All time past was earlier

Was everything better in the past? Is that true of music? Was music really better back then? Hmm… I’m not entirely convinced, but it is true that making music accessible to everyone has its downside. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!

From the 1950s until the 2000s, there was a mythical figure known as the A&R (artist and repertoire). Their job was to find, follow and ultimately sign artists for record companies, whether singers, bands or songwriters.

The better a company’s A&R person was, the more hits the company had. They were paid to find the very best talent, because the company would invest a lot of money in it.

For decades, this profession acted as a filter, aiming to ensure that the artists reaching the public were the best on the scene. They got it wrong sometimes too… but not often.

Nowadays, anyone and their neighbour can record an album without leaving their bathroom. You don’t need to know how to play an instrument, have any musical knowledge or even know how to write. You can make an entire album on a mobile phone!

In the past, you had to appear on the radio or on television; there was no other option. Today, access to mass-distribution channels is so easy that you could ring in the New Year from an igloo with a good signal.

That has made it possible for absolutely anyone to share their music with the world. That’s good in one way, but it has flooded the music market with material which, even when excellent, gets buried under mountains of rubbish.

There’s so much information around today that the next Beatles could be just 100 metres away and we wouldn’t even notice!

There are some very good artists around today. You just need the patience, time and an eye for finding them. But it’s still like looking for a needle in a haystack—and the haystack is enormous! When was the last time you listened to an entire album?