020) Fund-a-mental grant writing: Opportunities for teachers and researchers.?Sage Academic Journals, 106(3),?60-67.?https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0027432119895565

Danckwerts, S,??Kenning, P.??“It's MY Service, it's MY Music”: The role of psychological ownership in music streaming consumption.?Psychol. Mark.??2019;?36:?803–?816.?https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21213

Fox, S. (2013), The innovation big picture: Including effectiveness dependencies, efficiency dependencies, and potential negative effects within the framing of new technologies.?Technology in Society press, 35(4),?306-314.?https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2013.08.001

Geeves, A. & Olsen, K. (2019) Who enjoys listening to violent music and why??Sage Academic Journals, 8(2),?218-232.?

Magee, W.L. (2006). Electronic technologies in clinical music therapy: a survey of practice and attitudes. Technology and Disability, 18(3), 139-146.?

Schubert, E., Halpern, A. R., Kreutz, G., & Garrido, S. (2018). Attraction to sad music: The role of imagery, absorption, and rumination.?Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 12(3), 251–258.?https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000160

Semenza, D.C. (2018), Feeling the Beat and Feeling Better: Musical experience, emotional reflection, and Music as a Technology of Mental Health.?Social Inq, 88(2),?322-343. doi:10.1111/soin.12194

Yutong Yao, Hui He, Mingjun Duan, Shicai Li, Cheng Li, Xi Chen, Gang Yao, Xin Chang, Haifeng Shu, Hongming Wang, Cheng Luo,?"The Effects of Music Intervention on Pallidum-DMN Circuit of Schizophrenia",?BioMed Research International,?20(3) 10-15.?https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/4107065