Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!decwrl!labrea!agate!ig!uwmcsd1!bbn!polaris!mthome
From: mthome@polaris.bbn.com (Mike Thome)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: Why and How we pick cyberpunk music.
Message-ID: <20500@bbn.COM>
Date: 4 Feb 88 16:03:41 GMT
References: <2727@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <1630@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <799@astroatc.UUCP>
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Reply-To: mthome@polaris.UUCP (Mike Thome)
Organization: BBN Advanced Computers, Inc., Cambridge, MA
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In article <799@astroatc.UUCP> gtaylor@astroatc.UUCP (One Cointreau, please. On ice.) writes:
>In article <1630@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> tom@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Thomas C Hajdu) writes:
>>and on top of that Holst with Mozart and Beethoven!!! What a joke!
>
>It shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone that when net posters decide
>on proper music, they're merely engaging in a little projection, ...
>
Ah! Thank you - someone's doing some thinking...

Now, attempting to stay in generalities, some thoughts:
	Cyber(ahem!)punks are people (more or less) just like (more or
less) us - some "jocks" would find music irrelavent, and would rather
just listen to whatever is coming over the wire (pick a wire, any
wire!) than bother about selection. Use your imagination!  Real-time
synthesised music as a form of bio-feedback... Eccentric hackers who
listen to nothing except Barry Manilow (or Country-western or
steel-guitar or E Power Biggs or Led Zep or The Dead Kennedies or
whatever)... Gurus who will listen to nothing but white noise... Real
Fanatics who use all their senses for information input... 
	The technology available ought to be able to support such
gadgets as radio-tuners that know your taste in music... and will make
certain that you dont ever have to listen to anything you consider
junk (A good "hack" would be to reprogram someone's tuner... :-) of
course, this sortof thing would probably either be new, illegal, or
useless since radio-stations wouldn't be able to make a living from
ads... subscriber (heh heh) "only" radio?
	"Current" cyberpunk music should be mostly electronic (but no
need to *blantantly* electronic - that went "out" in the early 80's...
besides, when a Steinway Grand is nothing but a bootleg bio-chip only
slightly more expensive than the plastic it's encased in...).  How
about a quantum leap in virtuousity of the good musicians - with
direct links, The Best wouldn't be limited by physical elements like
reach or muscle tone (a drummer with MS?) - you'll have to train your
brain, not your fingers!
	If cyberspace "objects" have unique shapes and colors, they'd
probably also have unique sounds associated with them - a trip through
cyberspace would be like spinning the dial on a multi-dimensional
radio tuner.
	Finally, one of the trademarks of cyberpunk societies is
extreme variety and mixtures - the "current" music would be the same:
odd combinations of styles and instruments (Bach on electric guitar
and wind chimes, The Dead Milkmen on harpsichord and string quartet
with Pavarotti on lead vocal, Kiss played by a symphony orchestra...
ok! ok! maybe I'm getting a *little* silly!! :-) :-) ;-) On the other
hand, there'll always be extremes... even popular extremes.  More
merging of different schools of music - western music has already
borrowed heavily from African, now mix in some far east (but not TOO
far) and some classical islander... maybe some different scales?
Chords that sound strange... again, no end to the possibilities.

	-mike thome (mthome @ bbn.com)