It is nice to be able to see how famous drummers hit the drums-- that's a real change from what we had in the past. I mostly had to wait years for that, until I could see Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, Jack Dejohnette, Vinnie Colaiuta, Art Blakey, or whoever, play live. But I got a lot more information from that-- and from listening to a lot of complete records by them many times-- than people get seeing videos of them playing one drum solo or one tune.
This resonates with me. I saw a lot of local rock, fusion and jazz groups when I was young and inevitably absorbed things from them. Being relatively isolated in Australia, I saw only a few big shows of my favourite bands, and I'd see the occasional top OS group on TV (pretty well just GTK and documentaries - the pop shows were usually mimed). Plenty of it was in in B&W and poor quality. We were comparatively information poor, especially with visual information.
In an environment without much visual information like that you are forced to
really listen - to isolate the sound from the visuals. Usually sound comes as an audiovisual package and the
McGurk Effect shows how much we "hear with our eyes" - how visual impact shapes our perception of sound.
The availability of music videos since the 80s inevitably changed the way we listen and perceive music. It's changed the way we absorb music, especially for those born in the 80s and later. I find the audiovisual package a "richer food" than an LP, and feel less desire for repetition after listening to a song. I used to play songs over multiple times, not so often now.
Also, I am now so accustomed to the audiovisual package that I don't often listen with eyes shut today, something I did as an almost religious experience when I was younger. (Hmm, I should do myself a favour and do this more often).
So there is a smaller proportion of music being made today that is complete as an audio only package.
More music today is designed to accompany visuals, dancing or social dynamics. In a way we are returning to the pre-recording era, when the sound was only disembodied from accompanying visuals through selective attention or barriers, eg. curtains, crowds.
You could say that music itself was promoted from accompanist to soloist from the 30s to 70s, when vinyl was king. That period saw the flowering of many great jazz and rock artists and styles through the 30s to the 70s. There were always visuals - the look of a band and LP covers, but visuals were less intrinsic than today.
So music videos in the 80s music once again demoted music to an accompanist role in the world. All aspects of modern music that I deem as negative probably stem from this situation. That's to be expected, given the above.
Sorry everyone about the digression, Todd just got me thinking.
I don't know much about teaching drums, but as a former workplace trainer, I can be sure that today's teachers have many resources to choose from that the old teachers would have loved to have had at their disposal, and no doubt many of inferior quality, like everything on the web - the good, the bad and the ugly.
That means today's teachers need a new skill - to be able to sift through the vast range of teaching resources online and apply them to advantage in aiding students' progress. No doubt easier said than done.