Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdahl!ames!aurora!agate!ucbvax!rutgers!uwvax!astroatc!jojo
From: jojo@astroatc.UUCP (Jon Wesener)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: Musique pour le Cyberpunk??
Message-ID: <768@astroatc.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jan 88 23:37:37 GMT
References: <5016@well.UUCP> <1046@mas1.UUCP> <8671@ism780c.UUCP> <2441@tekigm2.TEK.COM>
Reply-To: jojo@astroatc.UUCP (Jon Wesener)
Organization: Astronautics Technology Cntr, Madison, WI
Lines: 50

In article <2441@tekigm2.TEK.COM> michaels@tekigm2.UUCP (Michael Schaeffer) writes:
>My first thoughts in response to this topic were that, in a world dominated
>by big business (market only what sells) and government (regulate anything
>you, the elected, don't like), the only music available on the air would be
>contemporary versions of Whitney Houston and Phil Collins. Underground

(gag! a fate worse than death)

>bands could survive, but only on a local basis.

Actually, I'd think otherwise.  As technology expands the dissemination of
information seems to expand with it.  Look at the availability of movies
now that vcrs are common.  Any movie is available, not just what the theatre's
are showing.  There are also video companies that release only on video and
not on the big screen making it possible for more movies to be made than
previously.  

The same is true with music.  The technology movement going on in music is
making it possible for any band to cut an album of very high quality for
real cheap.  Being closely linked with local bands and underground music
I've seen the effect of $500 4-track recorders, midi-interfaces, and
pc's being used for patching and sequencing.  I'm expecting an explosion
of new music any year now, and actually experiencing it to some degree.

I expect that in the future, your home entertainment system will be hooked
up to your personal computer.  Movies, music, games, programs, etc will be
stored and retrieved at your will.  I also expect networks to become 
common in the home.  Right now, you probably have a lot of information
being pumped into your home at 9600 baud over your cable line, I do.  This
will probably be expanded as technology grows to be 2 way and possibly
nicer than usenet.  If the above are just files, I could see movies, albums,
etc being sent over these nets, or from bbs's even.  The only problem would
be for bands to collect money in this method.  But think about if you did it
shareware wise.  Instead of paying for an album manufactured by some inbetween
record company, you could send a fraction of the album cost directly to the
band and download the album yourself...

I think information may really flow in the future.  Just look at how public
domain(and not so public domain) software and images are spreading on BBS's
and USENET and other comercial networks like GENIE.  I couldn't believe how
my game spread across the country from the middle of nowhere in a couple of
weeks!

any comments?
--j
-- 
jon wesener
... {seismo | harvard | ihnp4} ! {uwvax | cs.wisc.edu} ! astroatc!jojo

"if it makes you happy, it will make you weak..."