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Music technology
- 1. All eras inpop music are golden ages, or will be looked upon as such by the only generation that matters at any given time. Not only are all ages in chart pop equal, chart pop never changes, it only appears to change on its surface level.… The emotional appetite that chart pop satisfies is constant. The hunger is forever. What does change is the technology this is always on the march. KLF(1988) Popular Music: The Means of Production
- 2. ‘ Sacred Music’ ‘Court Music’ ‘Dance Music’ ‘Folk Music’ “ Listening’ to music...hearing sonic information abstracted from the condition of its production was among one of the 20th century’s most characteristic practices -and it was a new experience .” Blake (2007)
- 3. “ (Music) couldonly happen live, leaving no trace of its presence beyond the score..or the memories of performers and listeners.” Blake (2007) ‘ High’ Culture ‘Popular Culture’
- 4. “ These devicesprovided for the first time a record, a repeatable trace of the same performance .” Blake (2007) Recording Technologies and ‘The Listener’
- 5. During the 19thCentury the piano was a major entertainment medium. The new technologies of player piano rolls and sheet music sold by music publishers brought amateur pianists, guitarists and vocalists in-home entertainment. ‘ Globalised’ Music and ‘Tin Pan Alley’ 1892 - The first "million-seller" song hit (sold via sheet music)
- 6. “ Music wasmade into an object for sale . It was, in other words, ‘commodified’…this often involved structural alterations to the music itself.” Blake (2007) 1877 - Edison invents the cylinder "phonograph” 1887 - Emile Berliner invents the flat record player ("gramophone")
- 7. “ The technologiesof radio broadcasting and sound recording, in separating the listener from the musical practitioner, helped create a new skill- that of listening without visual stimulus…” Blake (2007) 1897- Marconi granted first British patent for wireless telegraphy. 1920 - US Commercial Radio broadcasting begins. 1922- First BBC broadcasts.
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- 9. Home Recording -The Mix Tape - Personal Sound Environment
- 10. Digital Media -Ripping - Burning - ‘Loss of Aura’- DIY
- 11. The (Late) arrivalof Global Music Television
- 12. MP3 - PTP-Napster-Bittorrent - DRM - iTunes
- 13. MP3 Player- iPod-Smart Phones - PDAs - WiFi
- 14. Web 2.0: The Law of unintended consequences
- 15. From ‘Taste-makers’ to‘Tags’
- 16. Beyond the genderedlistener?
- 17. Subcultures, YouthTribes and ‘ Tag Clouds’
- 18. New platforms:SNS,Wikis &the Blogosphere
- 19. YouTube: Every musicvideo & every concert-forever?
- 20. Social Music: Beat the playlist / Kill the DJ?
- 21. The ‘Blogosphere’- True PTP?
- 22. Spotify: beginningof the end, or end of the beginning?
- 23. Warp:Aphex Twin http://www.warprecords.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Az_7U0-cK0
- 24. Kill Rock Stars:Gossip http://www.killrockstars.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opWBRRCTDXg
- 25. The Culture Industry:Enlightenment as Mass Deception Films, radio and magazines make up a system which is uniform as a whole and in every part… are one in their enthusiastic obedience to the rhythm of the iron system…any trace of spontaneity from the public in official broadcasting is controlled and absorbed by talent scouts, studio competitions and official programs of every kind selected by professionals. Talented performers belong to the industry long before it displays them; otherwise they would not be so eager to fit in. The attitude of the public, which ostensibly and actually favours the system of the culture industry, is a part of the system and not an excuse for it. Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer (1944)
- 26. The Work ofArt in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space , its unique existence at the place where it happens to be... technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself ... The cathedral leaves its locale to be received in the studio of a lover of art; the choral production, performed in an auditorium or in the open air, resounds in the drawing room. The situations into which the product of mechanical reproduction can be brought may not touch the actual work of art, yet the quality of its presence is always depreciated. Walter Benjamin (1936)
- 27. Williams v Mcluhan: Remediation & Technological Determinism Our culture conceives of each medium or constellation of media as it responds to, redeploys, competes with, and reforms other media. In the first instance, we may think of something like a historical progression, of newer media remediating older ones and in particular of digital media remediating their predecessors. Bolter and Grusin(1999)
- 28. … after morethan a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned. Rapidly, we approach the final phase of the extensions of man—the technological simulation of consciousness, when the creative process of knowing will be collectively and corporately extended to the whole of human society. Marshall Mcluhan: Techno enthusiast?
