Technology Change and Music Technology – Research

This class will examine the massive changes that technology has had on the entertainment world, with a focus on the music business. We will examine how technology often shapes art. By tracing the development of recorded music technology from Gramophone to LP to MP3, we will consider how musicians have worked with technology and how technology has shaped their music. We will look closely at the evolution of business models and how musicians get compensation. As such, we will examine the increasing role of the live concert experience for the musician, the fan and the promoter. That will require analysis of relatively recent phenomena such as EDM, merchandise and the music festival. Each were unheard of in the age of Woodstock, but are completely expected at Coachella.

Technology Change and Music Technology

The class will also examine the international influence of music, from several perspectives. We will examine the role of rock and roll and its ‘soft power’ in playing a seminal role in the collapse of the Iron Curtain. We will likewise look at the effect of ‘world music’ as it has come to permeate the listening preferences of people across borders, and how that has been accelerated by technology. Indeed, many music festivals are increasingly including world music artists in the lineup. Finally and crucially, we will also examine the claims of many observers that internet behemoths like Facebook, Google and Amazon have shifted to themselves billions of dollars of value from musicians and other creators of content.

Order this paper