Music is my life. Not so much in that I play or perform it, but I love music, and I love listening to it. It’s how I relax and how I get pumped up to do stuff. I even use it help me focus, strangely enough. I can’t do homework without some kind of music playing in the background.
It’s strange to see how much music has changed, even just over the time that I’ve been alive. I was raised on Classic Rock and Oldies, so I listened to Def Leppard, The Scorpions, The Cars, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, and many similar bands for most of my childhood and well into my teens. It was around my teenage years that I began to venture outside of my comfort zone and explore other realms of music. I’ve had several people describe my taste in music as “eclectic.”
Having listened to a bunch of music, it’s really cool to watch how the production style has changed, and also just to see what goes into each song and its genre. I learned some really interesting things and got to broaden my horizons for music. Music is a good way to connect to people, since people hold their music taste about as personally as their political views, for whatever reason.
To lay it out flat, I rarely listen to country, and only moderately to rap. Sorry, country and rap fans. I just don’t relate to it much. There is some music from those genres that I can find catchy and fun to listen to, but the songs are few and far between. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.
It’s crazy how much the production has changed over the years. The changes have been both good and bad. The major change that happened in the past years is that music production has become much easier. To the point that people can single-handedly produce their own music and publish it without the need for a label or studio. This has its pros and cons. On one hand, people who are really talented, and may have previously been restricted by needing a label to get popular, don’t have that problem anymore. They have all of the equipment, and the internet provides the means they need to publicize their music and make it known. However, this has also made it easy for people with less-than-stellar talent to do the same, so there has been a massive oversaturation of music out there, to the point where it takes a while to filter through to find the good stuff and weed out the bad.
However, the pattern still has allowed certain genres to really shine through and grow, as well as have some interesting results in terms of international popularity. Scandinavian indie music has become quite popular all over, including bands such as Kid Astray, Kasket Club, The Tallest Man On Earth and more. The modern era has also allowed for labels to start up with ease and allows artists contribute to them rather easily. Monstercat and Funky Panda are a couple of electronic music labels that have become very popular through YouTube and have many artists on their labels, including a few of my own favorites.
By this point, even if you’re not into electronic dance music (EDM), most people have heard of Deadmau5. His real name is Joel Zimmerman, and he has become extremely popular and well-known throughout the U.S. He managed to get discovered because he was producing tracks and putting them online for people to see and (hopefully) like. A random radio DJ found his track “Faxing Berlin,” really liked it, and put it on his show, which helped to quickly distribute his music. Zimmerman went from a no-name producer to an international hit almost overnight!
The music community is bigger and more connected than ever before, and this gives rise to some amazing opportunities. We just have to make sure that we speak and vote with our wallets so that the good music stays and the bad music goes!

-Cameron MacDonald