sea of homogeneity

[Kim Cascone <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> no, neither would I.  my point is that the "sea of laptop homogeneity"
> is there, not that it's there because of laptops.

this 'sea of homogeneity' has been a part of all musical genres...as an
example, look at the entertainment section of your local weekly paper and
take notice all the bands that are sweating it for a label deal or fame...it
never goes away and is exacerbated by a consumerist economy whose top
entertainment media is now 'Reality TV'...the laptop medium is possibly more
rife with homogeneity because of the method of production and distribution
(computer/internet) made more noticeable  by its presence and
availability...but I do know that when I was running Silent Records back in
the 90's I had accumulated 5 or 6 large U-Haul boxes of demo tapes and CD's
of people making anything from children's zydeco to industrial
flamenco...and this is not even the tip of the iceberg...imagine what Mille
Plateaux or Warp must see on a weekly basis...
also, I like this quote and feel it explains a lot:

> "This is all part of the Big Flip in publishing generally, where the old
> notion of "filter, then publish" is giving way to "publish, then filter."
> - Clay Shirky

with the advent of mp3's and CDR's anyone can now be a 'record label' which
pushes the task of filtering on to the general public... 

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