Has the proliferation of hardware and software in the music industry led to improvements in production practises?

Since the first recording of a human voice by Thomas Edison in 1877, music production seems to have experienced intense exponential growth. From the first FM Radio to the Vinyl, through to the cassette and the 8-track, somehow travelling down a twisted road to become a recorded MP3, technology has overseen our entire road trip and certainly, we haven’t reached our destination.

Back in the 1800’s, families first got the experience of owning their very own factory-made piano, bringing music into their very own homes. Fast forward 50 years and teenagers are seizing music straight from the family living room and into the blues and rock scenes with their very own electric guitars. 50 more years and here I am, sitting in my bedroom on a MacBook with GarageBand one click away, able to record, produce and upload my very own music to a worldwide audience in a matter of minutes- I am now the producer. Long gone are the days when Delia Derbyshire reached the ends of her mind and lost hours of sleep because she used an entire corridor of BBC offices to lay out her tape, making sure it was stuck together in the right places at the right time, in order to create a masterpiece such as the Doctor Who theme tune. Of course, without today’s accessibility, we would never have discovered The Weekend or Rihanna’s Umbrella (which heavily relies on a pre-automated loop on GarageBand), but is it worth it? Is today’s lack of originality and lack of passion worth it? Are you sick of hearing the same drum beats and the same guitar riffs that Apple have ‘graced’ us with?

GarageBand may have over-saturated today’s music. Not only can you use it without an expensive PC Rig, you can write tomorrow’s next Top 40 hit without any talent as well! Smart Instruments will allow any owner of Apple technology to lay down a catchy chord sequence, creating a new wave of street producers.

However, GarageBand is not the only technology that has furthered the music industry. MiMu Gloves, created by Imogen Heap and made famous by Ariana Grande during her Why Try performance on her most recent tour, allow the user to edit their voice using hand gestures and arm movements. It gives the user the ability to use reverb, loops, harmonies and everything a little producer’s heart could desire. Along with graphene (which may in the future allow bands to pack everything they need for a tour into a legal sized envelope) and Google Glass, the possibilities are endless and these may be bigger breakthroughs than that of the Vocoder or the Wah-Wah Pedal.

However, some of the biggest breakthroughs in the music industry may never be beaten.  30 years ago, we were blessed with the good graces of a MIDI keyboard, which allowed the first home studios to be born, as well as dance music. The wide availability of the format and its ease of use was how MIDI grasped its audience, bringing that ever familiar electronic feel of oh, I don't know, only every 80’s song. Ever. Fast forward to 2016 and the use of MIDI is as strong as ever, with its open source technology- but this leads to the question: was the breakthrough of MIDI the beginning of music production being just too accessible to the everyday person?

In the 1990’s, we seen the rise of Digital Audio Workstations. Today, the software of these DAWs such as Ableton are far more complex, and far more accessible with the drag and drop concept, opening this medium up to anybody who purchases the software. To some, this concept is ideal. Dutch DJ Sander Klienenberg says, “Ideas that previously would have taken hours or even days to complete ten or 20 years ago can now be done in minutes. This enhances the creative process.” But to some, such as the late, genius Delia Derbyshire, music production became too simple and was simply no longer enjoyable.

For some, like dream pop singer/songwriter Dee Dee of the Dum Dum Girls, Garageband is as far as she cares to explore. She began her girl group project in her Los Angeles bedroom using GarageBand and continues to use the programme for demoing her songs. Even though her music is augmented by studio professionals, her GarageBand demos are the backbone of the Dum Dum Girls’ music, and any editing does not remove the digital effect. The producer of DDG, who is 75 years old and has a wise and experienced career path spanning around 50 years, is very open to Dee Dee’s approach- proving that accepting of the scorned GarageBand is not a matter of youth, naivety or lack of experience.

And who are we to scorn GarageBand? Some of today’s biggest artists hold proud roots in the programme, such as Haim who recorded a demo named simply ‘My Song 5’ which went on to feature one of R&B’s freshest names, A$AP Ferg, as well as revealing the bands debut album’s characteristic trademark sound from the GarageBand’s Smart Instruments. Many artists foreshadowed Haim on their GarageBand war path, and many followed, but all of these artists have one thing in common. They became a producer by paying a month’s wages for an Apple product- they became a prosumer.

GarageBand, Ableton, Audacity and every other simplified programme for music makers and music lovers alike have made the dream of producing a reality. Like electronic music composer Drew Shnurr said, “There’s an aspect of GarageBand that threatens the status quo. So while it might not be good for the studios or the industry, you can make a great record on GarageBand-just look at Grimes.” Although this has benefitted many and may be the tool that many producers couldn’t imagine in their wildest dreams of having when they were teenagers, it has made YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and just about every other social media site just about worthless when finding new music. Finding new music in a wave of ‘producers’ who believe they are the ‘next big thing’ yet in reality they sound like Justin Bieber in about 50 years time, is something similar to hoking through the bin right before collection night when its spilling over with rubbish but you need to find a homework sheet you threw out eight days ago. The over-saturation of music online has made navigating through the noise utterly frustrating.

In the end, we have to thank our new technology. Without it we would never have had the Beatles, Blondie or even Simple Minds (although we wouldn't have had Rebecca Black’s disastrous Friday either, so we sometimes forget why we thank it). Sure theres a heck of a lot of big headed 17 year olds releasing their remixes of Calvin Harris’ How Deep Is Your Love on SoundCloud and sharing it on Facebook hoping to be the next Avicii, but without that would we even have a Belfast culture? It’s time we accept that this is how music is released these days, time to log on to our Discover Weekly tab on Spotify and start listening. Listen for the synthesisers and the MIDI keyboards, for the Smart Instruments and the real instruments because this is what music is, and I think that Thomas Edison would be pretty proud.