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If the internet existed back in the 60's...

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tropeslave Pop Culture Addict from Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia Since: Nov, 2013 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
Pop Culture Addict
#26: Feb 17th 2014 at 10:34:35 AM

  • If Youtube existed at that time, fewer people would turn up at Woodstock since they can just watch all the chaos and mind-blowing performances on Youtube. The influence of the festival would appear diminished compared to the legacy it has today.
  • Nonsensical conspiracy theories and Illuminati sites discuss that evil corporates control the rock music market. They would talk about how the real Paul McCartney supposedly died due to selling his soul to the devil prior to his rise in fame. Open burnings of Beatle records after John Lennon's "more popular than Jesus statement would become more ridiculously widespread.
  • If music-streaming sites exist at that time, singles wouldn't sell. A lot of albums would be leaked online. Record label executives would come to conclusion that the LP format is a failure and its manufacture would be shut down. So, we wouldn't have albums today due to that reason.
  • Musicians would report their activities on social networking sites. This would unfortunately lead to over-sharing. Someone would eventually upload pictures of themselves using drugs. Drug busts on musicians' homes would be more common.
  • Anyone can write their own reviews on the Internet. Haters would just write about how some bands, a few who are legendary now, were horrible without any reason. Rivalries between bands fabricated by the press would become more intense. This would reach to the extent that bands would had to publicly deny that such hatred between each other existed.

edited 17th Feb '14 10:58:23 AM by tropeslave

LightPhaser from Is This Just Fantasy Zone Since: Jan, 2012
#27: Feb 17th 2014 at 10:38:49 AM

If music-streaming sites exist at that time, singles wouldn't sell. A lot of albums would be leaked online. Record label executives would come to conclusion that the LP format is a failure and its manufacture would be shut down. So, we wouldn't have albums today due to that reason.
That... that... that... I... that... um... that...

You know, I thought you were going somewhere with that, and you did but... um... you kind of... made a ridiculously giant assumption there. Yeah. Let's just say that would be very unlikely to happen and leave it at that.

tropeslave Pop Culture Addict from Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia Since: Nov, 2013 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
Pop Culture Addict
#28: Feb 17th 2014 at 10:57:05 AM

[up] I don't think 8-track recorders are popular anymore since cassettes took over the market. For me, it's unlikely that a renaissance would happen to 8-track recorders. So, I apply the same case for LPs.

If you have anything to comment about that, just do so. I admit that I can be sort of ignorant when making assumptions. I'm very new and terrible at all the "What would have happened if..." guesses.

edited 17th Feb '14 10:57:58 AM by tropeslave

Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#29: Feb 17th 2014 at 11:00:43 AM

I imagine that the stars of the past - as I mentioned, Paul Whiteman, Rudy Vallee, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller - would have their own official websites.

Some of them probably do now, but in the 60s they could have more input into them.

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#30: Feb 17th 2014 at 12:30:57 PM

[up][up] Counterpoint: The LP remains viable due to superior sound quality. That said, the debate over "supporting the artists" would probably force record companies to be a lot more equitable a lot earlier given how quickly news of the issue would spread.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
MetaFour AXTE INCAL AXTUCE MUN from A Place (Old Master)
AXTE INCAL AXTUCE MUN
#31: Feb 17th 2014 at 12:47:10 PM

Yeah, with the internet around to provide an alternative to the major labels' stranglehold at an earlier date, it's possible the industry would be less exploitative of the musicians by now.

LightPhaser from Is This Just Fantasy Zone Since: Jan, 2012
#32: Feb 17th 2014 at 12:51:38 PM

If you have anything to comment about that, just do so.
Well, I don't really have to now. Meta Four and JHM said what I was pretty much on my mind about that possibility. However, I do have something else to add to it; it's very likely that independent artists would've become more widespread and all that stuff thanks to an earlier internet.

Smasher from The 1830's, but without the racists (Don’t ask) Relationship Status: The best thing that ever happened to a bum like me
#33: Feb 18th 2014 at 12:45:34 PM

You have to remember, the 60's bands we know and love are the ones that aged the best. The more dated "forgotten" hits would easily receive a bigger hatedom than John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

WaxingName from Everywhere Since: Oct, 2010
#34: Feb 20th 2014 at 8:45:40 AM

[up]Then who are we to judge which artists of today will age well, considering that, well... they're today?

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Jonny0110 Since: May, 2011
#35: Feb 27th 2014 at 4:16:10 PM

The Fandom Rivalry between the Beatles and the Stones would be... truly frightening...

Smasher from The 1830's, but without the racists (Don’t ask) Relationship Status: The best thing that ever happened to a bum like me
#36: Mar 2nd 2014 at 8:10:35 PM

Team Beatles will claim that their band are far more pure and that Stones are too rough sounding and complain about Mick's voice.

Team Stones will call the Beatles sell-outs for not being as decedent, and for their voices being too clean rather than raw.

codytheheadlessboy The Great One from Parts Unknown Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Dating Catwoman
The Great One
#37: Mar 31st 2014 at 2:58:52 PM

It'd be just like today only earlier. Of course you would see the hipster crowd shitting on anything that's popular. You would also see the genre snobs, the guys who will shit on anything that doesn't fit their narrow definition of what the genre should be. I.e. the classic "that's not metal" guys. The only difference is if the internet existed back then they would have a louder voice than they really did at the time.

