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Re: [microsound] (ot) (Slightly) Politics + electronic Music




> I have been arguing of
> late that the desktop musician is the closest thing to true democracy in
> music.  I posit that anyone with a small amount of money can create, record,
> distribute and promote from the very same box for far cheaper than doing
> things in a non-digital way, with better results.

you're describing the creation and distribution of musical product.
but seperately, the qualities of the actual music itself - the musical
organizational principles used to make it - can be an analogy for some type
of political structure.

recently i realized the political content inherent in [laugh if you must]
Sly + the Family Stone's "Stand!". the 'vibe' of the music is communal,
egalitarian, inclusive, engaged, and fueled with May '68-style righteous
anger. but more important: the actual musical structures and arrangements -
the way ensemble plays together - reflects the same attitudes: an
indefinably large group of individuals work together in a way that furthers
their common goal, within a loose framework that supports each member's free
impulses and best efforts. "from each according to ability, to each
according to need." the utopian socialist ideal, boom-lacka-lacka-lacka.

in comparison, lone microsound auteurs seem disengaged/uncommitted/elitist.
staring at laptops == very much like staring at navels.