Free Falling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZhMe7MDWvM
Good song, good singer, and the simple, barren visuals worked for me. But beyond the emotional impact of the music, it got me thinking about the interaction of technology and musical performance.
Consider a classical acoustic guitar. It's a serious technological artifact, requiring craftsmanship, woodworking tools, a range of materials, etc. Doubtless there were old-school bronze age poets who derided such newfangled inventions as too easy, too artificial compared to the unaided human voice.
Can such an instrument be considered more meaningful, more authentic than a 1950's electric guitar, or a 1970's Moog synthesizer, or a 2007 Nintendo handheld with Jam Sessions music software?
If I was choosing equipment for a long space mission, surely the Nintendo DS is the least massive and most flexible instrument of the lot.
In a hundred years, it may be that the new pop songs are generated by a mind-reading electrode hat on the musician's head, or even genetically evolved for each listener with an intelligent feedback loop; so that each time you hear a song, it speaks to you more strongly.
Is it still music?
Good song, good singer, and the simple, barren visuals worked for me. But beyond the emotional impact of the music, it got me thinking about the interaction of technology and musical performance.
Consider a classical acoustic guitar. It's a serious technological artifact, requiring craftsmanship, woodworking tools, a range of materials, etc. Doubtless there were old-school bronze age poets who derided such newfangled inventions as too easy, too artificial compared to the unaided human voice.
Can such an instrument be considered more meaningful, more authentic than a 1950's electric guitar, or a 1970's Moog synthesizer, or a 2007 Nintendo handheld with Jam Sessions music software?
If I was choosing equipment for a long space mission, surely the Nintendo DS is the least massive and most flexible instrument of the lot.
In a hundred years, it may be that the new pop songs are generated by a mind-reading electrode hat on the musician's head, or even genetically evolved for each listener with an intelligent feedback loop; so that each time you hear a song, it speaks to you more strongly.
Is it still music?