I agree with Jimmy and Irminsul on this one. There is always someone out there, creating great music. In certain times, finding it just requires a little more work. Whenever someone shouts it's death cry, something comes along and grabs the public's attention.
But the topic was about whether it would remain the same in 100 years. I think it is both yes and no. The root of music, the vibrations of pitch and tone, and maybe some meaningful lyrics, will always move people. It is ageless. We were sung to, whether in actual song, or the sing/song of a mother talking baby talk to her child, since we were infants. We are born into it. It will always be relevant to us and to future generations.
There are some interesting things going on though, with internet as distribution and satellite radio, it is becoming even more fragmented than ever, whether for good or bad. People can listen to their own nitch, no matter how small, all day long, through MP3 players, downloading off the internet, and satellite radio, among other things in the works. Will this mean more snobbery? Where people almost become unaware of each other's musical preferences, as we tune the world out and hibernate within our own preferred genre? Of course there is always television shows and movies, which would expose music to the masses that you would normally avoid or be unaware of.
Or will the reverse occur, where the diversity of genres available open up a whole new world of music, that many people would not normally ever have the chance to be aware of?
I wonder especially though, about the delivery system of music. It is delivered to our ears through speakers, whether large or small, as in headphones, through sound waves. Will there be in the future a new method of delivery? Say directly to our brains without our ears ever being involved? What would that be like? After all, even through our ears, it is still our brains interpreting the sound waves. Would music in this form, be like injecting a drug directly into the blood stream? Which delivers an almost immediate sensation?
Imagine music being projected, almost directly, into the brain, along with stimulating certain areas of the brain to trigger the sensations that matched the music? For example, a sensual love song, that besides stimulating us musically, also triggered those sensations physically as well.
That would make for an interesting subway commute. LOL
On second thought, maybe that's a bad idea? There could be half as many fans of The Cure, as there are right now, as depression on an even deeper scale sets in when listening to A Letter To Elise.
