Music in Controversial Modern Culture Essay

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Updated: Jan 7th, 2024

Introduction

Modern network society breeds new culture. This culture fosters spiritual and moral values of quite different nature based on mediasphere. Music, art, cinema, and other kinds of art move to new dimensions of cyberspace and information technologies. But not only technologies and culture get renewed. People’s minds absorb and create artifacts and works, which are unique and extremely different from what has been created since the birth of civilization. Where do these drastic changes take their sources from? How to deal with them? All this turns into a problem of paramount importance.

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Contemporary Culture in Steven Shaviro’s Connected

Steven Shaviro investigates these and other questions in terms of modern society and science fiction. In the course of his book Connected he proves that science fiction and reality have merged. It is very difficult to distinguish them nowadays. As soon as some new notion or invention appears in science fiction, it is immediately implemented in reality. And when you read a book printed earlier, you find out that you read not fantasies, but you read about the modern world.

The very title of the book is taken from the novel Noire by K. W. Jeter. The author cites a lot of writers: K. W. Jeter, Ridley Scott, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Samuel R. Delany, Pat Cadigan. He compares their novels with modern culture and finds out that on one hand culture resembles science fiction, on the other – science fiction is not fiction anymore when it is implemented. And at the stage of putting imaginary things into practice troubles begin.

“Every connection has its price; …sooner or later, you will have to pay” (Shaviro 3). And such price to be paid is in contradiction of culture with its drugs, property rights, Web, film noir, and many other things, whose influence on human’s mind is unpredictable. Connected means that you can reach everything and you can be reached too. Maybe, that is why people disconnect their cell phones and get off-line. In fact, the only wish to escape turns people into fugitives. “Such is the terminal state of the networked consumer: to be intensely involved, and maximally distracted, all at once” (Shaviro 26). And this state of things as forecasted in Noir much earlier than it happened.

The novel Distraction deals with “the phenomenology of multitasking” and continues the investigation of being connected (Shaviro 7). People turn into computers switching between different programs like speechless machines. Constant being online can bring to double consciousness and dramatic changes in human nature.

The author claims that “the order of the world is confirmed; once we realize that everything is just an appearance” (Shaviro 86). Thus, an appearance, fantasy, fiction in science fiction turns into the real world, confirmed by this science fiction. All contradictory companions of modern culture like the Web, capitalism, Napster existed earlier in minds of writers.

Shaviro draws parallels in a very shroud manner. He finds common in everyday life and science fiction, comparing it and revealing so many obvious things that it is strange why we have not noticed them before. He touches upon every aspect of life and culture from networks to the philosophy of monads and Nietzsche.

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In science fiction, people made their living producing intellectual property, not manufactured goods. So, if earlier thieves earned a livelihood by stealing something material and concrete, like food or money, now the most spread is “steal of intellectual property” (Shaviro 52). So, the juridical sphere is shifted in a new domain.

The problem of copyright, raised in Connected, is directly associated with mixing and sampling. These instruments use already recorded works and ready-made sounds created by other people as raw material. And this makes them controversial in terms of originality and individuality. Cutler argues that “When ‘the same thing’ is so different that it constitutes a new thing, it isn’t ‘the same thing’ anymore” (142). In any case, this issue concerns musical legitimacy and property rights, which surely limit possibilities of using any sound for music production.

The problem of material for music creation moved from the pure music domain to the economic and political. There are created “departments to note and clear all samples and register and credit all composers, artists and original recording owners” (Cutler 153). People, using existing material to create one’s own are subject to felony prosecution. Obviously, the problem of manipulation of recorded sound should return to music and be regarded as a source of inspiration and a skill to transform and rearrange already known so that it could demonstrate some new approach and fresh breath.

Sampling and Mixing – Plagiarism or Creative Urge

No doubt, music is very deep, and it is impossible to understand all its layers. Everybody has a different interpretation of the same music. That is why mixing and sampling play a very important role, as they reveal new layers and a new understanding of known and already forgotten compositions. “The same thing is suddenly very different” (Cutler 139). In my opinion, it is evidence of originality and individuality, so harsh claimed by laws. Extraordinary details can be found in usual music, we got used to. People can draw inspiration from other pieces of music, own or borrowed ones regardless.

