Music in the Moment of "Cyber Culture:" An Outward Spiral
Abstract
The advent of the Internet, and file-sharing specifically, challenged the relationship between music and its monetary value. This thesis investigates what happened after music became “free.” Richard Middleton’s “moments of situational change” are used as a framework for discussion. Through a survey of recent history and twentieth-century technologies, it becomes clear that the amplification and acceleration of scale, pace and patterns of music consumption, production and distribution practices as incited by the Internet renegotiated music’s monetary value, but did not introduce us to the way we value music aesthetically, as a pastime, and as a means for constructing community and a sense of self. Practices and phenomena associated with the digital age, such as streaming and “prosumption,” as well as commodities such as the iPod illustrate not only the twisted beauty of the present, but also a continuum with the past and an optimism for the future.