Has (or will) technology replace musicians? Through various operative forces at work, will musicians become redundant both in the live sphere and/or in the recording sphere? As much as I am willing to embrace music-related technology and see its usefulness, I do wonder whether it might happen, that one day, all so-called performances will end up solitary acts, accompanied by a bank of technology. Let’s take the DJ – they’ve been around for a few decades now; and often give solitary performances. Whilst I accept that there is a place for DJ’s (chiefly in the kinds of music that don’t require real musicians anyway – say the field of EDM: electronic dance music), I don’t think they can compete with real musicians in terms of engagement, visual spectacle etc. And besides, if we want to follow the trend far enough, then why not get rid of the DJ and just have a hologram playing stuff off an ipod? You see, I don’t like where it’s going and I suspect a lot of this has ended up going down this path for all the wrong reasons (need I mention any?).
But I don’t want to sound stuffy in expressing that view, but for me, nothing beats the real deal: real musicians united to play great music. What can be better?
In offering this blog, I realise I am not going to do justice to the debate, especially as I feel the end coming on already. But this is a topic I will return to again, and give it more of an airing.