- 29. The physical factof instant transmission has been uncritically raised to a social fact, without any pause to notice that virtually all such transmission is at once selected and controlled by existing social authorities. McLuhan, of course, would apparently do away with all such controls; . . . But the technical abstractions, in their unnoticed projections into social models, have the effect of cancelling all attention to existing and developing (and already challenged) communications institutions. If the effect of the medium is the same, whoever controls or uses it, and whatever apparent content he may try to insert, then we can forget ordinary political and cultural argument and let the technology run itself. It is hardly surprising that this conclusion has been welcomed by the "media-men" of the existing institutions. It gives the gloss of avant-garde theory to the crudest versions of their existing interests and practices, and assigns all their critics to pre-electronic irrelevance. Raymond Williams (1974) Raymond Williams : Techno pessimist?
- 30. Media Studies 2.0David Gauntlett
- 31. A tendency tofetishize ‘experts’,whose readings of popular culture are seen as more significant than those of other audience members Media Studies 1.0 Media Studies 2.0 A focus on the everyday meanings produced by the diverse array of audience members
- 32. A tendency tocelebrate certain key texts produced by powerful media industries The optional extra of giving attention to famous ‘avant garde’ works produced by ‘artists’ Media Studies 1.0 Media Studies 2.0 An interest in the massive l ong tail of independent media projects such as those found on YouTube and many other web sites, mobile devices,and other forms of DIY media;
- 33. A belief thatstudents should be taught how to ‘r ead ’ the media in an appropriate ’c ritical ’ style Media Studies 1.0 Media Studies 2.0 The patronizing belief that students should be taught how to ‘r ead ’ the media is replaced by the recognition that media audiences in general are already extremely capable interpreters of media content
- 34. A focus ontraditional media produced by major broadcasters, publishers, and movie studios,accompanied (ironically) by a critical resistance to big media institutions, such as Rupert Murdoch ’s News International, but no particular idea about what the alternatives might be; Media Studies 1.0 Media Studies 2.0 Conventional concerns with power and politics are reworked in recognition of these points, so that the notion of super-powerful media industries invading the minds of a relatively passive population is compelled to recognize and address the context of more widespread creation and participation.
- 35. Vague recognition ofthe internet and new digital media, as an ‘a dd on ’ to the traditional media (to be dealt with in one self-contained segment tacked onto a Media Studies teaching module, book or degree); Media Studies 1.0 Media Studies 2.0 The view of the internet and new digital media as an ‘o ptional extra ’ is correspondingly replaced with recognition that they have fundamentally changed the ways in which we engage with all media
- 36. A preference forconventional research methods where most people are treated as non-expert audience ‘r eceivers ’, or, if they are part of the formal media industries, as expert ‘p roducers ’. Media Studies 1.0 Media Studies 2.0 Conventional research methods are replaced …by new methods which recognize and make use of people ’s own creativity, and brush aside the outmoded notions of ‘r eceiver ’ audiences and elite ‘p roducers’
- 37. All eras inpop music are golden ages, or will be looked upon as such by the only generation that matters at any given time. Not only are all ages in chart pop equal, chart pop never changes, it only appears to change on its surface level.… The emotional appetite that chart pop satisfies is constant. The hunger is forever. What does change is the technology this is always on the march. KLF(1988) Popular Music: The Means of Production
Editor's Notes
- #2 This quotation from the 1980s ''zenanarchist' music collective KLF reminds the media teacher who tackles the topic of Popular Music of two very important 'facts'- that pop music is (or was until recently) generational contested and that it has been in a state of constant technological and economic change for as long as it has existed. The KLF manual “HOW TO HAVE A NUMBER ONE THE EASY WAY” is a good point of departure for research into how the music industry worked prior to the emergence of e-media. Q: Read The KLF Manual, What has changed for the aspiring pop star since 1988? What (if anything) remains the same? Can you think of modern artists who have achieved fame by methods not available in1988??
