速食的音乐年代——一个音乐人对网络世界的牢骚观点

英文原文 / 魏彣傧 ；翻译 / 吴利光

世界变得如此复杂，以至于我们忘记了我们是谁，以及我们的可以做什麽。

今天，我们通过社交平台有多少粉丝来判断我们的受欢迎程度，通过获得多少「赞」来衡量我们制作的音乐！

到目前为止，我们看到了世界，但未能看到自己。我们忘记了制作音乐最基本最简单的乐趣。如果我们不了解做音乐的真正乐趣，我们怎麽能做好音乐？或者……怎麽往好的方向前进？我们处于一个资讯垂手可得的时代。无需整天在收音机旁等待播放您最喜欢的歌曲（如果您足够幸运），可以一遍又一遍地播放最喜欢的歌曲，而无需倒带。更不用说乐谱、视频教程等的大量信息了。信息太多，时间太少？或者，太难集中註意力？

网络信息过于零碎

表面上看来我们手头的信息量很大，但如果仔细观察，会发现大多数只是零散，而不是完整的信息。 Youtube的视频最好在 10 分钟以下，Instagram 视频嘛……30 秒，没有人愿意付出更多的时间。

这些零散的片段，我们只能看到冰山一角。然而对大多数人来说，这就足够了。这就解释了为什麽今天的歌曲被困在 4 组和弦中，一首歌只是同一旋律的变体。

不过网上的信息真的那麽不管用吗？当然不是。网络的信息数据库是许多人的集体努力。是人类历史上最大的图书馆。问题是，你有多渴望学习？你想学到什麽程度？你有多少时间来学习？

24/7 在线，我可以随时学习，是 ANYTIME

你有没有遇到过这种情况？您在网上查找如何弹奏一首歌曲，例如《Stella By Starlight》（爵士乐曲）。你一直想学习爵士乐，但你现在没有时间，你必须为今晚的演出准备。

你在网站上添加了书签，并对自己说：「我下次再来」。你有多少次曾经返回标了书签的网站，并继续学习曾经感兴趣的主题？因为我们认为信息总是存在并且将会永远存在，所以我们一直往后推。只要我们到处都能找到食物，就没有必要储存它们。

但是学习过程是不同的，我们吸收的越多，我们就越能将它们转换成为个人观点和做出决定。就像我们拥有的词彙越多，我们的作文就会越有趣。

便利和它的食谱

你去一家便利店，给自己买一份今晚要煮的东炎汤的东炎酱料。所有的东西都有预制的、即时的问题解决方案。快熟面、快熟意大利面。预先编好的和弦样本、打击垫样本、低音和奏器等。

如果没有东炎酱料，你知道怎麽自己做吗？随着我们生活变得便利，我们消化不了复杂的音乐？或者我们只是时间少了？把我们的音乐製作与文艺復兴或巴洛克时代相比，在1600 年之前的钢琴连调音标准都没有。我们应该有更多的时间来制作音乐？也许音乐制作的意义已经改变，只是为了取悦为音乐付费的人。

「赞」和「分享」的判决

网络社交平台把竞争带到家裡来了。我们在社交媒体上发布的所有内容都把我们置于与世界直接竞争。然后「赞」和「分享」计数器开始滴答作响，不知不觉中，我们所做的一切，每一次努力都由「赞」和「分享」数字决定。然后厌恶的批评尾随而来。这并不奇怪，传播的范围越广，得到的噪声就越大，这是交易的一部分。

人们被单纯的数字所摧毁。数字是判决，数字是判断，统计数字在杀人，毁了人，使他们陷入抑郁。我们忘记了制作音乐的意义。事实证明，音乐人开始通过做听众期望他们做的事情来维持自己的知名度，而不是做出他们所擅长的。

或者这就是今天的生存方式。残酷还是快乐？遗憾的是，如今音乐人不得不经历这些。除了音乐本身，还有很多必须兼顾的。然而，真正定义伟大音乐始终是作品的魅力、音乐背后的哲学和文化。

另一方面，流行度只是由文化来定义。如果我们意识到文化是超出我们的控制范围，并且当你的音乐和流行文化产生冲突时，那请做出你的选择赌一把，背着你的音乐理念随着流行文化而行，或者背着流行文化做你想做的音乐然后坦然的面对所有后果。

自我是囚笼

随着世界的距离缩短了，我们当中的一些人却变得更加疏远。 我们把自己关在笼子裡，周围都是盟友，自己是被关注的焦点。

由于自我，我们大多数人都不喜欢比赛（正如之前所说的，我们被置于与世界直接竞争）。 可是这些小团体往往相互排斥，或者达到相互憎恨的程度，这是最具破坏性的。

当彼此发表不负责任的评论时，限制了的努力与合作。 他们幻想已经拥有了所有信息和知识，鉴赏能力却变得狭窄。 如今，真诚的分享更难了。

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原文

The world has gone so complicated that we forgot who we are and what we are capable of. Today, we judge our popularity by how many followers we have on social networks and we judge the music we make by how many “LIKES” we get !! We’ve seen so far to other parts of the world but we failed see ourselves. We forgot the simple joy of making music.

