Re: [microsound] being 'political' in non-verbal music

[Damian Stewart <damian@xxxxxxxxxx>]

tobias c. van Veen wrote:

> If one were to broadcast at extremely high volume piercing sinewaves in a
> centre of a citycore, the polis would evacuate if nothing could be done
> about it.

Although isn't this more a matter of performance than of composition? 
The same piece at lower volume wouldn't have nearly the same effect.

You could achieve the same thing with a piece of techno music. Hell, you 
could do the same with a piece of pop. I know which would drive me out 
faster.

In this instance I think it is nothing inherent in the music itself, it 
is in the performance of the music, specifically the volume of the 
performance. By being very bloody loud you are making a political 
statement just like that. It really doesn't matter what you are being 
loud /with/.

I spent a little while in Indonesia, and it became apparent to my friend 
after a while (he shared this revelation with me and it seems to make 
sense) that having a big stereo was a status symbol over there for the 
very reason that you could make louder noise than your neighbour. 
Universally, car stereos, ghettoblasters, and shop radios were turned up 
FULL VOLUME, no matter how difficult it made it to talk, or how 
distorted they were. If you could play it loud, then show it off.

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