Sampling and mixing represent a different ways of using existing material. Opinions on them are different. Shaviro argues that “creation ex nihilo is displaced by mixing and sampling” (34). Surely, these matters were brought with rapid technological and cultural progress. “… the technology was ready to follow in the footsteps of the musical ideas already present” (Marclay and Tone 343). Sound recording and cross-cultural use of ready-made music contribute to creation and recreation.

And when a new thing is created from an old one, Cutler introduces a philosophical matter closely associated with copyright: “Plundered sound carries, above all, the unique ability not just to refer but to be, it offers not just a new means but a new meaning” (146). Thus, he rejects any accusations of plagiarism. Borrowing, quoting, transposition, and plagiarism go hand in hand and it is almost impossible to draw a line of demarcation between them. We would like to emphasize that the problem of sample and mixing arises within the framework of old values, concepts of copyright and originality. Evidence of outrages and plagiarism should be grounded on legitimate claims.

Difference of Cage’s 4′ 33″

The world becomes more complicated and filled with more sound. Sampling and mixing contribute to the increasing amount of musical sounds. But there exists just the opposite world, a world of silence. Silence gives life to music as its contraposition. “All symphonies end in silence, it’s equally true that they begin there as well” (Slouka 42). Then, why not equate music to silence? John Cage in his 4′ 33″ succeeded in it.

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In relation to other music pieces, this one strikes most of all. The attention of the audience sticks to the pianist, his stopwatch, keys of the piano, the score. And at the end of silence in four minutes and thirty-three seconds, we realize that it was music.

To my mind, the difference between this composition and others is in its aim and philosophy. Other pieces are intended to show, communicate or interpret something. And they are successful. 4′ 33″ fails in it. The artist wants to bring some mystery from the world, which is open only to him, to build a bridge between fantasy and reality. But this mystery cannot be delivered, the lid of the piano remains shut, and the artist fails miserably. The audience listens to the silence and the sounds of the environment. And such music becomes a golden mean between “between nourishment and gluttony” of the modern musical society (Sluoka 41).

Of course, 4′ 33″ represents experimental music (Nyman 210). Cage shifted methods and functions of notation and performer’s being on the stage. But this is evidence of a deeper insight into the very matter of music. This piece does not stand aside from other music and does not constitute a part of it. To my mind, it is on a higher level of understanding of contemporary art.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we would like to add that music now proposes many relationships between the source of material and the creation of a new one, between sound and silence, copyright and originality, capitalism, network, etc. All these matters result from rapid progress in technology and slow adaptation of values and attitudes to unknown creations. The generation gap adds much to this point. Fortunately, music remains an essential part of culture despite any technological boom.

Works Cited

Cutler, Chris. “Plunderphonia.” Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. Ed. Christoph Cox, Daniel Warner. New York: Continuum, 2004. 138-156.

Marclay, Christian, and Yasunao Tone. “Record, CD, Analog, Digital.” Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. Ed. Christoph Cox, Daniel Warner. New York: Continuum, 2004. 341-347.

Nyman, Michael. “Towards (a Definition of) Experimental Music). Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. Ed. Christoph Cox, Daniel Warner. New York: Continuum, 2004. 209-220.

Shaviro, Steven. Connected, or, what it means to live in the network society. Minneapolis Univ. of Minnesota Pr., 2003.

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Sluoka, Mark. “Listening for Silence: Notes on the Aural Life.” Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. Ed. Christoph Cox, Daniel Warner. New York: Continuum, 2004. 40-46.

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IvyPanda. (2024) 'Music in Controversial Modern Culture'. 7 January.

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IvyPanda. 2024. "Music in Controversial Modern Culture." January 7, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/music-in-controversial-modern-culture/.

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IvyPanda. "Music in Controversial Modern Culture." January 7, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/music-in-controversial-modern-culture/.

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