Everything Old Is New Again: What does that even mean…??

I'm old....ish. More so in body, than in spirit. As a result of my involvement with Pizza FM, my recent renewed exposure to new music and musicians has left me happily confused at both how much and how little music's relationship to our culture has changed since I was an undergrad. So much so, that I am not quite sure what actually has or hasn't changed, if change is good or bad, and if I should even be all that concerned about it...The sheer volume of musical content and innovative distribution mechanisms available to a college student today would cause a student from the pre-wired world of the late '80s to mess his parachute pants. So while these new technologies clearly allow for a much more personalized relationship with music, does it mean a less social one? Do we enjoy the same kind of shared connection with songs as we once did? Does our recent societal preoccupation with Psy's "Gagnam Style" compare with past shared cultural relationships to other "popular" songs, such as Michael Jackson's "Thriller", or "Workin' at the Car Wash"  by Rose Royce. Has our musical culture gained anything more by this proliferation of content? Have we lost anything?And what about the way we experience music? Personal listening systems continue to evolve from early transistor radios through the Walkman cassette players of my college days to the artificially intelligent wireless streaming digital devices available now. Live and recorded music is presented at greater and greater decibels using more and more sophisticated means. Does this change the way we value musical artifacts within our culture?And what about the folks creating music? Do modern-day music-makers share the same role in culture as recording artists from the pre-digital age?F@#$ if I know!!! And after having asked all of the above questions, I'm more convinced than ever that the answers don't really matter in the final analysis. While its occasionally entertaining to speculate on how the current era of music and musicians is better/worse than previous eras, I think what's really cool is that we have the music and musicians on which to speculate.As someone who has spent the last um...several years working in professional audio, my personal view on music's relationship to culture is bound to be quite different from the average person. Even so, my opinions will probably never stop changing and may eventually even come into alignment with someone completely different from myself. Who knows? At the same time, a number of readers of this blog may be for the first time solidifying their own notions of what culture is and how music fits into it. Regardless, we have all likely found our way to PizzaFM for the same singular reason: we like to listen to music. This simple fact separates the who/what/where/when/why/how from the simple, sincere and open appreciation of the art form that can be at once both shared and personal.So when I contemplate the statement "Everything Old Is New Again", I'm left thinking maybe it is and maybe it isn't. But really, I guess I don't care as much as I thought I did. So forget that, let's get back to listening to some tunes!!