Future of Microsound: Disposable?

[Joseph Siemion <jsiemion@xxxxxxxx>]

hi all -

Joshua Maremount wrote:

> which the tools of production formerly restrictly to
> professionals are 
> suddenly in our own hands, and in such a situation
> the temporal distance 
> between the composition and the release of music
> becomes far shorter.  Is 
> it a coincidence that in these days of highspeed
> downloads and instant CD 
> pressings the cycles of musical styles are
> increasingly narrowly and 
> rigidly formulated, as if engineered for their own
> cultural 
> obsolescence? > 

this post was enlightening, bringing up many good points
and warning signs with respect to a 'microsound future'.

one thing that both disturbs and intrigues me about this genre
is its parallel course with consumer society. 

for the purpose of this post, consumer society has two aspects
that are useful to this argument: disposibility, consumption.

does anyone get the sense that much of what is called 'microsound' music
is disposable? a track is interesting to hear once, to experience the
sounds, frequencies, god forbid, maybe emotions once, but then
you don't desire really to hear it again.  sometimes because the 
frequencies disturb your ears or sometimes just because it does not
move you enough to pop it into the cd player again. 
i have the sense that this maybe so (assuming so far you agree) due to
the
fact that everyone does have access to the tools and the trade. 
not only this, but who doesnt want their name packaged neatly on a cd?
its so easy now (relatively speaking), that perhaps there is just too
much
of it. (i know this line of argumentation is not new, but bear with me)

micosounders strike me as extraordinary consumers. we are mostly
white males (id venture more so than any other genre!) and have some
degree of affluence. we have enough disposable income to consume vast
quantities of cds.  we find meaning and purpose and interest in these
shiny
disks with the neat labeling. i get the sense that the whole package of a
cd
or record is just as or maybe even more important than what it contains.
that
if artist x, whose cd is well received with the microsound community,
were on 
a blank tape or just sitting out there in cyberspace on some server with
no 
graphics attached to
the file and/or no name behind it, it would not even be noticed. it may
even be
thought of as badly done with out the package. 
 hence, the importance of the packaging, vital importance.
 i would further think this not the case with a well written pop/rock
song, so
that this phenomenon, this importance of the 'package', the consumer
good,
is of particular importance with this genre.  

and if you can sympathize so far with this point of view, you can see why
the 
music may seem disposable, created quickly as a piece of art to be
experienced
once or twice, consumed, then quickly disposed of, which in this case
translates as
listening to once or twice, but still having the nice looking and obscure
(obscurity
= value here) commodity on the shelf.

i was curious if anyone else on this list felt this way at times or had
analyzed
the socio-historical-economic background of microsound, laptop, glitch
music.
its hard to analyze because we are 'in' it. im sure what im saying is not
new or
novel, but this is my first post to the list and i submit humbly and
expect some
major disagreements from many of you.

incidentally, some things i feel are quite good, excellent, in fact, are
steve roden's 
the 'radio' and 'view', i think its called, the lowercase comp has some
excellent tracks
and some of b. guenters and 12ks tracks certainly do not fall into the
disposable
realm. and there are many others which there is no time or room to
mention...

may this post find you with a smile on your face and leave you likewise,
j siemion