I'm not someone who grew up making music nor do I come from a musical family, but I admit that I'm grateful that making music in today's era is accessible. I grew up thinking music could only be made by professionals, prodigies and virtuosos :(

Here's a great example of what the new accessibility can do. It's called the Quarantine Band. It's so "quarantined" that none of the participants have actually met all the others. Everything was done at home in garages and bedrooms, mostly on modest rigs with fairly cheap mics. When you factor in that it was shot entirely on phones and cut with iMovie, that's about as democratized as it gets.

You mean recording multitrack music and global sharing?

The "making music" aspect has not changed since the first song was composed. Only the accessibility to the higher technical process has changed. Nothing about the 1950's stopped a person from getting an acoustic guitar and writing songs.

The main thing that mattered in the 1950, or the 1250's, is still the main thing that matters today... How many other people resonate with the music you write or perform. Unless you don't care about other people liking your stuff. In that case, if you like it, that's the main thing.

@ kennybro yes.

I agree with this post. For better or worse, the democratization of making and releasing high quality music has benefited a larger portion of society than it has harmed the smaller portion of society. The access and accessibility to highly professional quality music making tools such as DAWs, effects, and various other tools and hardware will ultimately create some very new interesting underground genres that are not controlled by mass media and capitalist goals and those genres may wind up influencing new mainstream forms of entertainment and music. You will always have people that want to make something that means something more than just casual entertainment for others.

Not that there's anything wrong with "just casual entertainment for others." Or for yourself, for that matter.

Sure.

Tools are generally less expensive, more accessible, and more or equally capable than ever before, and information access is great.

This is definitely good and fortunate, I think.

Imagine wanting to make records in the 60s in rural BFE, waiting weeks on end for tiny snippets of information, or one new record... no Amazon, no Guitar Center or Thomann, no web.

I'll take now, please and thanks, warts and all.

The guy with the glasses, upper left, looks familiar.

Nothing at all. But I did share my theory didn't I? Back in the 70s and 80s middle class middle aged guys, my dad's generation, had cameras and dark rooms. They took photos and processed them in dark rooms in their basement. They spent fortunes on chemicals and paper and dark rooms. That was their hobby away from the 9-5 and kept them sane. None of them became Anne Leibovitz. My theory is, that's what the current modern era consumer music industry is all abut. The photo dark room has been replaced by DAWs and audio interface and plugins. For many people it keeps them sane and something to do away from the 9-5. Nothing wrong with that. It's more fun that wood working I think. :-)

Maybe overly so.

Like most bubbles, the elite studio musician bubble lasted about 20 some years. Held in place by the gate keepers of corporate publishing and recording with technology unavailable to the lay person.

This is where we are now, but if you look through history, there are many bubbles that have come and gone in the music industry.

The irony today is the same tech that allowed for the recording industry to flourish, is now destroying, or has destroyed, the majors. By making it affordable,mobile, and putting it into the hands of the ‘little people’.

And you can't get on the internet and post a downloadable chair.

However, for young guys to keep in mind. Many old guys know a helluva lot about wood working and how to use those tools. If you are starting out, you can probably save yourself half a finger on a hand by listening to some old guys on how to properly and correctly use tools. The analogy applies to music tool.

;-)

Nor would they have wanted to. She's famous because she photographs famous people. When I did large format B&W photography I was aiming for the Westons, Minor White, Stieglitz, Strand, Atget, Caponigro . . .

And yeah, it's an expensive hobby. But then, back in the day, recording was even more expensive.

If there'd have been YouTube when my grandma was still kicking, she would've had a channel, with piano and organ videos. "This one's called The Black Hawk Waltz." Lots of people used to have pianos and/or organs in their homes - you just didn't think about it most of the time, until after hiball happy hour. You knew it was serious if someone went and got the accordion.

If anyone reading this is bored (don't lie to me)... please can you start a YouTube Shipping Channel, so we can have virtual unboxings of intangible goods?

This is very much accurate, IMO.

I worked in the music industry in my early 20’s, I grew to dislike it and was turned away from creating all together for a number of years. It wasn’t until I got sick in my late 20’s and needed a distraction from all of my problems that I rediscovered it. Even now, all it is for me is a distraction from my 9-5. I live a very, very simple life outside of work, my music keeps me sane. I don’t share it, mostly, I don’t go looking to do anything with it. 90% of the time I don’t make songs, I just enjoy the process of creating interesting loops and doing some live manipulation. The process is what it’s all about for me, the rest is irrelevant. It just keeps me happy.

Nice work, Brent.

Do you mix that?

I still like woodworking and photography and offset printing. I think the industrial arts being replaced by computer classes in middle schools and have kind of contributed to kids not doing things like that anymore.

I remember in the late 80s taking printing and woodworking in middle school followed by electricity, photography and small engine repair in high school. I attended a large inner city high school which offered a few different vocational classes that anyone could take (there was also a vocational high school that I didn't attend). We also had our own television studio and public access channel.

Everything I know about printing, something that I have always really liked, I learned in the 6th grade. I've made posters, t-shirts, 7" covers, etc.... over the years. I don't do it quite as much as I used to but I think kids these days would really like stuff like that. Anything to get their noses out of the phones.

I have a bathroom I built in my basement that doubles as a darkroom.

I always thought "industrial arts" was a clever way of spinning it. In my hometown, for a lot of guys, it was an alternative to the default which was Peabody Mine #10 .

Thx, and yep. There's a few more. Actually there's quite a few more but the earlier ones are before we started to get it figured out, and they kinda suck.

Very nice Brent. Projects like this are a silver lining of the pandemic - it appears everyone is having a fun time.

Sky

I never love the Lego

I'm assuming nothing was done in real-time here, and everyone laid down their tracks at their leisure via DropBox or something?

If I understand your question, yes, it's totally a Dropbox deal, with everyone playing and/or singing to a click and a "roadmap." Everyone shot video to playback except the drummer, who shot his as he played it.

Thanks. The "having fun" aspect is key to these videos because they're actually thinly-disguised ads sending Facebook eyeballs to the Kulak's Woodshed GoFundMe.. The Woodshed is a wonderful little LA open-mic and showcase venue where I do volunteer tech work, and sometimes run FOH. The keyboard player and guitarist in the Q-Band play in the Woodshed house band, and we all very much want to see it survive.

I found each era interesting ..portable mono in 50's and 60's ..stereo and four track in 70's etc. Today I have a maximum of eight tracks! ..Woo Hoo !

I miss my bright yellow waterproof sony walkman. That was a cool looking funky device.

Yep ..had one of the first ones, blue and silver ..was a gift from Mike Stone.

sorry to crash the party but to me, many posts here sound like the end of the class struggle was proclaimed too early:

fact is that even today there are still many circles to which you can only gain access if you have an above-average level of education - being rich and priviledged is not exactly an obstacle either...

I think a lot of young broke uneducated peeps just find hacked versions of FL Studio and plugins and make music in apartment. The guys online that are posting $100,000's worth of gear --- some might be professional studios. Some might be dudes maxing out credit cards and no caring what happens when you don't pay it back. Some might be filthy rich. No idea man.