Striving Towards New Harmonies

Look and listen to the two videos below, and then finally the third.

This is what I believe characterises harmony.

What the third video represents is the melding and harmonizing of two completely songs, genres and cultures to create (what I believe) is something real cool and good to listen to. What I also like is that there is every chance this mashup was put together by some guy on a laptop or (better or worse yet) on DJ Hero (djing’s answer too guitar hero).

Harmony is compatibility. But compatibility is not inherent, it is created. And often the greatest harmonic creations are those made from contrasting ideas.

In the field of “new media studies” as defined by Murphie (Murphie 2006) more people than ever have in their hands the power to create and share. This power, however, is clearly not compatible with traditional processes. And this is the issue that defines the music industry today. For years we’ve been told of the evils and illegality of piracy and file sharing, how the music industry is dying in the wake of music being downloaded and shared at next to no cost. Yet despite campaigns and high profile law suits, music file sharing has continued unabated.

So like in the creation of music itself, the creation of harmony between these non-compatible ideas is needed. Asher Moses, in an article for the Sydney Morning Herald, in March this year, suggested that the mainstream music industry was wasting its time in continuing to fight file sharing. He wrote that new studies had highlighted that  ”there is no evidence that illegal downloading has led to a decline in new music and it is the war on piracy itself that has docked big record label revenues by preventing them from embracing the digital age faster” (Moses 2011). He depicts the calls for the harmonization of new media processes and traditional practices, which would allow the music industry to continue to profit in this new age.

“Scaring the horses” is how Murphie and Guattari characterise new media’s impact on institutions like the mainstream music industry. The solution to such fright: the transversal thinking I discussed in my previous post. As Guattari’s somewhat abstract metaphor suggests if horses were wearing blinkers blinding them to their surroundings, a “certain traumatic encounter will be produced. As soon as the blinkers are opened, one can imagine that the horses will move about in a more harmonious way.” (Genosko in Guattari, 2000:118/Guattari, 1972: 79)

Journalism is another industry facing the same challenges as the music industry in the wake of new media. But I believe the blinkers are opening, and no longer the scared horses, the industry is moving towards harmony and compatibility. Mainstream and traditional media forms such as newspapers and television stations have embraced the capabilities of digital media technology. By thinking transversally they have opened up themselves to the capabilities of convergent media. The result: a more interactive and fluid media industry that isn’t locking horns with the bloggers and media creators who threatened the industry. Challenges are still to be faced, but the effort to harmonize and bring together contrasting ideas will ensure the survival and flourish of journalism in the 21st century.

References

Guattari, F.  ”l’inconscient machinique: essays de schizo-analyse”. (1979).  Paris: EncresEditions Recherches

Moses, A, (2011) “Music piracy war: are the big labels wasting there time?”, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 March.

Murphie, A. (2006) “Editorial”, [on transversality], the Fibreculture Journal, 9

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