"The soul of music", by Sätilä
Photo credit: Kiril Juha Kainulainen
Are we losing the soul of music?
There’s no doubt digitalisation and advances in technology have given artists amazing access to not only music making tools but to connect with audiences around the world through social media. More new music is released every week than ever before (Spotify said in 2019 nearly 40,000 songs are added to the platform every day), and social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram and now TikTok are driven by music.
Technology has always dictated forms of art – development of vinyl records enabled increasing the amount of songs on them creating the concepts of albums and EPs we still use. Digitalisation freed creators from almost any technical or physical limitations but it seems like we have gone back to focusing on single tracks in the streaming era. With social media and especially TikTok, it seems like our attention is getting shorter and shorter as the content is maxed to 60 seconds.
Creatives and the music industries have begun to discuss how Spotify and its effect on music consumption affects song form and production. “You gotta introduce the hook in the first 5 seconds”, “Go to the chorus quicker”... How long songs should be? If you want to maximise streams, make the song less than three minutes so people repeat it over and over. If it’s good enough, that’s it. I’m sure TikTok has already started to affect the creative process for some already.
Music has systematically dissolved into entertainment since the 90’s when major record companies began consolidating with global media conglomerates in an attempt to find synergy (read: sell more). This development started to change the way music was consumed and digitalisation and the emergence of social media have only accelerated our disconnection with some of the deepest aspects of music we don’t even know about yet.
Don’t get me wrong, music can also be entertainment, but I argue it can reach and touch in a more profound way than any other art form. Music is something spiritual that can impact our soul and the core of our being in an indescribable way. Music is a social phenomenon – it is often created together and playing with others connects in a way a spoken language can’t. When enjoyed, especially live surrounded by other people, music has a unique talent to unite and connect us.
I’m afraid of us losing the soul of music. Do I need to remind you of the social and environmental impacts of fast fashion? There is so much we don’t understand about music yet but we can’t let technology rob us from music’s healing, uniting and invigorating power. We have been given access to immense amounts of great music so let’s choose music that has meaning and take some time to really listen and let it work in us.
Stream Sätilä’s new single “Island” here
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