Paul Simon on music today

Paul Simon (of Simon and Garfunkel) on the future of the “album” concept:

I don’t think the album is going to disappear for several reasons … It’s not that people aren’t listening to albums.  They’re just doing it on shuffle.  What that does is it makes albums more eclectic and more interesting.  But if an artist is unique enough they should be able to hold your attention for the 40 or 50 minutes of an album.  There’s something about that length of time on our DNA. We like to hear it.

He also has a positive view on the future of music:

So many people are studying music in schools now and many of the schools have really good music departments.  It seems there is much, if not more, interest in music in this generation.  I don’t foresee that it will just become about the three minute pop song.  I think that’s appropriate for the 12, 13, 14 year olds, but kids outgrow that eventually.

Cited in: Iain Shedden, “Beautiful or What?”, The Weekend Australian, April 16 2011.

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