If you do not understand the true joy of making music, how can you be good? Or…even close to good?

We are in a time where information is available by the click of our fingers. Instead of waiting by the radio the whole day for your favourite songs to be broadcasted (if you are lucky enough), we can play our favourite songs over and over again without worrying to rewind the tapes. Not to mentioned the vast information on music scores, video tutorials etc. Too much information, too less time? Or perhaps, too hard to focus?

Too much FRAGMENTS of information available online

Although it seems like we have a huge amount of information readily available, if we take a closer look, there are more fragments of scattered information rather than complete. Youtube videos are preferred below 10minutes, Instagram videos…30 seconds, nobody has time for more than that.

By learning fragments of the information, we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. Yet for most people, that’s enough. That probably explains why songs today are confined in a 4 chords loop and the verse is just a variation of the same melody.

But is the information available online really that unusable? Of course not. The information database available online is a collective effort of many. It is the largest library ever created in human history. The questions here are, how eager of you to learn? How much you want to learn? How much time do you have to learn?

It’s Online 24/7, I can learn any time I want, the is ANYTIME

Have you ever encountered this situation? You look up online how to play a song say, “Stella By Starlight” (a Jazz standard). You always wanted to learn about jazz, but you don’t have time for now, you need to prepare this song for tonight’s gig. You bookmarked the site and say to yourself, “I’ll come back next time.” How many bookmarked site that you ever came back to and continue to learn about the topic you were once interested?

Because we know the information is always there and will be, so we took our time. Just if we see food everywhere, there’s no need to to stock them. But learning process is different, the more we store them the more we can process them into opinions and decisions. The more vocabulary we have, the more interesting our composition will be.

Convenience and it’s recipe

You go to a convenience store and you find yourself a Tomyam paste for tonight’s tomyam soup. We have everything in a form of pre-made instant problem solving solutions. Instant noodles, instant spaghetti. Instant chord samples, pad samples, loops, plug and play bass line generators etc. What happens if there’s no tomyam paste available? Do you know how to make some yourself?

With all the convenience asserted to our lifestyle, has complicated music became an inconvenience for us to digest? Or we simply have less time? Compare our convenient music making to the Renaissance or Baroque era, they don’t even have a proper tuned piano pre 1600. Don’t we have more time relatively in making music. Perhaps the meaning of making music has changed, to please the people who pay for them.

The Verdict of Like and Share

The world of digital social platforms has brought competition to our doorstep. Everything we post on the social media has put us in direct competition with the world. Then the “Like and Share” counter starts ticking, before we knew it, everything we do, every effort is determined by the “like and share” numbers. Then came the dislikes of haters. But there’s not surprise here, the more gain your dial, the more noise floor you’ll get, that’s part of the deal. People get devastated by mere digital numbers. The number is verdict, the number is judgment, statistic kills, ruined people, put them into depression. We forgot what making music is all about.

It became a fact, musicians starts clinging to their popularity by doing what their audience expect them to do, instead of giving what they have. Or this is just how we survive in the world today. Cruel or joy? It’s a pity what musicians has to go through these days just to have their music heard. There are so much more to focus besides music itself.

However, it is always the charisma of the musicians, the philosophies and culture behind the music that really defines great music. Popularity on the other hand is defined by culture only. So if we realise that culture is beyond our control, and when philosophies and culture is in conflict, choose one and live with it. Or find a culture where your music make sense.

Ego is the Cage

As the world gets closer, some of us got more separated. Caging ourselves is cages, surrounded by allies that put us in the centre of attention. As most of us hates competitions (as said before competition is at our doorstep) due to our ego. The formation of such small groups often rejects each others, or to the extend of hating each other. This is most destructive, when haters throws irresponsible comments at each others, limiting cooperative efforts.

The illusions of the fact that they have all the information and knowledge, appreciation became minimum. Sincere sharing is even harder to come by these days

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