- #3 “ Listening’ to music...hearing sonic information abstracted from the condition of its production was among one of the 20th century’s most characteristic practices -and it was a new experience.”Blake (2007) The technology of recording music appeared at the end of the Victorian era. Before that time music was never 'personal', it was tied to a public place and social occasion. Sacred music was heard in a church (and only within the context of a service or ritual). The rich had access to 'Court' music, played at social functions. This secular music was the origin of what became 'Classical' music. The 'pop' music of the 16th-18th centuries was in the form of Dance music and Ballads .These were played in venues such as taverns. Live music was very important in all walks of life. Q: If you had no personal music player, where would you her 'live' music? What venues exist locally for live music?
- #4 “ (Music) could only happen live, leaving no trace of its presence beyond the score..or the memories of performers and listeners.” Blake (2007)As time went on, and populations grew, these mediaeval musical forms developed to be played to larger audiences. The emerging middle classes wanted their own 'court music' and began to patronize 'Classical' music and Opera. Concert halls were built by income from subscription. The working classes also had access to there own musical venues such as Music Halls. Music was changing, it was more secular and commercial, but it was still very much in 'the public sphere'. ‘Commercial’ or 'popular' music tended to be looked down upon by 'cultured' people. In countries such as the USA there was also a racial divide. Later writers from the 'Frankfurt school' saw the new 'mass produced’ forms of music as being inferior. Q: Is there some 'popular' music that you think is 'bad taste'? Or of poor quality? Is there a hidden Class or Racial issue in what is seen as 'good music'? Does 'good music' make an audience work harder to appreciate it?
- #5 “ These devices provided for the first time a record, a repeatable trace of the same performance.” Blake (2007) For most of the medieval period music was an oral (or aural) tradition circulated from musician to musician. The first 'recording device' was musical notation, which was developed by the Church in order to disseminate standardize musical composition and performance. Music scores were circulated in manuscript form only until Guttenberg's printing press began to make sheet music more widely available. Q: How do the musicians in the class learn music? By ear? From a song book? Using 'Tabs' downloaded from the internet?
- #6 In 1892 the first "million-seller" song was sold as sheet music. New copyright laws and new printing technology made sheet music cheap and profitable to produce. During the 19th Century the mass produced upright piano was a major entertainment medium. The new technologies of player piano rolls and sheet music sold by music publishers brought amateur pianists, guitarists and vocalists in-home entertainment. By the 1920s 'Tin Pan Alley' , fueled by a worldwide interest in Ragtime and Jazz, was established as an international popular music 'factory'. Outside the parlour, sheet music also allowed 'bands' to play songs written and arranged by popular music 'star' song-writers.
- #7 “ Music was made into an object for sale. It was, in other words, ‘commodified’…this often involved structural alterations to the music itself.” Blake (2007) The new 'record industry' immediately began to change the way that music was played and circulated. 'Stars' such as Caruso and Melba became internationally famous. “Folk' musical traditions faced mass extinction as amateur musicians abandoned their instruments. Music began to be written and played in order to be recorded. Musicians and performers became the new stars, equaling and eventually eclipsing the star composers and song writers of the previous generation.
- #8 “ The technologies of radio broadcasting and sound recording, in separating the listener from the musical practitioner, helped create a new skill- that of listening without visual stimulus…” Blake (2007) The Gramophone froze a 'live' performance in time and made it infinitely repeatable. It was however a 'souvenir' of a 'real event'. Radio brought something else; it gave an illusion of live performance for an individual 'listener'. Early radio sets could only be listened to through ear-phones, increasing the isolation of the listener. The radio was the very first broadcast medium, and like the internet it was international as well as local. Radio also allowed the music industry to expand even further as a consumer could now 'try before they buy' without a trip to the record shop. Q:How much radio do you listen to? Where & When? What radio stations/programmes reflect your taste in music? What do you think of the 'playlist'? Do you follow 'The Charts?'
- #9 Technology also changes musical instruments and performance. The microphone made vocal 'crooning' and low volume instruments such as the guitar audible. Acoustic instruments became electric and new electric instruments began to be invented. Synthesizers, Samplers and DJ Decks all changed live performance whilst the multitrack recording studio became a compositional tool in its own right. Finally computer MIDI sequencers brought the power of all these new sounds to every desktop. Q: What is the 'unplugged' sound of your favourite musical artist? Could they perform without technological aids/ what are the ethics of the treated 'tuned' voice? Which instruments do you recognize? What impact did they have on music?
