Has the changes in popular music has an effect in how we buy audio equipment today?

[mlsstl]

You could take your laundry list of composers and complain that none of them wrote like Mozart, Vivaldi or Bach. They wrote "popular music" in their day.

You can select well known artists and composers from any particular period in time in history and you'll find they didn't write and sing like the people before them nor the people afterwards. There is nothing surprising there.

And of course, musicians have always changed their works to use the instruments available to them. The invention of the microphone, speaker and tube amplifier changed the way popular music was played and sounded. The vocal skills that were necessary for a singer to be heard without amplification in a concert hall diminished in importance when mikes, amps and speakers arrived on the scene.

Before that, around 1700, a fellow named Cristofori changed the music world when he invented the modern piano. Prior to that, keyboard instruments were not capable of playing very loud. Afterwards, composers and artists changed the way they wrote and played music.

And I'm sure there were people who complained about those changes in music due to the piano just as others bemoaned that amplified speakers in theaters were causing a loss of skills in the music world.

While our favorite artists (or their styles) may not be as popular as they were years ago, I'm happy with the way things are today. I can listen to pre-Cristofori harpsichord music if I want or post-Cristofori piano music by great composers. I can listen to my collection of Ella Fitzgerald or I can listen to Thea Gilmore or Lucinda Williams. I happen to like 'em all. Big Band? Not a problem - Artie Shaw is right there on my music server just waiting for me to press the play button, as is the latest Gogol Bordello album.

And they all sound great on my stereo.

[melvin walker]

You could take your laundry list of composers and complain that none of them wrote like Mozart, Vivaldi or Bach. They wrote "popular music" in their day.

You can select well known artists and composers from any particular period in time in history and you'll find they didn't write and sing like the people before them nor the people afterwards. There is nothing surprising there.

And of course, musicians have always changed their works to use the instruments available to them. The invention of the microphone, speaker and tube amplifier changed the way popular music was played and sounded. The vocal skills that were necessary for a singer to be heard without amplification in a concert hall diminished in importance when mikes, amps and speakers arrived on the scene.

Before that, around 1700, a fellow named Cristofori changed the music world when he invented the modern piano. Prior to that, keyboard instruments were not capable of playing very loud. Afterwards, composers and artists changed the way they wrote and played music.

And I'm sure there were people who complained about those changes in music due to the piano just as others bemoaned that amplified speakers in theaters were causing a loss of skills in the music world.

While our favorite artists (or their styles) may not be as popular as they were years ago, I'm happy with the way things are today. I can listen to pre-Cristofori harpsichord music if I want or post-Cristofori piano music by great composers. I can listen to my collection of Ella Fitzgerald or I can listen to Thea Gilmore or Lucinda Williams. I happen to like 'em all. Big Band? Not a problem - Artie Shaw is right there on my music server just waiting for me to press the play button, as is the latest Gogol Bordello album.

And they all sound great on my stereo.

Your musical history, is complementary. I can only add that we Americans create a music that is American. Broadway , and Music for Hollywood. Great music halls such as Avery Fisher Hall , Carnegie Hall etc.

I think that we both can agree , we would both not wish to see the great composers , singers, and arrangers forgotten and also the pioneers of American audio such as Avery Fisher . Saul Marantz , James Lansing etc.
The question is has the differences in music effected audio equipment. Remember the harpsicord was available to only the wealthy and so was the piano.
Recorded sound made music available to the average citizen. So there is a difference.