Oct
30th
Fri
30th
You can download O’Rourke’s album, of course— illegally. But its construction— a single track, almost 40 minutes long, with lots of space and quiet and subtle detail— flies in the face of where music is headed. This thing that he cares about is disappearing. People at the forefront of technology tell us that the future belongs to customization. People want interactivity, to have their media arranged and delivered according to their particular desires and preferences. Anything standing in the way of that risks being marginalized. But the method of delivery and consumption is just a part of it— it extends much further. People also want to get inside the music and see how it works and maybe even have a say about the basic elements of construction. There is no end product, and content is never fixed. Maybe the same people listening to music in front of their computers will take a few samples, their favorite bits from a few different records, and combine them into something of their own. Now they’re making music, not just listening to it. How important are those lines?