- #10 Magnetic tape only became available in the 1950s. In the 1960s it had a huge impact on the recording industry. In the 1970s the cassette tape brought 'home recording' to the masses. It was feared that the technology would kill the record industry. The 'Ghetto Blaster’ made the technology portable, but it was the Sony walkman that invented a totally new mode of listening. The personal music player was born. Q: Who has a 'personal music player'? What percentage of your listening time do you spend with it? What other music players do you use? Do you listen to a' personal playlist','shuffle' or do you listen to 'albums'?
- #11 The 1980s brought the first digital format- The Compact Disc. Sold (erroneously) as a higher quality format the digital format was soon 'ripped' by the newly emerging home PC. Arguably the 'Album' suffered a huge loss of 'Aura' (see Walter Benjamin) as the 12 inch vinyl disk with cardboard gatefold sleeves was replaced by a piece of plasticized foil in a badly designed case. Home consumers could now both 'steal' prerecorded music and make their own CDs to the same quality. The 'DIY' era of 'indie' music exploited the4 new format. New bands now made 'demo' CDs for their fans before they 'got a record deal’. The mainstay of the record industry becomes 'the twenty/fifty quid bloke' who buys 'back catalogue' or classic rock. CDs also kill the 'single'. Q: Do you 'Rip' CDs? Do you buy CDs? How many? Have you made your own 'Demo' CD? Is your Dad a 'twenty (or fifty) quid bloke'?
- #12 Because of the need to attract 'mainstream' (not teenage) audiences, terrestrial TV never gave much time to Pop Music. Satellite TV brought MTV which had a brief and spectacular flowering in the 1980s. The expectation that MTV launched- that every band should have a video -was arguably fulfilled only when 'Youtube' appeared. Arguably Youtube has had as much impact as the iPod. Q: Do you watch a TV Music channel? Which one?
- #13 The MP3 format compressed music to a small enough size so that PTP (peer-to-peer) files could be exchanged over the internet. Napster arguably 'broke the system' by encouraging wide scale 'piracy' Napster's illegal offspring still exist and it also provided the template for the legitimate music download sites, notably 'iTunes'. iTunes has been allowed to exist by the record industry because it uses the 'controversial' DRM (digital rights management) The MP3 player becomes the major music platform with the bipod as the dominant brand. In the US, iTunes now sells more music tracks than 'Wal-Mart'. Q: Do you have an iPod'? Do you 'Rip' for it? Do you use legal download sites? Which ones? Do you download 'free' music? Where from? Do downloading ‘pirate’ copies make you more or less likely to buy music? Do you download stuff you don't listen to? Have you 'fallen foul' of DRM?
- #14 As the iPod becomes nearly ubiquitous, music becomes 'multi platform’ (will one format win?) A battle hots up between different portable devices. As Digital Radio fails to take off, WiFi becomes almost universal. The iPhone gives 'free' unlimited iTunes. The 'free media' expectation makes it hard for copyright owners and communications companies to charge for services. Q: Do you have a 'Smartphone' or listen to music on anything other than a dedicated MP3 player?
- #15 Web 2.0 was allowed by the emergence of 'Google' (Search Engine) Applications cited as 'Web 2.0' include: Social Networking sites such as MySpace User Generated Content sites such as: YouTube and Flickr New participative media forms such as Web logs, Podcasts and Wikis Google tends to 'level the playing field' and reduce the power of 'Big Brands' in the face of a massive boost in the importance of 'Word of Mouth' or 'The Wisdom of the Crowd' (see 'Technorati'). These new applications arguably challenge the Media Industry at every level: Regulation & Control (How do I protect my Copyright?) Finance (How do I get people to pay for stuff?) Production (How can I make a living as a media producer when everyone's doing it?) Distribution (Where has the audience gone?) This is without even considering how technologies such as Bittorrent and High Speed Broadband will impact on established distribution media such as TV and DVD.
- #16 The 'directories' or 'canon' (taxonomy) and the musical genre categories produced by 'experts' such as music critics, A&R men and Djs are being supplanted by the Web 2.0 practice of 'tagging' ("folksonomy") Tagging automates 'the wisdom of the crowd'. The tag like 'the wiki' irritates professional taste makers precisely because it replaces them so well. Q: Draw a 'Tag Cloud' for your own musical tastes; by artist and by genre. Compare your clouds with your neighbours. Whose recommendations would you follow?
