A life without music is impossible, at least in my case. I need it, always, to keep me company.
In the Internet era, and more precisely, the era of Artificial Intelligence, everything is fast, yet sometimes it is also fake. Although these technologies and platforms, such as Spotify or YouTube, help us and provide easy access to bands we may never have known, they also take away some of the emotion that searching for music involves. This makes the process simpler and almost automatic.
I was born in the 80s. We used to spend hours listening to an album on cassette or Compact Disc, from top to bottom, reading the lyrics (if the album or the copy had a booklet with it). I loved to fully submerge in an album, or multiple albums, when I recorded a mixtape or CD.
I know that I sound like the typical old person who says that everything was better in the old days…, yet in some aspects, it’s true.
Back in the day, music was expensive and hard to find (not a lot of variety, less in underground genres like metal), so when a friend had a new album, we used to copy it to listen to it; that’s how I got to know a lot of bands when I was a teenager. I also received original cassettes or CDs for my birthday, Christmas, or a special occasion.
Even though I’ve always liked rock, because that was what my parents listened to, I discovered metal when a classmate at school lent me Iron Maiden’s Live After Death album when I was 12, and since then, my life changed. I fell in love with their music, that fast-paced rhythm, high-pitched vocals, heavy guitars and bass, that tell stories about wars and historic events. Radio became a great source for me at that time, since I found some programs that played rock and metal, so I broadened my knowledge of bands like Pantera, Slayer, Anthrax, etc. The same happened when my family got Cable TV, and amazing TV channels existed like MTV or VH1 (when they played music videos). Old music magazines that were sold used were a good source as well.
Another great way of finding new music in the olden days was to buy a record just because you liked the cover art, and that’s how I got to know Blind Guardian and Manowar. Precisely the albums Tales From The Twilight World and Louder Than Hell (respectively), and still, those are my favorite albums by them.
When the Internet became accessible to all around 2000, there was some software that let us download music, very, very slowly, and usually one track, but it was something. Programs like Napster, eMule, Soulseek, just to name a few. The problem was copyright violations.
In general, it was difficult to access new music, and it mostly relied on sharing albums with your friends and making copies, or buying the record. Since it wasn’t easy, you also appreciated any album more, cherish it like something precious, and enjoy it in its entirety. Plus, in countries like mine, Chile, it was even more difficult to get some albums, especially the underground stuff.
Now, it’s very different because we can listen to any album we want on music platforms, it’s easy, yet many times, meaningless.
Something good about these times is that since the bands don’t make much money selling records like before, now they rely more on selling merchandise or going on tour. Thanks to that, I’ve had the opportunity to see many of my favorite bands playing live in Chile. That was almost unthinkable in the past because bands simply didn’t travel to countries like mine. It was so expensive. Besides, they were not very well-known.
Nowadays, any band can become super popular by uploading their music to YouTube or TikTok. That’s the power of the Internet, making music more accessible to all of us; however, don’t depend only on the algorithm, sometimes it can be misleading. Always trust your guts, and good music will find you.