Re: [microsound] death of monoculture

[Damian Stewart <damian@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Ken Restivo wrote:
> The implied expansion to that is: which ones are going to be worth the
> download *to you*.
>
> What's worth a download to you may not be worth a download to me, or
> millions of other people. And what's worth a doanload to millions of
> people is almost certainly not worth a download to me (and probably not
> to you either).
>
> This is where monoculture falls down. Monoculture would work great if
> humans were a monoculture too. But we're not. Tastes are as varied as
> individuals. A monoculture assumes-- nay, demands-- that we all like, or
> at least tolerate, the same things.

this sentiment, i am uneasy with.

by assuming that we listen to music as individuals, it objectifies music. 
it turns it into these precisely defined units that we can consume based on 
conscious choices we have made as rational agents living in a world of 
individuals.

but this isn't how i do music. for me music is as much social as it is 
personal. music is more than just sounds - music is sounds that are shared 
between humans. when i listen to music, i like to think that the music i am 
listening to is being enjoyed by people other than myself and the musician. 
i want to believe i'm not alone in listening to this.

(i'd like to qualify here, that i'm not talking about the world of 
commercialised pop musical units - like i said earlier, i think several 
monocultures, perhaps overlapping, would be better - but 
hyper-individualism such as we are operating under now is too far in the 
other direction.)

yes, we do all have our separate tastes, but i believe it is one of the 
skills of a good musician to be able to speak to many different people's 
tastes at the same time. perhaps i'm being romantic but i believe that by 
listening to music that really speaks to many different people, i can learn 
a thing or two about myself, and about other people, and about my 
connection to other people. by just listening to what floats my boat and 
not to anything else, i can't. it may sound corny but i learnt a lot about 
how different people operate by learning to love Radiohead (which i used to 
despise, for all the wrong reasons). and i learnt a lot about what makes 
people happy and laid back in the summer by listening to dub (and no, it's 
not (just) marijuana (j/k)).

i don't want to listen to something that is just beautiful - i want to 
listen to something that is beautiful that other people also find 
beautiful. ideally lots of other people. then i can feel connected to other 
people, and then i can feel i can more operate like the kind of 
over-evolved social monkey that, at the root, we all are.

d
--
damian stewart | +31 6 5902 5782 |  damian@xxxxxxxxxx
frey | live art with machines | http://www.frey.co.nz

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