Donald Fagen on why Steely Dan wouldn’t thrive today: “It’s just not the same medium”
Back in the 1970s, the music industry looked drastically different. After rock music began dominating the mainstream during the previous decade, with bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones gaining incredible popularity, lots of other groups emerged that would change the course of music history forever. The ground was fertile, and genres like metal and punk were beginning to sprout—genres that it’s now hard to imagine a world without.
There weren’t as many bands, so musicians were able to garner sizable followings, earning fans by receiving radio play, appearing on televised music programmes, playing gigs, appearing in magazines, and word of mouth. The only way to listen to certain songs whenever you wanted – from the comfort of your own home – required going to a record shop and buying a physical copy of an album or a single.
These days, however, the landscape looks wildly different. An oversaturation of artists, all vying for success and adoration, is partly the result of the internet age, where free music-making software comes pre-downloaded onto computers. Many popular songs and albums have been made entirely on GarageBand, such as Grimes’ acclaimed record Visions. Of course, real skill is required, but that’s how easy it is to access software to make your own music without any producers or studio trips required.
With so many artists out there to choose from, it’s impossible to dedicate enough time to everyone. We’re not buying every album we love on vinyl anymore – it’s too expensive. While plenty of us collect physical records, there’s no way that we can have everything we like on wax. Instead, we can simply stream albums on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music or Soundcloud. We can even listen to songs for free on websites like YouTube, as long as we have an internet connection. Gone are the days of hearing an odd song we liked on the radio and buying it on seven-inch – now we can just add it to a ‘recent favourites’ playlist on Spotify, eventually forgetting about it among copious other songs.
While the sheer amount of music readily available is incredible, it is indisputable that the act of listening to music feels more disposable than ever. Most of us can only afford to buy our favourite records on vinyl, and even CDs are not far from obsolete. Donald Fagen from Steely Dan has witnessed this stark change over the years, which has left him wondering how his band would fare if they were to emerge today.
Formed in the early 1970s while the members were living in New York, a hub for new musical innovation, Steely Dan were known for fusing genres and creating rock music that was incredibly technically proficient. They earned critical acclaim with many albums, perhaps most notably, Aja.
Talking to Tablet Magazine, Fagen explained, “These days, it’s all about streaming.” He then referenced the way that this method of musical consumption has affected the reception of albums. The late 1960s and early ’70s saw many bands focus on making cohesive albums rather than just releasing a compilation of their popular singles. The Beatles’ Sgt Peppers is a great example of this, with the band using specific themes and imagery to give the album a concept. The ‘album era’ was terrific for music, but it feels like, in the current popular landscape at least, albums have lost their importance.
“You can’t divorce the LP from a particular sequence of songs. You know, coming after The Beatles and Dylan, we just slid into that spot where an album, 40 or so minutes of music, could be a piece of work,” Fagen said. “I know people still release albums, but I’m not sure if it’s the same. For one thing, kids listen to it on these little pods or play it out of their computer speakers, so there’s no more hi-fidelity, which was part of the thing, part of the experience. It’s like watching films on Netflix. It’s just not the same medium.”
For the Steely Dan singer, today’s listeners seem to care less about the art of an album or the quality of the playback, something that was vital to his band’s success. Although they found great popularity with their albums, Steely Dan never had a number-one hit, suggesting that fans liked to come to the band for a wholly immersive experience, not just one radio-friendly track.
