The Sony Walkman story
p2pnet.net News:- Writing about a new book in the Toronto Star here, Greg Quill says Bhesham Sharma, a musicologist at University of Western Ontario and author of Music And Culture In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction, points out that Marshall McLuhan observed 50 years ago that the more technology humans use, the more isolated they become.
The book is Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of The Sony Walkman by Paul du Gay, Stuart Hall, Linda Janes, Hugh Mackay and Keith Negus and Quill, quoting Sharma, says theWalkman is a "remarkably alienating device whose key effect was to change music from a communal event to a personal experience.
"Because music resides in the cognitive faculties of the individual, it provides the means to construct a customized soundscape that can inspire the listener, trigger all kinds of sensations at will in an environment that shuts out the world. In fact, the world is at odds with the user."
Because the Walkman … facilitates the enhancement of the user’s emotional life, it acts as a kind of "musical perfume that keeps out the noises of the real world and "may also have changed popular music itself over the years, Sharma believes, says Quill.
"All music has a shelf life, and its appeal, though profound at first, dissipates with the intense scrutiny and overexposure that personal listening devices allow.
" ‘Overexposure contributes to a dissociation between music and emotional responses to the music. As a consequence, clichés of style start to be eliminated in the production of music, but what disappears first are the emotional and aesthetic elements, not the rhythmic and atonal qualities. In the production of certain types of music, rhythm takes precedence over aesthetic considerations’."
And because music is ultimately designed for mass consumption, record companies produce more and more of what they perceive the market wants, regardless of quality.
hmmm
July 25th, 2004 at 9:37 pm
God I hate “cultural studies” hacks. How do they get away with publishing crap that has no connection to reality?
“Marshall McLuhan observed 50 years ago that the more technology humans use, the more isolated they become.”
What!?! Didn’t McLuhan coin the phrase “global village”? The TV and internet have made us a global tribe existing together at the same time. You might watch TV alone, but you aren’t “isolated”–you’re connected to the other 6 billion people in the world. Same with the walkman.
As for the rest of this gibberish, who cares?
July 28th, 2004 at 8:32 pm
You obviously lack the patience or the intellect to appreciate this article. The term ‘virtual’ was stessed in Quill’s take. When you’re alone in your house, you’re alone. Get it? You just think you’re connected because media is creating and recreating virtual connections so you can feel as though you’re a part of a tribe. Obviously, your knowledge of McLuhan is at the 101 level.
July 28th, 2004 at 8:36 pm
Excellent article; excellent comments. Without a doubt lots of stuff to make you think about. Congratulations, Mr. Quill and Guests. Fantastic article.
July 28th, 2004 at 8:51 pm
Your uninformed comments reminded me of a Jerry Lewis film in which a senior citizen (woman) sat in front of the T.V. In front of her were a series of items: brand name cookies, brand name furniture polish, brand name milk.
Every time the commercials told her to consume these cookies or milk, she would eat and drink accordingly. When the furniture polish ad came on t.v. she would clean her furniture (for 30 seconds).
Obviously she lived, spatially, in her own world. According to you, however, that’s being connected to the world.
November 10th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
It looks as though you spend too much time watching T.V. Get out and smell the fresh air.
Shake hands with real people. Talk to real people instead of spending time on chat lines. See, tv is two dimensional, people are three dimensional, tv 2 d, people 3d.
As that guy says in the article, you might feel like you’re connected, but you ain’t.
Why you ‘think’ you’re connected (and not being mediated, pushed and pulled and formed by media) is the real issue.
Why you think you are actually connected, when in fact, your way of thinking has been formed by media is the real issue.
If you’re not connected to who you really are, how can you be connected to others? The short-circuit is in your brain.
You’re a statistic. You’ve been duped.