The World Wide Web has wreaked its own cataclysmic changes. For $500, an aspiring musician can turn his laptop into a studio, whilst music -- tons of it -- can be garnered for free from over the web, and musicians can disseminate tunes without interference from record companies through e-mails and file-sharing programs.
All of this originated just from Edison's phonograph. One invention was securely placed on the footing of another, until one reaches a climax where technology has so changed music that the computer, when compared to the piano, are worlds (as indeed they are) apart.
The future is still on the march, and those believing that the past + innovation = future, claim that the whole idea of popular music could itself be transformed into something that is utterly new. Pioneering synthesizer designer Roger Linn, for instance, suggests that individuals will 'learn' how to play the...
In that manner, the whole concept of 'musician' may, at one point, cease - just as computer graphic programs have almost done away with the concept of 'artist'.
Beethoven reputations may be claimed by any individual, who happens to be a music-lover, plugging away at his or her computer. This may not always reflect a positive progression. The thought may make several quite uneasy, but then the concept of 'future' need not necessarily denote a positive specter. Unarguable it is, however, that past and innovation do produce the future: In this case, an unending stream of technological innovations that have been presaged on past inventions.
Reference
Karr, R. TechnoPop: The Secret History of Technology and Pop Music, NPR, 2011. Web. January 30, 2011.