- #17 'Tech' products (Black goods) are traditionally favoured by Males. 'Utility' products (White goods) tend to be favoured by Women. Portable technologies seem to be 'gender neutral' or even slightly 'feminized’ Q: Have you noticed any difference in the way that Men and Women use portable music players? (Are girls more likely to share music with friends? Are boys more likely to impose their tastes on others?)
- #18 Since the 1950s musical taste has helped define 'youth tribes' or subcultures. Do the post internet youth tribes still define themselves through music? Does the internet offer new opportunities for tribal differentiation? Or has music become more to do with personal taste than tribal affiliation? Have a look at C4's Youth Tribe site and the Anthony Liekens Tag blog.Q: What 'Tribe' are you? Tribes QuizDo you recognize the music which is associated with each one?
- #20 Youtube is one of the runaway successes of Web 2.0. It uses as much internet bandwidth as the whole internet did in 2001. Much of the most popular files on Youtube are pop music related, most are amateur but many are copyrighted. Youtube and Viacom are about to go to court. Is this a landmark case like Napster v Metallica? Music Videos such as 'OK go's' famous treadmill sequence now have more cultural impact that MTV. Youtube is commonly used as a music channel and as a source of music downloads. Q: Have you got sympathy with Viacom's case? Do you 'listen' to Youtube? Do you watch bands on Youtube before seeing them live? Have you made a band video? Have you 'mashed up' an existing song with your own video?
- #21 Using ‘Tags’, sites such as LastFM produce personalized 'music radio ' that both caters for the user's tastes and offers suggestions for new choices. Commercially this opens up the 'long tail' that was discovered by Amazon. Social Music sites could offer an eclectic alternative to the mainstream. Economically such sites could provide many independent artists with (small) incomes (rather than large incomes for very few artists) the experience of 'iTunes' however seems to indicate that 'the long tail' can often disappear once a site becomes very popular. The mainstream (commercially marketable) artists reassert themselves. Arguably the lack of ‘expert’ taste-makers makes tag based music sites random and unsatisfying.Q: Do you use a Social Music Site? Do you actually make links with other users? How 'eclectic' are you, do you listen to a lot of the same kind of music- or look to widen your range?
- #22 Sites such as 'Hypemachine' aim to reintroduce 'expertise' through the use of 'Music Bloggers'. Music blogs are also the source of an astounding quantity of 'free' music, which may be the main appeal to the users. A&R men in record companies are also combing the blogs for the 'next big thing'. The 'blogosphere' seems to be the new form of journalism in the field of music, just as it is in other cultural fields. May we soon see the musical equivalent of 'The Drudge report' or 'Ain't it cool'?Q: Do you visit music blogs? Do you read them- or do you just download? Do you 'blog'? Do you read 'blogs' about anything else apart from music? What makes a GENUINE blog (and when do corporations try and use blogging for there own ends)?
- #23 The new application Spotify makes a large proportion of the 'back catalogue' and the newest releases instantly and freely available.When combined with 'WiFi' and an iPhone or similar device, does this make the CD (and even the MP3 and the iPod) redundant?
- #26 Marxist cultural critics from the 'Frankfurt School' were amongst the first media theorists to write seriously about popular culture (including music). Adorno and Horkheimer saw popular music as fatally compromised by its industrialized commercial nature.
- #27 Walter Benjamin was also part of the Frankfurt school. He was not as disgusted by popular culture as Adorno & Horkheimer (he liked Jazz and Movies) but he agreed that 'mass production' changed the nature of 'art' by stripping it of its 'aura'.
- #28 One of the big controversies in looking at 'new media' is how the 'new' has an effect on the 'old'. This idea of 'remediation' has two articulate champions with two very different points of view.
- #29 McLuhan was a 'techno optimist' who believed that remediation increased human capacity in an almost organic way.…after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned. Rapidly, we approach the final phase of the extensions of man—the technological simulation of consciousness, when the creative process of knowing will be collectively and corporately extended to the whole of human society.
- #30 Raymond Williams 'Father of British Cultural Studies' took a more pragmatic/pessimistic (and Marxist) view.
- #31 David Gauntlet has made a very important recent contribution to the 'new media' debate'. He argues that Media Studies needs to radically change to reflect the world of Web 2.0. Many of his arguments are very applicable to 'e-music'