if anyone has Especially when it comes to music, it’s probably Bob Dylan.in a new interview with wall street journalthe singer-songwriter took the opportunity to give a sermon of my time on the state of modern music and the streaming era.
In an interview, Dylan said that while these days he likes listening to music on CDs and satellite radio, he still tends to prefer old tube record players (“The sound quality is so powerful and miraculous. and depth. It always takes me back to a time when life was different and unpredictable.”) He also dealt with streaming music, noting that this mode of consumption makes music “too smooth.” He said that he believes that he has made it something that “doesn’t make people feel pain.”
Dylan isn’t the first to make this kind of point, and many critics argue that streaming has led to music designed to wash you over. It’s a listening mode that Dylan can’t stand. “I’m always evaluating what’s special about a song and what’s not, looking for inspiration in snippets, riffs, chords and even lyrics,” he said.
But when it comes to streaming, as Dylan puts it in increasingly vivid and outlandish panache, “Everything is too easy. Just one stroke of your ring finger, middle finger and a little click is enough. Dropped a coin into the slot.” We’re pill poppers, cubeheads, day trippers, hanging out, hanging out, eating blue devils, black mollies, whatever we can get our hands on. Not even.It’s too easy, too democratic.You need a solar X-ray detector just to find someone’s heart and see if they still have it.”
Dylan’s old man rant about the endurance of much modern music was arguably less wise. An artist who had just spent an entire book delving into “contemporary song philosophies” was ready to assert that few songs these days have what it takes to “become the norm.”
He continued: rap artist? Hip hop or rock star? Raver, sampling expert, pop singer? It’s music for the establishment. Easy to hear. It just parodies real life, shows moves, and acts. Standards are on another level. In 1,000 songs he’s a role model for the others. ”
That probably wasn’t his most considered point, but why should we love Dylan if we don’t love the fact that he was always a little grumpy?
And for what it’s worth, Dylan went through the names of contemporary artists in various genres he appreciated in full, uncut interviews posted on his website. I like both, Julian Casablanca [sic], Klaxons, Grace Potter. I saw Metallica twice. I made a special effort to meet Jack White and Alex Turner. Lieutenant Zack, I discovered him recently. He’s a one-man show like Ed Sheeran, but he sits down when he performs. I am a fan of Royal Blood, Celeste, Rag and Bone Man, Wu Tang, Eminem, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, and anyone with a sense of language and language can share the same vision as me. I like anyone who has ”
(Unfortunately, Dylan was unable to confirm or deny the reported ratings of Post Malone, one of the biggest stars of the streaming era.)
Otherwise, WSJMore In our interview, we found Dylan theorizing about technology, social media, songwriting, and sharing fun details about his life these days. For example, lately he’s been binge-watching long-running British soap operas. coronation street and old twilight zone episode. He says, “I’m always careful to avoid bad smells and evil TV. No nasties, no dog butts, nothing.”
He also used boxes and spars to stay in shape, used the Covid-19 lockdown to replace door panels in a 1956 Chevy, painted landscapes, and obsessed with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Inventions. I said that I became Freak out! “Frank Zappa was light years ahead of his time,” Dylan said. “If the opium was lying around, I probably would have been down for a while.”
But perhaps the most important part of the interview is Dylan explaining why “all the Dunkin’ Donuts crew” got a special shoutout in the acknowledgments section. Philosophy of modern songs: “[T]Hey, caring and supportive, they went the extra mile.