As we all know, advances in modern technology have changed everyday life for all of us. In some ways for the better, others not.
One thing which may be seen as a positive is the immediate availability of music, tv and information. The music, for me, is fantastic... and not. I actually think our kids are missing out on the anticipation of waiting to hear their favourite song or having to go out and buy it, then physically play the record or cassette over and over and over and over and over again while your parents scream for you to "turnthatgodawfulrubbishoff. Isthatamanorawomananyway?"
Here in Australia, we would wait for Molly Meldrum on Countdown on Sunday nights to tell us which bands or songs to "Do yourself a favour" and listen to. There would be the bliss of seeing local and international acts badly lip-synching to both new and our favourite tunes. If you missed it, tough, you had to be the one kid at school on Monday morning who did. You couldn't You-Tube it, download it or 'catch up tv' it as we do now. Don't get me started on the excitement of the release of MTV and music videos that was still further down the track... (yes, MTV used to play music - crazy, I know!)
While waiting for the next compilation album to be released, you could sit by the radio for hours waiting to record your favourite song, then curse the DJ if he cut in too early at the end, ruining your chance of a perfect recording with only the distinct clunk of you hitting record at the beginning, then pause at the end of the song. Not to mention when you'd overplayed your favourite tapes enough that they stretched and sounded distorted, or if the tape started coming out and you had to get a pen to wind the tape back around the cogs.
Bands, as much as they had to work a million times harder to be seen and heard by half the audience available now, could also use the lack of technology to their advantage. How long did Kiss drag out the "Masked" years? The mystery of not knowing what they really looked like, the rumours about freakish skin issues, who they REALLY were could never have taken off now the way they did back then. What a marketing tool. Fans scrambled not just to purchase their music, but comic books, dolls - absolutely anything Kiss. How much of the buzz was actually about the music? Very little really.
We didn't see endless videos of our favourite artists live. If you wanted to see their live act, you had to wait and hope that they visited your city and you were lucky enough to get a ticket. Knowing a set list in advance? Unheard of! Another advantage was that our parents most certainly didn't know the call back line in The Angels "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again" and happily let us go to their shows. The mystery and excitement was on an escalated scale to what it is now. We didn't see candid snaps of Pat Benatar shopping for kale at the grower's market (thank God!) Mick Jagger dropping his children off at kindy? Rock stars wouldn't dream of it. Freddie Mercury... ummm.. well, bad example, we probably wouldn't want the paps following dear Fred around really, would we? Although.... that party with the midgets... never mind...
Did we really want to see our musical heroes in their everyday lives, shopping, drinking coffee, being normal, boring humans like us? Hell no. They lived an unattainable life that didn't involve such mundane activities. Their status meant they only ever performed, partied or sat around on multi million dollar yachts eating caviar from naked bikini clad models or drinking thousand dollar bottles of plonk. That was in our imaginations and made the whole adoration of these icons all the more exciting.
I, for one, miss it.
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