How to define music has long been the subject of debate; philosophers, musicians, and, more recently, various social and natural scientists have argued about what constitutes music. Definitions vary as music, like art, is a subjectively perceived phenomenon. Music may be defined according to various criteria including organization, pleasantness, intent, social construction, perceptual processes and engagement, universal aspects or family resemblances, and through contrast or negative definition.
Music styles changed several times in the course of history, according to their eras. Nowadays, the music gravitates around one word: COMMERCIAL
Is a commercial environment good for music? In one sense the answer seems to be manifestly yes, given the vast quantities of music produced and sold in live and especially recorded performances. But this refers above all to contemporary popular music, sometimes explicitly called commercial music because of its marketability. Contemporary music industry compromises artistic integrity. The value of music is being measured by the number of albums sold and translates into figures and sales charts. Record sales may be an indication of how popular an artist or a group is, but considering how many people download music from free service websites, it becomes self-evident that record sales figures are rather inaccurate. And of course, many groups fall in the trap of “commercially successful” facing their audiences more like customers rather than fans.
In fact, the value of music should be measured by how many people go to a concert; how many people talk about a group; how often the media deals with a music group or artist; how often you hear someone singing a particular song next to you in the bus. The audiences dictate what is commercial and for decades they have sunken records that promoted a commercial music format. So, if commercial music is the rule of thumb for success and sales in the music industry, music groups and artists are more likely to succumb to this rule rather than be its exception.
Most of the groups seem to be devoted in their music style and their fans as long as this sells and is profitable. They often go through transitional phases trying new styles, but what they do in reality is testing their audiences, trying to figure out how far they can push it, how far their limits can go. Experimentation exists in music and this is not bad at all. What is bad is when commercial success drives creativity. Great groups sacrifice their history and their fans in the altar of money once they feel that their music is passé. What is even worse is baptizing their so-called bravery “experimentation” or “alternative” and lacking the guts to admit that they are stupid enough to take the wrong path when this experiment fails.
Over the last 15 years, the music industry has experienced structural changes that have basically forced music artists to experiment and deviate from the norms. In this context, commercial success is often a highly misunderstood term. “Commercially successful” is not necessarily a “sell out”. The history of music proves that, undeniably.
The commercial wave affected Romanian music too. Let’s look at the rankings of the important Romanian FM Radios. Almost all Romanian artist sing English songs. Why? They will answer that this is the trend of current times. The question is, what happened with the consecrated artists? Where do they hide? And what can we do to revitalize their music?
I don’t want to forget our traditions. I hope you won’t do this too. With the help of this cache, you’ll make a small trip in the past. Recognize the artists and the songs, and then document about them.
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F) (G) (H) (I) (J)
Cache is hidden at N 44 26.nnn E 026 05.eee, where: nnn = A*(D-B-C)-(EC) , eee = H+G*(I+J)-F (“EC” is a concatenated number: EC=E&C)
A = the age of the artist on his death;
B = the year when the band was founded;
C -> the artist emigrated and established himself in a foreign city; C is the “population” ranking (ranking by the number of people) of this city in its country ;
D = the year of the album, named like the title of this song;
E -> the name of the album containing this song is a formed by 2 words, starting with the same letter. E is the number of this letter in the English alphabet;
F = the year when the band was born;
G = the number of couples, participating in the video of this song;
H -> the title of the song is the title of a poetry from a well-known author; H is the year of the volume containing this poetry;
I -> the title of the song contains the name of a Romanian city. I is the number of the first letter of the city in the English alphabet;
J = the number that follows the one in the title of the song.