Audio Culture by Ben Neil

Audio Culture by Ben Neil is an article that discusses the transition of new music in the 21^st century. This article begins by establishing what we know as old music, it points out such facts as the 4/4 tempos and the fact that old music had  “fear of the funk” which essentially means it was afraid of change.  The article then goes on to talk about the progression of new music throughout the 70’s and 80’s and how they broke the conventional molds put on music. Ben speaks about new artists using this 4/4 tempo not classically, but rather to use “4/4 time as a vehicle for a wide range of compositional ideas and innovations”. It is quite ironic that we see this occurring in music. As when we look to art, we see that new media artists are doing exactly the same thing. They are taking old techniques and tweaking them to fit into a 21^st century ideology. However much like in art, in music, these new ideas come in the thousands, yet only a select few are able to hold the test of time. He as well speaks about the ways in which technology is making older forms of music generation obsolete.  He begins to explain that in our society more people are picking up a computer then those who are picking up a guitar.  He then goes on to talk about those artists who are constantly pushing the envelope; specifically he talks about an individual named Squarepusher. He talks about how this artist is pushing what is possible by pushing music to the limits of what is enjoyable.  This particular artist is working with hyper-speed beats that exceeded 200 B.P.M.  This music was not meant to dance too, but rather was created to make you feel something different. He did achieve this through synesthesia. The audience was feeling the beat at the same time they were listening to it. Finally Ben talks about the development of technology and explains that people are flocking towards new technologies and not older methods of sound production not due to accessibility but rather due to advancement in the fields of technology. While instruments will remain exactly the same the entire time you possess them, technology doesn’t. Technology is ever changing and ever improving, and it is because of this that we see people flocking to these newer technologies every day