Questioning 20th Century Assumptions about 21st Century Music Practices.

Abstract

In this essay, I critique and critically reflect upon two questions derived from Action Ideal VIII of the MayDay Group: “We commit to understanding the wide range of possi-bilities and the limitations that technology and media offer music and music learning.” Before we can address the “how,” it is necessary to know the “why,” which I offer here. This includes questioning dichotomies based on beliefs that either no longer hold true and/or are based on a presumptive fallacy—first, that making music in the 21st century is an “either/or” proposition—i.e. one either makes music acoustically or digitally but not both, and second, an implicit belief that hands-on acoustic face-to-face music making is always preferable to making music digitally—either by one’s self or with others through technological mediation – for various reasons. I conclude with a discussion of the impact that corporate power on the Web has and continues to have on music making, and by extension, music learning, in the 21st century.