"If everybody is thinking alike, somebody isn't thinking"- George S. Patton
PhysicalStamina ain't nothin' but a party y'all (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
ain't nothin' but a party y'all
#38: Mar 31st 2014 at 4:33:27 PM

[up][tup]

Do not spare the feelings of those who would not spare yours.
WaxingName from Everywhere Since: Oct, 2010
#39: Mar 31st 2014 at 6:54:00 PM

[up][up]What would be the "hipster" genre of the 60's, then? Like Metal is the "hipster" genre of today, I mean.

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PhysicalStamina ain't nothin' but a party y'all (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
ain't nothin' but a party y'all
#40: Mar 31st 2014 at 7:27:46 PM

[up]Either Psychedelia or regular, down-to-earth music, considering the 60s.

Do not spare the feelings of those who would not spare yours.
StillbirthMachine Heresiarch Command from The Womb ov Impurities Since: Mar, 2012
Heresiarch Command
#41: Mar 31st 2014 at 8:16:14 PM

[up][up][up][up]

I've always noticed these supposed snobs don't exist anywhere beyond the straw-formed boogeyman within the minds of the self-righteous "open minded" (read: I'll swallow anything you vomit at me) crowd. This might just be me but in my experience, most metal fans like at least a few styles outside of the genre. I mean it's not like most of the newer sounds associated with it totally aren't mostly notorious for relying heavily on influence from outsider genres (indie, alternative, drone, film score, japanese video game music etc.) even more heavily than the original ones with their diverse heritage of hard rock, psychedelia, prog, punk, classical, jazz, blues, modernist classical, ambient and so on. Of course, if anyone points out that that they might not be as firmly rooted in metal as the common listener might like to think, clearly they're just being "close minded" and not simply bringing up the question of what does and does not define metal.

But hey, if it's a specific definition that excludes a lot of stuff with only superficial resemblances to the genre, yeah, those guys and their attempts to more clealry define metal are certainly the evil ones here. Funny, you seem to be shitting on those people who hold a rather differing viewpoint to your own. How snobbish of you.

Anyways, onto the topic of a theoretical 60's internet, I'd be interested mostly in developments in the late 60's. In particular, proto-progressive rock bands and some of the harder stuff like High Tide and how they would have been treated. I'm imagining there might be small communities of folks focused on applying more erudite musical theory to the ambiguity of the pop/psychedelia of the times in an attempt to give it a more dynamic, orderly sound and how the transition towards prog might have begun. I can see the latter group starting off as just psychedelic fans who were just messing about with distortion pedal settings but starting to figure out that "Hey, we could go places with a more ominous sound like this."

Also, I do not think our current atittudes towards music would necessarily be identitcal to those back then. For many The Beatles would have likely been something completely knew that most people had no idea how to treat or what to really compare it to. There would be a certain degree of snobbishness and wide-eyede naivete in equal spades but I imagine the latter would easily overwhelm the former.

edited 31st Mar '14 8:24:21 PM by StillbirthMachine

Only Death Is Real
Odd1 Still just awesome like that from Nowhere Land Since: Sep, 2013 Relationship Status: And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
Still just awesome like that
#42: Mar 31st 2014 at 9:06:48 PM

The hipster music of the '60s? Come on, now, none of y'all know nothin' about the underground scene? The Velvet Underground? The Sonics? Captain Beefheart? The Monks? ...etc.

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.
Quag15 Since: Mar, 2012
#43: Mar 31st 2014 at 9:09:27 PM

[up]Don't forget the Silver Apples.

PhysicalStamina ain't nothin' but a party y'all (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
ain't nothin' but a party y'all
#44: Mar 31st 2014 at 9:15:38 PM

[up][up][up]You realize this doesn't pertain solely to metal, yes?

Do not spare the feelings of those who would not spare yours.
Odd1 Still just awesome like that from Nowhere Land Since: Sep, 2013 Relationship Status: And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
Still just awesome like that
#45: Mar 31st 2014 at 9:19:36 PM

[up][up]I actually didn't know the Silver Apples myself! Damn. Well, thank you for pointing them out to me! I've got some research to do now.

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StillbirthMachine Heresiarch Command from The Womb ov Impurities Since: Mar, 2012
Heresiarch Command
#46: Mar 31st 2014 at 9:37:24 PM

[up][up]

Which conveniently explains why it's the go to genre for that sort of faux above-the-crowd-intellectual-posturing. I won't doubt that jazz possibly has it even worse though from what I hear.

Only Death Is Real
Odd1 Still just awesome like that from Nowhere Land Since: Sep, 2013 Relationship Status: And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
Still just awesome like that
#47: Mar 31st 2014 at 9:39:51 PM

Which reminds me, Miles Davis. Come on, listen to Bitches Brew and try to disagree.

More underground/potential hipster artists of the time? Maybe some might dig Perrey & Kingsley's experiments as the music of the future. As well as maybe other Moog albums.

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Quag15 Since: Mar, 2012
#48: Mar 31st 2014 at 9:42:51 PM

The "Doctor Who" theme would probably be a smash hit.

[up]Stockhausen. 'Nuff said.

Also, [up][up][up]Yeah.[tup]

edited 31st Mar '14 9:43:47 PM by Quag15

Odd1 Still just awesome like that from Nowhere Land Since: Sep, 2013 Relationship Status: And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
Still just awesome like that
#49: Mar 31st 2014 at 9:46:52 PM

Hell, can we just assume the music on this album might have been passed around a lot around then?

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Quag15 Since: Mar, 2012
#50: Mar 31st 2014 at 9:52:46 PM

[up]Interesting. It also means that the Dutch already had their own "techno" scene then.evil grin


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