Phase 1: The disruptive force of digital technology, especially the internet (and in particular Social Media), transformed the way we created, consumed and interacted with music.
Phase 2: That change in how we interact with music is completely changing the nature of the music itself.
We just finished phase 1.
It would be interesting to trace back how music changed with recording and how that influenced the way we listen to music. Live music vs recorded music.. today it's digital technology!
Posted by: Dalia | 07 December 2009 at 00:06
Might I disagree?
1. is digital technology disruptive? I doubt it. Transformational, possibly. Alterational (if I may be permitted that abomination of a word), certainly. Musicians still play music as they did, listeners still listen to it... sure there are new means of doing so, new ways to disseminate music, new ways to encourage audiences and so on, but I don't see that any of this is disruptive.
[I would agree that analogue technology was transformational - allowing recording to happen in the first place. The new digital technology, allowing different distribution, different recording methods etc is really just a development of that, nothing is really changed, it's just tweaked and refined. But even analogue technology wasn't disruptive as such - the music making carried on as before, but with a new side to it.]
2. Since I'm arguing that there isn't really any big change, it follow that I disagree that such a change would fundamentally change the music itself.
I posit that music doesn't really change in nature - it develops, matures, alters, shifts... Newer, more efficient means of digital distribution (for example) will have an effect on perceptions and listening habits, perhaps popularising Eastern traditional music rather than the Western classical canon in Europe, or other such examples - but all the same, the music itself has been shifting and evolving for centuries, and that's not something which any bit of technology is likely to have any major profound effect on.
AVI
Posted by: AVI | 17 December 2009 at 09:50