“It Ain’t Worth Nothing”: Bob Dylan’s Dismantling of the Entirety of the Modern Music Scene

There are many opinions on technology. Do we push back at its scarily quick development, or do we leave it alone, because there’s not much use in fighting anyhow? No one has a definitive answer, but that doesn’t stop us from giving our two cents. Bob Dylan once spoke his mind about technology as it relates to the music industry. He spoke loud and clear while he dismantled the entirety of the modern music scene.

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Bob Dylan’s Feelings About Streaming

Different generations often don’t see eye to eye. That’s, in part, because the world changes so fast, people of various ages are operating with entirely different perspectives. This is certainly seen in the music industry.

Some older musicians take issue with the immediacy of recording that is now commonplace. According to Dylan, artists today could never make an album that had the same “stature” as something released by mid-century music giants, like Brian Wilson.

“The records I used to listen to and still love, you can’t make a record that sounds that way,” Dylan once said. “Brian Wilson, he made all his records with four tracks, but you couldn’t make his records if you had a 100 tracks today…those days are gon-n-n-e.”

“It Ain’t Worth Nothing”

While CDs revolutionized the music industry, the advent of streaming was even more transformative. Many artists from Dylan’s generation struggled to understand streaming as a general concept, especially when it came to artists’ rights. Dylan understood completely, and honestly, had a pretty blasé reaction to it. If, in his opinion, music today isn’t worth much, why charge for it?

“You fight that technology in all kinds of ways, but I don’t know anybody who’s made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years, really,” he added elsewhere. “There’s no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like static. Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded ’em.”

“CDs are small,” he continued. “There’s no stature to it. I remember when that Napster guy came up across, it was like, ‘Everybody’s gettin’ music for free.’ I was like, ‘Well, why not? It ain’t worth nothing anyway.’”

It’s so like Dylan to lay down a blanket statement on an entire generation of musicians. But, because he’s one of the greatest minds in music history, we struggle to create a counterargument.

(Photo by PIERRE GUILLAUD/AFP via Getty Images)