Culture and Technology (1st Year Writing Blog #1)

Take a look at the Music Industry today. Autotune makes a tone-deaf drunk sound like an opera singer, bits and pieces of songs can be copied and pasted so many times that every individual second of a song could be from a different take that was horrendous minus that single note, you could add a single insane bass drop and the whole world would be bowing at an overall unremarkable song's veritable feet. Technology has exploded in music to the point where it seems to have conquered the industry as a whole and the critics are out for blood. However from this humble writer's perspective, we need to go back and look at the history behind art and technology's relationship and delve a little into the true impact it has had on musicians and artists through the ages to understand that technology is just as essential to music as our natural abilities are.

When man first was created/evolved/dropped off by an alien species (a debate for another time) we naturally had very little to survive with. Our claws were pathetic, our teeth weren't impressive, and our speed was, well, not speedy. What we did have though, were well developed brains. We quickly learned to adapt the world around us to give us an edge that we had never had previously. Thus began our exploits with technology. As time went on and we climbed to the top of the food chain, we were able to broaden our horizon beyond simply surviving to things that made life more enjoyable. Thus the arts, and through them, music was born. Instruments were created and improved upon and over centuries of successes, failures, and new developments, we as human beings created some of the most beautiful sounds by manipulating technology.

Man is a naturally lazy creature; we would much rather relax and enjoy ourselves rather than do difficult tasks and because of this inane feature we have, someone will always try to take the easy way out. This is proven by many of today's "cut and paste" artists that rarely exhibit much true talent at all. However technology is not to blame. Without technology much of the greatest music ever created would have never existed. Beethoven could have never written "Moonlight Sonata" without a piano, The Beatles could have never recorded "Abby Road" without a studio's equipment, and Andrea Bocelli (or Will Farrell in "Step Brothers") couldn't sing "Con te Partiro" without violins, cellos, flutes, and all the other orchestral instruments backing him. Technology is not to blame for a lack of creativity in music today, it is the artists themselves abusing the amazing technological achievements we have made in the musical field that are to blame.