the tape recorder and subsequent record

ing media created a world of virtual sound

111. Music in the Age of
I

a realm of sonic simulacra detached from

Electronic Reproduction any specific moment, site, or source. By
the same token, the microphone hears
neither what the ear hears nor how it
hears. Itis what Marshall McLuhan calls a
Introduction technolog ical prosthesis, an extension of
the human nervous system that retrains
Music has always occupied the space
the ear, pro voking a new auditory
between nature and technology, intuition
awareness and a new set of auditory
and artífice. It is said to be rooted in the
desires.
heartbeat and the voice; but it is no less
In the mid-1960s and early 1970s, these
bound up with the history of the machine.
technological developments began to un
"The moment man ceased to make music
dermine the category of musical "authen
with his voice alone, the art became ma
ticity."This had a particularly unsettling
chine-ridden," remarked cultural historian
effect on both classical music and popular
Jacques Barzun in his introduction to
musics, both of which place a premium on
the inaugural concert of the Columbia
presence, the authenticity of the singular
Princeton Electronic Music Center in
live event.2 In 1964, the celebrated pianist
1961. "Orpheus' lyre was a machine, a
Glenn Gould scandalized the classical
symphony orchestra is a regular factory
music establishment by abandoning pub
for making artificial sounds, and a piano is
lic performance in favor of the recording
the most appalling contrivance of levers
studio. For Gould, the perfect
and wires this side of the steam engine."1
performance could only be created in the
Experimental practices in contemporary
studio, pieced together from multiple
music have exploited both sides of the na
takes. Hence, for Gould, "the authentic" or
ture/technology opposition, in the process
"the real" was a technological product. A
unsettling that very opposition and any
few years later, Miles Davis made a
stable conception of "music."When John
similar move within jazz. While jazz had
Cage, R. Murray Schafer, and Pauline
been identified with virtuosic playing "in
Oliveros opened music to "environmental
the moment," Davis began to create music
sound,"they did so largely via the tape
by recording ex tended improvisations
recorder, the most revolutionary piece of
and then handing them over to his
technology in the history of modern
producer, Teo Macero,
music. Pierre Schaeffer and Brian Eno
to edit and reassemble as he wished. At
showed how
the same time, from within a tradition
obsessed with origins, the natural, and the
spiritual, reggae producers such as King entity begins to have a public life of its
Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry invented own apart from its author and becomes
"dub,"a music that gleefully exploited the avail able for appropriation and
capacities of the recording studio to create reinscription by others. It's no surprise,
immersive and mystical electronic spaces then, that hiphop, for example, has been
by fracturing, magnifying, and multiply plagued by litigation concerning
ing the vocal and instrumental tracks of a copyright infringement. In Cutler's view
reggae song. (one shared by many hiphop producers,
Recording began as areproduction of as well as musicians such as John
the live act. Yet, with the proliferation Oswald, Negativland, and Mattin),
of records and tapes,recording ali but copyright laws are no longer appropriate
dis to a new technological and musical
placed the primacy of the live event. Glenn setting that makes the entire archive of
Gould's intervention within classical music recorded sound available for use and
was already well under way within rock reuse. Hence, the culture of the remix,
and pop. As soon as rock performers dis which appropri ates and alters an
covered the magic of the recording studio, "original recording," itself often a remix,
live performance became, at best, a producing a mise en abime that endlessly
simula tion of the recorded product. If the defers any originary instance.3
classical tradition resisted this move, and Musical technologies are constantly
rock and pop were ambivalent about it, reappropriated and redirected to ends and
new musics rooted in electronics positively uses other than those originally intended.
embraced The "electric guitar" began as an amplified
it. Disco, dub, hiphop,house, techno -ali guitar and ended up as an entirely
these musics begin with and are built different instrument. The multi-track tape
from samples,slices of recorded sound. recorder was soon taken out of the hands
With the rise of a musical culture built of the engineer and placed into the hands
around recording and sampling, tradi of
tional conceptions of the author and the the composer. In the hands of the
work carne under strain. As Chris hiphop DJ, the turntable was
Cutler and others note, the origins of the transformed from
modern notion of the "author" and the a "record player" into a live sampler and
"work" are coincident with the origin of percussion instrument.And the computer
capitalism. An author is the producer of glitch, once an unwanted digital error,
a unique, fixed, and bounded work that became desirable sound material for many
bears his or her signature; and copyright producers of contemporary electronica.
laws insure and protect that property.As Like the recorded sample, musical tech
soon as recording becomes primary, the nology as a whole ceases to have any
recorded given or fundamental use value, but
instead is
laid open to endless transformation Notes
and redirection.
With records and tapes, the notion of 1 See Chapter
64.
the original remained intact. They could 2 See Simon Reynolds, "Post-Rock,"Chapter 62.
be copied, but only with a loss in quality. Also see Evan Eisenberg, The Recording
Digital media, however,enable the infinite Angel: Explorations in Phonography (New
duplication of identical copies.And with York:McGraw-Hill, 1987) and Theodor
the easy circulation of MP3s, music lost Gra cyk, Rhythm & Noise: An Aesthetics of
nearly ali economic value. Most musical Rock (Durham, NC: Duke University
careers could no longer survive on record Press, 1996).
sales, downloads, or strearning revenue, 3 See also Simon Reynolds,"Versus: The
and so live performance regained its value Science of Remixology,"Pulse! (May 1996)
-the value of the singular event, aura, and and "Inthe Mix: DJ Culture and
presence. Once the very model of Remixology, 1993-9 7," inGeneration
musical reproduction, the vinyl record Ecstasy (Bastan: Little Brown, 1998), also
has returned as an artisanal and fetish Christoph Cox, "Versions, Dubs,and
object. Again, musical technology Remixes: Realism and Rightness in
reveals itself to be an agent of both Aesthetic Interpretation,"in In terpretation
liberation and impoverish ment that and Its Objects: Studies in the Phi losophy of
constantly alters the conditions of M ichael Krausz, ed. Andreea Deciu Ritivoi
musical production and reception, forc (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003).
ing music producers to adapt and
respond.