My wife and I sit in the dark in the morning listening to the radio, listening to a person who’s picking out the songs and talking about them, and she wonders how it’s possible this still exists, now that anyone can get anything they want anytime they want, music-wise.
It’s like the Reformation, she says. I had to go back and look up the Reformation on Wikipedia, because it’s been a long time. The article uses one of my favorite words, schism, which is a kind of breaking off, like a piece of glass snapping or a chunk of ice separating on a frozen lake.
What helped the Reformation — those who opposed tenets of the Catholic church — was the printing press, which had just come to Europe by way of Gutenburg. The printing press enabled the spread of ideas during the Reformation, many taking form as religious pamphlets, perhaps the beginning of the idea of the democratization of knowledge (which leads us back to the role of technology, search engines, Wikipedia).
Remove the priest in the confessional booth, the publishing house, the record label, and you remove the go-between, the agents. The same is true at the grocery store self-scan, though I always pick the line with a checker, because I like human contact. Which is why we listen to the DJ in the dark.
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Categories: technology
Bill Pearse 
This is tangential to this post, but I was just thinking about the impact of the internet on art and music. A favorite local artist is running a Kickstarter campaign for her next CD release and I was reminded of the old system of patronage. Instead of the wealthy using patronage to advance their ambitions, little old me gets to help having music made that I love. I think that’s pretty cool. Yay internet.
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Yay internet! “Virality.”
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One of my small but rare pleasures is listening to a radio show on CBC Radio 2 – “The Signal,” 10 to midnight during the week. Contemporary and avant-garde music, and the host Laurie Brown speaks in a quiet, soothing, almost-stoned voice about… stuff. I love this show but forget about it when I’m at home. I only hear it in my car sometimes, or right now at work when I think of it. The show is poorly archived here: http://music.cbc.ca/#!/play/Taniaa/playlist/Listen-Again-to-the-Signal You’re absolutely right: she’s the sweet girl at the checkout.
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Thanks for the tip; I’ll check it out. My face is ‘echoes’ on public radio international, the host John Diliberto. Talk about stonage: love those old Jazz DJ types you can float away with…they should pipe them in to dentist offices.
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yes, exactly –
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Gracias por tu información:’)
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A whole new way to look at why a DJ will remain, from the youth of this technology age or… a female. Most people do not enjoy making choices, and when they get the chance they will let someone else do the deed. Why do you think DJ’s are so highly reputable. They are thought process starters. They are dominant figures in our society and always will be. Technology might change, but the want or lack of, to make a choice will only get worse I’m afraid, compare America’s people now to Americas people of the revolution. At least we stood up for ourselves….
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Wow, thanks for sharing your thoughts! What an interesting perspective on the DJ, I hadn’t taken it to those lengths but I have to agree. Frankly, I wish they were more dominant in our society but the ones on the pop stations – well, I don’t have much nice to say about them. I wouldn’t call them DJs, per se. Our local station in Seattle is KEXP and they do the trick. Thank you for visiting my blog and for sharing your insights…best, – Bill
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