Which Development Most Revolutionized Music?

Rocktopus wrote: Rocktopus wrote: [QUOTE=Snow Dog] Being able to record music has totally revolutionised music. There's so many ways to creat music that wasn't possible before you could record it. You can cut and paste, and create a melody/song/track that never actually "happened", or combine extracts from several jams, to create a whole. People that can't read notes (or play an instrument, or sing) can spend a year in a studio and record a three minute "masterpiece" etc...

Rocktopus wrote: ^You couldn't do these things "live" and then manipulate the sound. I mean the producers of music has ended up being the stars as a resdult of recording. I think your writing is recording comparison is far fetched, and it certainly isn't the same as recording a band improvising or jamming. And btw, I only wrote that its almost as revolutionary as Written Music

Even though I posed the question I still haven't made a choice.  For centuries written music was the primary means that music was shared by.  It was the foundation that the other forms were built upon.  Tape, the phonograph, and radio (sorry I didn't think of including that) kind of went hand in hand.  I believe the phonograph came in first, but it wasn't long before albums were recorded on tape and then records were made from that and that was the medium that was used to reproduce music for radio broadcasts.  Then the cassette and the 8-track brought new portability to music.  Radio was sort of portable, though you weren't in control of what was being played.  Of course you could always call in requests.  For those of us who grew up on records the CD was a big leap forward as you no longer had the medium subject to needle damage, not that there aren't other ways to mess up a CD.  The other advantage was that you could access any track quickly and didn't have to flip a record over or drop the needle at the beginning of the track.  Vinyl almost died out, but there are many enthusiasts out there keeping that medium alive.  The VHS, now approaching extinction, was incredible when it was developed to the point where you both could see a performance and hear it in hi-fi.  Of course the DVD came along and blew that out of the water.  VHS tapes are subject to degradation and not easy to access sections of the recorded material.  It will be interesting to see where we go beyond the digital music file, if anywhere other than refinements in storage capacity of the devices.  When I got my first player I looked on it as kind of faddish.  But now that I can take along my entire music collection in a device not much bigger than a cassette.  And while we're at it, a big thumbs up to the internet, which has brought all of us together at this site, and has surpassed radio as a source of music discovery for me. 

Edited by Slartibartfast - June 23 2009 at 21:13

Rocktopus wrote: meptune wrote: Rocktopus wrote: ^You couldn't do these things "live" and then manipulate the sound. I mean the producers of music has ended up being the stars as a resdult of recording. I think your writing is recording comparison is far fetched, and it certainly isn't the same as recording a band improvising or jamming. And btw, I only wrote that its almost as revolutionary as Written Music   Why is this far fetched? To record means to create a semi permenant document. Our ancient ancestors recorded events in pictures on cave walls. Once we could write, we created written records. A Mozart manuscript is as much a record of his work as an audio recording of the LSO performing it. Obviously a manuscript is not identical to an electronic audio recording (I never said it was) and certainly there are things the latter can do that are impossible with the former, however, I don't think it's far fetched at all to draw comparisons.  Presenting recorded sound and written notes like there's not that much of a difference is far fetched, imo. Its the soundrecording I think "revolutionised" music. Before recorded sound Mozart's Requiem was to performers, conductors etc. the notes he wrote. The best performance/recording can be many different ones. Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom is Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom because its recorded in a studio, and LP's were made of that piece of constructed music. The notes and lyrics to Alifib aren't pointless, but it wouldn't really be Alifib without Wyatt himself singing it: Not nit not nit no not Nit nit folly bololy Burlybunch, the water mole Hellyplop and fingerhole Not a wossit bundy, see ? For jangle and bojangle Trip trip Pip pippy pippy pip pip landerim Alifi my larder Alifi my larder All popular music, rock, artists, boybands, electroaqoustic ... the whole 20th century's history of sound wouldn't sound anything near how it ended up sounding, if we still had to buy notes and play it in our living room on a piano, synthesizer or any other instrument to hear the sound of Mozart or anyone else's music (or attend to a concert). And a lot of music that does exist, wouldn't.

Edited by meptune - June 23 2009 at 23:38

meptune wrote: I never suggested, intimated, or implied in any way that there is "not that much difference" between a written manuscript and an electronic audio recording.

Fine. I read what you wrote like you did.

meptune wrote: Technologically, they as different as a book is from a film. I'm saying that there are comparisons that can be drawn. Do you think that a book and film are so fundamentally different as to be incomparable; likewise for a manuscript and an audio recording?

No. Like I wrote, I just think recording sound revolutionised music, almost as much as written.

Rocktopus wrote: meptune wrote: I never suggested, intimated, or implied in any way that there is "not that much difference" between a written manuscript and an electronic audio recording. Fine. I read what you wrote like you did. meptune wrote: Technologically, they as different as a book is from a film. I'm saying that there are comparisons that can be drawn. Do you think that a book and film are so fundamentally different as to be incomparable; likewise for a manuscript and an audio recording? No. Like I wrote, I just think recording sound revolutionised music, almost as much as written.

Hi,