Music, Electronic Media and Culture

Technology revolutionised the ways that music was produced in the twentieth century. As that century drew to a close and a new century begins a new revolution in roles is underway. The separate categories of composer, performer, distributor and listener are being challenged, while the sounds of the world itself become available for musical use. All kinds of sounds are now brought into the remit of composition, enabling the music of others to be sampled (or plundered), including that of unwitting musicians from non-western cultures. This sound world may appear contradictory - stimulating and invigorating as well as exploitative and destructive. This book addresses some of the issues now posed by the brave new world of music produced with technology.

Simon Emmerson

Introduction, Simon Emmerson; Part 1 Listening and interpreting; Chapter 1 Through and around the acousmatic: the interpretation of electroacoustic sounds, Luke Windsor; Chapter 2 Simulation and reality: the new sonic objects, Ambrose Field; Chapter 3 Beyond the acousmatic: hybrid tendencies in electroacoustic music, Simon Waters; Part 2 Cultural noise; Chapter 4 Plunderphonics, Chris Cutler; Chapter 5 Crossing cultural boundaries through technology?, Simon Emmerson; Chapter 6 Cacophony, Robert Worby; Part 3 New places, spaces and narratives; Chapter 7 Art on air: a profile of new radio art, Kersten Glandien; Chapter 8 'Losing touch?': the human performer and electronics, Simon Emmerson; Chapter 9 Stepping outside for a moment: narrative space in two works for sound alone, Katharine Norman;