NEIL YOUNG REVEALS WHAT THE "DARK ERA" OF RECORDED SOUND WAS AND CRITICIZES THE DOMINATION OF THE CD

Neil Young has always been one of the harshest critics of digital technology in music. For him, the so-called "dark era of recorded sound" took place between 1981 and 2010, a period in which CDs and other digital formats began to dominate the way people listened to music. The central revelation is this: Young considers that everything recorded between 1981 and approximately 2010 will be known as a dark phase of sound quality, because digital sound would have removed the public from the depth and physical experience of analog formats. The Canadian singer believes that the compact disc not only changed the medium of music, but also altered the relationship between artist and listener. With CD players, the public found it easier to rearrange tracks, skip songs and modify the order originally thought by the artists. For Young, this represented an artistic loss. He always saw the album as a complete work, with sequence, intention and narrative. The possibility of changing the order of the tracks would, in his view, be a break from the experience planned by the musician. But his main criticism is the digital sound. Young stated that the CD appears to improve hearing, but delivers only a superficial representation of sound. For him, analog formats such as vinyl and tape have a more direct relationship with recorded sound waves. The musician also criticized digital listening as he considers it limits the depth of the experience. According to this view, when listening to a CD, the listener does not encounter new layers over time, because the format would not have the same sensorial richness as analog records. The opinion is controversial. There are those who agree with Young and see digitalization as a loss of heat, dynamics and depth. Others understand that digital technology has also brought quality, preservation and democratic access to music. Even so, Neil Young's position confirms a hallmark of his career: the radical defense of sound integrity. For him, practicality should never be more important than the emotion and fidelity of the recording.