Music : How Far We've come

Photocredit : cyberius.deviantart.com

June 21st - World Music Day... Celebrating music and its evolution all over the world.
Whilst I type my blog entry , the latest Lady Gaga soundtrack emanates from my laptop speakers...
Its a wonder how far music has advanced; it is indeed a science of various notes,tunes, chords and octaves , harmonised with perfect synchrony to create one continuous stream of pure melody, that can soothe even the most savage of beasts...
Just like any science , music has evolved rapidly, and has many states ...the earliest form being the wind instruments , wherein the "Shanka" (conch) and the bansuri ( flute ) are of mythological origin...followed by other string instruments like the Sitar, Harp and the Lute ; apparently Nero, the Roman emperor played the Lute while Rome was on fire...
The piano emerged during the Renaissance era , as did the violin... Compositions by Beethoven and Mozart served well to bring these instruments to the forefront...
The early 20th century saw the advent of Jazz , and with it the saxophone , guitar, trumpet and the tuba...Post WWII saw the advent of Rock n Roll - Elvis and the electric guitar... This was the so called "Swingin'60's" as they called it...This age saw the advent of the magnetic tape audio cassette...which would soon send the vinyl record into oblivion...

Photocredit : ilounge.com

The 70s saw the emergence of a new trend of Synthesizer music ... imagine a single instrument performing the roles of a piano , violin , a guitar etc etc...!! You'd think it cudn't get any better... If so , u thought wrong...

The 80s saw more advanced Synth music along with the Golden age of Rock - Guns n Roses, Nirvana , Metallica ;teens would be seen blasting away these tracks on their walkmans; a few of their tracks still find favor with the youth of today...

The Digital age (latter 80's) saw in many new technologies, the compact disc deserves a noteworthy mention; for it ensured a longer shelf life for the music album you purchased with your monthly allowance, was fungus proof and also didn't get all entangled in your music system..It also saw the emergence of a few more genres of music - Techno , trance , hip hop and rap started getting prominence,and who could forget the emergence of pop with its king , the one and only MJ....You could call this era - The Golden age of music...

The Internet age spelled doom for cassette players; the Mp3 format combined with the option of getting "just that one good song" : u could store dozens of tracks in a single CD...portable CD players phased out the walkman and before you could say "Compact Disc", Mp3 players came to the forefront - easy to carry, rechargable battery, and flexible use pushed the portable disc player to the attic.
Its now the age of the Mp3,the torrent file - children of the present generation would never recognize a record player , a few of them may have never seen a walkman, the music device with which we ever so eagerly listened to our favourite tracks of backstreet boys , MJ , westlife or madonna...
Guess its the age of the iPod....For now...