Diffusing Music - by Ben Neill (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book explores the democratization of music in our current era made possible by digital technologies. It investigates how the utopian ideals and experimental practices of 20th-century musicians helped to spawn the recent seismic disruptions to the art form. In the current environment of networked connectivity, music has become ubiquitous and increasingly intertwined with everyday life, rendering previous models of creation, performance, dissemination, and consumption largely obsolete"--

Book Synopsis

This bookexplores the democratization of music in our current era made possible by digital technologies.

Investigating how the utopian ideals and experimental practices of 20th-century musicians helped to spawn the recent seismic disruptions to the art form, this book explores the current environment of networked connectivity; music has become ubiquitous and increasingly intertwined with everyday life, rendering previous models of creation, performance, dissemination, and consumption largely obsolete.

Diffusing Musicidentifies trajectories between 20th-century innovators and the broader redefinition of the musical art in popular culture through technology today. This examination gives context for the advancement of new creative practices and approaches to the art and business of music that are appropriate for current and future technological configurations, and offers new insights on important historical figures and movements. It asserts the prescience and value of experimental music by identifying its powerful influence on the digital milieu in which we all now exist, and presents possibilities for new definitions of musical creativity and distribution as musicking becomes more and more ubiquitous.

Review Quotes

Many musicians are afeard of the encroachment of new distribution patterns and technologies (AI in particular) into our art, but Ben Neill strides into the future boldly, contextualizing them as extensions of historical processes that have been going on for centuries. He notices the pitfalls and dangers, but his stellar career as a postclassical/ambient crossover artist gives him the vantage point to weave the current cacophony of musical practices into a joyous free-for-all in which anyone can participate.
Kyle Gann, Professor of Music, Bard College, US, and author of Charles Ives's Concord: Essays after a Sonata

This is an essential book, discussing democratization of music from a historical perspective, as well as looking at its likely future effects on production and consumption of music. Written in a clear, simple language, it should find itself on a shelf of everybody interested in music and its interface with technology and social life.
Ewa Mazierska, Professor of Film Studies, University of Central Lancashire, UK

About the Author

Ben Neill is Professor of Music at Ramapo College of New Jersey, USA. He is internationally recognized as a technological innovator through his collaborations, recordings, performances, publications, and curation.