The war between Taylor Swift and Spotify is no brand new information. The decision of the American singer and song-writer to remove her track catalogue from the service has been fuelling media articles for weeks. And this is just one way to relate to the story, a single angle, the female singer’s one and I believe that I write in the name of the majority when I type: ‘’We’ve had it!’’
Dave Grohl, front-man of the American band Foo Fighters, shared his opinion on the subject, which was quite a straight-forward remark towards the much ado about nothing: ’’Me personally? I don’t […] care. That’s just me, because I’m playing two nights at Wembley next summer’’– quote which does not mean that the rocker is indifferent about his fans’ reaction or about his music, which is both his art and passion. Grohl draws the public attention towards the importance of music itself, and incriminates the confusion between terms such as ‘’delivery’’ or ‘’technology’’ and music itself.
Foo Fighters’ musician adds: ‘’you want people to […] listen to your music? Give them your music. And then go play a show. They like hearing your music? They’ll go see a show. To me it’s that simple, and I think it used to work that way’’. His message is accurate and quite clear: in order to (dis)like a tune, one must firstly be given the opportunity to listen to it without restraints of any kind. Whether that person furthermore decides to invest into that piece/artist or not, should be the consequence of his/her decision after having reached the product. Dave Grohl also brings the argument to another level, by referring to live concerts.
An already viral dispute such as the one between Swift and Spotify unwillingly confesses about the disadvantages of music in the technology era. “When we were young and in really noisy, crappy punk rock bands there was no career opportunity and we loved doing it and people loved […] watching it and the delivery was completely face to face personal. […]. ‘’That’s what got people really excited about […]. Nowadays there’s so much focus on technology that it doesn’t really matter.’’ As the 45-year-old lead-singer suggests, people nowadays should take advantage from their opportunity to listen to music in the virtual context, but should never forget that true music is born on stage, as a concert is a unique experience, each time different, never the same, on-growing and enthralling for both the artist and his audience.
Foo Fighters released Sonic Highways, their eight studio album, on 10 November 2014.
Enjoy the album’s lead single: ‘’Something from Nothing’’: