Humble Theories: Why So Many People Prefer Older Music
In the past five or so years, I have noticed a pattern in myself, my peers, and even in the adults around me. So many people, regardless of age, are strangely drawn to music recorded before 1995. What is it about older music that captures the ears of so many people?
“Honestly, I just think it sounds cooler. [I don’t know] why exactly, it just…works for my brain better,” Tovah Shapiro (’22) said.
“I just like the way it sounds. The texture isn’t as sharp or clear as more modern music. I tend to listen to old recordings of classical pieces and I find that the texture makes it feel a lot calmer,” Arya Karthik (’22) said.
I theorize a few factors that contribute to this “texture” that Karthik speaks of. In the terms of music recording and production, the methods of recording music have significantly changed over the years. Today, a majority of artists record most of their music directly into a computer using a “digital audio workstation,” which was popularized in the late nineties. Before that, artists would record their music “reel-to-reel,” a method where audio is recorded with tape that passes between large, separately mounted reels.
This difference in the recording medium changes the texture of the music quite a bit. Most of the time, modern DAW recordings use a variety of plugins: software that processes audio signals with the intent of applying effects and fulfilling any given modification purpose. Most producers will use a compression plugin, which uniformly lowers the overall dynamic range of any given track they are recording. This creates a more even level of volume in the audio, bridging the gap between louder and softer sounds, granting a bit of consistency. DAWs tend to pursue a nearly robotic degree of perfection. They are designed to aim for noise reduction, a flat and even frequency response, and squeaky-clean audio.
On the contrary, analog recordings are a little less sterile. Analog tape recordings are usually naturally a bit compressed since most tape recorders aren’t capable of creating a perfect replication of an audio piece’s full dynamic range. Additionally, tape recordings will often have some saturation (i.e. tiny irregularities, minor phasing fluctuations, subtly-distorted murmurs, the like). This natural compression, saturation, and the subdued “hiss” of the tape lead to a warmer, less automated audio tone. The idiosyncratic nature of tape and analog recording gear, in general, seems to be what gives the audio recorded with it that elusive, softer texture. The imperfections of analog recordings may be the reason they’re so appealing.
Another way the creation of music has changed regards the pricing and availability of analog and acoustic instruments. Today, musical instruments are often digitized. Technology using Musical Instrument Digital Interface has grown extremely popular in the last few decades. MIDI technology enables musicians to either choose from a variety of sounds, or design their sounds, and create arrangements with a few “plunks” at a keyboard or sequencer. Since so many digital instruments and sounds are sample-based, they sound calculated in an arrangement, since the same sound is being pitch-shifted and duplicated repeatedly. This leads to a lack of natural variation. Instruments that are directly being played and recorded sound much less mechanical and more lively.
Analog gear has become harder to come by and therefore more expensive, so today, most musicians opt for digital gear in place of analog gear. MIDI tends to be the go-to because it is usually much more cost-effective than its analog or acoustic instrumental counterparts. Digital MIDI synthesizer patches have also grown increasingly popular since analog synthesizers are often quite pricey, although it is difficult to replicate the distinctive warmth of analog tones. Hearing MIDI, squeaky-clean digital recordings, and sample-based sounds all the time may make people long for something different and more organic, perhaps leading them to covet older analog audio.
It isn’t just listeners who crave a vintage sound. Many musicians and producers crave it too. Several musicians still record with reel-to-reel tape technology, and many more record with analog and acoustic instruments. A wide variety of musicians use a sort of hybrid setup, where they use a mixture of digital and analog gear. Some may record raw audio with analog means, and then digitize it and edit it in a DAW. Others might even use old, originally tape-recorded samples with their MIDI arrangements in order to achieve a more eclectic, stylized sound.
Finally, I theorize that people are drawn to older music because of a sense of longing for simpler, less chaotic times, and the thematically candid appeal to it
“I listened to [older recordings] when I was a toddler so they bring back a sense of familiarity,” Hew Yeh (‘21) said. “[The recordings] shaped my perception of what good music is. That is why I think I still listen to them today even though there are songs that have much better audio quality.”
“I’d say there’s a certain charm to it,” Allison Huang (‘22) said. “Not that everybody says that about the music they like, but there’s a certain rawness about it. A lot of the time music nowadays over-idolizes materialistic themes like sex, drugs, and drinking. And while I’m not denying these themes didn’t exist in the music before 1995, it was definitely less of the forefront.”
There may be a variety of different reasons as to why people are so captivated by older recordings. In my humble theory, I think people long for the analog warmth and texture of older music, as well as the thematic and nostalgic elements of it. While the amount of current innovation and development in new audio technology is incredibly interesting and worth checking out, I do think it is nice to have older methods and sounds to return to every now and then.