Bob Dylan Says Music Is ‘Too Smooth and Painless’ within the Streaming Age

Music business legend Bob Dylan has some opinions on the increase in streaming companies over the previous couple of years. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the singer-songwriter shared his perception that the business’s pivot to streaming has made music “toothless.”

Dylan mentioned:

Everything’s too straightforward. Just one stroke of the ring finger, center finger, one little click on, that’s all it takes. We’ve dropped the coin proper into the slot. We’re tablet poppers, dice heads and day trippers, hanging in, hanging out, gobbling blue devils, black mollies, something we will get our palms on. Not to say the nostril sweet and ganga grass. It’s all too straightforward, too democratic. You want a photo voltaic X-ray detector simply to seek out someone’s coronary heart, see in the event that they nonetheless have one.

Wait, what?

It appears that Dylan’s points are twofold: Consumers are having too straightforward a time consuming music and music itself is turning into much less emotional. Dylan himself does determine as a streamer earlier within the interview, explaining that he primarily listens to music utilizing streaming companies, satellite tv for pc radio, and (gasp) CD’s.

Unfortunately for Dylan, the streaming period is full steam forward, regardless of vinyl seemingly making a comeback as a well-liked format amongst Gen Z and millennials. According to Statista, streaming was the most lucrative way to eat music in 2021 by a large margin, with its recognition starting to overhaul extra conventional codecs like CD’s and digital downloads round 2014. The Recording Industry Association of America says that streaming accounted for 83% of the music industry’s revenue in 2020. Streaming can be the most cost effective option to eat music nowadays, with Spotify and Apple Music, two of the world’s hottest streaming companies, costing $9.99 per 30 days and $10.99 per 30 days, respectively. To put it bluntly: More individuals are listening to music than ever earlier than, and that’s in all probability not a completely dangerous factor.

As far as whether or not or not music is turning into much less unhappy or, as Dylan places it, “toothless” within the streaming age—that’s fully subjective. There is one thing to be mentioned about the way in which streaming forces music labels and artists alike to favor enjoying it protected over pushing the envelope, as outdoors influences like virality on TikTok and post-release modifying form the way in which artwork is created. This hyper-manufacturing of music and pursuit of successful that pleases the palate of most people is, in and of itself a toothless method.

But Dylan’s level on music turning into painless may not be totally correct. According to a research from 2018, as reported on by music information outlet Pitchfork, music has probably solely gotten sadder within the thirty yr span from 1985 to 2015. BBC reported related findings in 2019 and Aeon reported related findings in 2020. Anecdotally, check out Olivia Rodrigo’s “driver’s license.” The completely gutting heartbreak ballad a couple of love gone unsuitable was arguably one of many biggest songs of 2021 and a juggernaut in the streaming era because the tune has since racked up 1.6 billion streams (keep in mind that this was the debut single from a comparatively unparalleled actress turned singer-songwriter).

Maybe some music is toothless, and perhaps some just isn’t. Maybe some music is painful, and perhaps some is painless. Maybe it sounds clean on a pc, and perhaps it sounds grittier on a vinyl. Whether these issues are true are as much as the listener, and should not wholly depending on the way in which the music business is responding to developments in know-how.