Re: [microsound] white middle class music

[Andrew Duke Cognition Audioworks <andrewduke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Kim Cascone wrote:

>>there is not much freedom of choice either. what you can find on the p2p ne=
>>tworks is mostly only stuff that interest white middle-class youth in the U=
>>S and maybe europe. the ones that get their bandwidth usage paid by mom and=
>>dad. I tried finding even the most interesting artists from a selection of=
>>countries around the world and they are just not available.=20
>>    
>>
>
>% I would have to disagree somewhat with this comment...while the 'digital
>divide' .possibly. privileges white middle class kids - brandishing
>computers and internet connections paid for by mom and dad - there is also a
>lot of non-white music (music made by musicians who are not white) to be
>found...so while it might be mostly white kids who are file trading (which I
>am not so sure of) there is a wealth of diverse musical styles to be found
>via p2p...
>  
>
Emailing from Canada, I disagree as well with the "US and maybe Europe 
reference".  I use mass transit
at least twice a day, don't have a car so walk otherwise, live in a 
community with 6 schools (3 of them
within sight of my front door), and on a street with constant pedestrian 
traffic (the majority of which is youth:
going to school, coming home for lunch, going back to school, coming 
back home, hanging out after school,
etc) and thus I figure I'm a good witness:  as soon as they hit their 
teens, kids here are never without a)
a portable CD/MP3 player and b) a cellphone.  And I see them changing 
their CDs (while sitting with
them on the bus) and 99% of the time they're playing compilation CDRs 
they've made, the majority
of which is p2p (answer songs, bootlegs, mashups, remixes, etc that 
haven't been released).  Nova Scotia
has Canada's largest black population, the majority of whom are living 
in the same municapality as me
(the Halifax Regional Municipality), so I'm not just seeing white kids, 
I'm seeing an equal number of
black kids as well.  Unlike provinces like Ontario, Nova Scotia does not 
have a lot of wealth and many
people here, unfortunately, live below the poverty line (I'm not going 
to rant here about the government's
contribution to this as I do that often enough in my music).  I've 
toured all over Canada and there is not,
despite the lack of wealth here compared to other provinces in Canada, 
less kids with CD/MP3 players
and cellphones here.  Perhaps it happens someplaces, but here, kids want 
the technology and its "benefits"
and get it as best they can in whatever way they can.  So it is not 
uncommon to hear kids talking about
which library or workplace or school has a burner and an ability to 
download ie they're not doing this
on mom and dad's $.  And I mention cellphones because their ubiquity and 
omnipresence here never
ceases to amaze me:  there is no class divide here with cellphone use ie 
the rich people here might
be using their cellphone whilst driving an expensive car, but the 
poorest people here, though not
driving an expensive car, or maybe not even driving a car at all, still 
have cellphones.  There is a
Sunday night soupkitchen every week in Halifax and my fiance and I once 
(about a month ago) got on the bus a couple of
stops before the stop in front of the soup kitchen.  When those 
attending the soupkitchen (it had
just ended) got on the bus, sure enough, these people who had to rely on 
a soupkitchen to help
feed themselves, they too had cellphones.  And it's not their mom and 
dad's paying the $ for them;
how do people keep their cellphones with no income? Simple, they just 
find the plan that requires
no money down and then use it up and then switch to a new one.  This too 
is something the kids
talk about on the bus; last time I was on the bus, a girl was talking 
nonchalantly about her 3 cellphones!
And nope, she wasn't having them paid for by mom and dad, in fact she 
was worried her parents
were going to find out about them!  So, at least in my experience here 
in Halifax NS Canada,
the urge to use technology--P2P and cellphones as well in this case--has 
no geographical, color, or
income divides.  My CDN .02. Andrew Duke :)  PS Future collaborative 
album I'm working on
with a fellow listmember may be called "My Cellphone Is Smaller Than Yours".

-- 
Jason Trenholm was born 31 August 1969 and died 1 January 2004.  
We met when we were 5 years old; he was my best friend for the next 29 years.*****
Andrew Duke releases out now: 
Take Nothing For Granted http://cognitionaudioworks.com
Environmental Politics http://and-oar.org
Sprung http://bip-hop.com *Canadian electronica album of the year nominee*
More Destructive Than Organized http://staalplaat.com
Highest Common Denominator http://pieheadrecords.com
Physical and Mental Health http://dialrecords.com
74'02 (split with Hypo) http://tsunami-addiction.com
http://cognitionaudioworks.com