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Electroacoustic, or more generally the electronic music has gained massive popularity among the new-age listeners. The Electroacoustic music traces back its birth to late 1940s, when few composers used the idea of recorded sounds in a radical way. Initially they started with mixing and recording electrically generated sounds on disc and tapes. Ever since, EA has gained utilization in various forms. The concept of combining electro-acoustic and “normal” music is not new but the “mixing” feature which includes prerecorded sounds of the singer himself is a recent phenomenon. The “mash-up” technique, with new and interesting sounds could become an art form itself. Recently, a club DJ is an example of the Electroacoustic product, who has emerged with this technique of mixing and manipulation of sounds.
Along with this acceptance, there are issues. Electroacoustic has been a debated phenomenon. While countless musicians today utilize the idea, there are many who raise concerns. The critics first came on scene when it was realized that Electroacoustic music lacked the traditional factors-rhythm, melody and harmony; rather it was more preoccupied with unreal pre-recorded sounds. In his well known article devoted to the “Aesthetics of Failure”, Kim Cascone expresses: “(…) more specifically, it is from the ‘failure’ of digital technology that this new work has emerged: glitches, bugs, application errors, system crashes, clipping, aliasing, distortion, quantization noise, and even the noise floor of computer sound cards are the raw materials composers seek to incorporate into their music”.
But what has been the pivotal focus of the critics is the ‘slam’ on the creativity; a shortcut for those who lacked classical musical training and knowledge. Electroacoustic came as an easy way out for the beginners who could put in some money, record sounds, mix and make a piece of catchy music. Again taking example of a DJ phenomenon, a new musical role that radically re-contextualizes existing musical source material, setting a sound-unique product that bears his or her name, but lacks his creative composing traits according to the critics. The issue of creativity and its abuse in Electroacoustic is, when looked closely, a combination of lack of creative talent and also, classical knowledge, piracy and copyright phenomena. Today an ambitious wanting-to-be-musician can access various records and sounds online. At same time, there are software that would help in manipulating the sounds to produce a new piece of music, not original in essence.
The issue of creative discrepancy is more prominent where harmony and rhythm had more share in traditional music. Subcontinent is an example where electronic music has been under fire for long. Electroacoustic as a name may not be very well known in East particularly in subcontinent; many forms of electronic music are often referred to under pop music. The critics, many of whom are traditional “classical” musicians, go as far as refusing to accept it as a form of music. Among many names, noise music is commonly used for elactroacoustic and related forms. According to Miguel, in article about dissonance, sex and noise,” We can also use the concept of noise as a guide through the evolution of the music that makes use of electroacoustic technologies.” But the criticism from classical musicians has some other background. The evolution of modern or pop music has come as serious threat to classical music. This is no news for any Asian nation that younger generation; both composers and listeners are more into electronic sources of music rather than traditional ones. Classical music in subcontinent thus has become confined to limited classes where people of taste arrange musical concerts on limited scale. In parallel, new musicians making use of electronic technologies are earning many times the classical musicians who rely on traditional instruments like tabla, harmonium and sitar.
Electroacoustic, as in subcontinent, today is mostly used as fusion of classical rock and modern pop. A few classical musicians also stepped into “other” genre, producing works of fusion utilizing electronic techniques. Most of such electrical-classical woks gained appreciation and acceptance, changing the course of musical direction, from pure western pop to mixed eastern-western music. But the bottom line is that the artistic training and grooming plays least or almost no part in such endeavors. Playing pre-recorded sounds of traditional instruments in background with hip-hop vocals is entirely regarded as nothing more than computer jugglery by some critics. Creativity is just confined to recording and mixing sounds on computer. For classical musicians, fusion is an abuse to tradition.
Electroacoustic in west has not been that much a deviation from classical music in aspect of source of noise. According to Fernandez: “Noise occupies as well a very important place in the field of popular music, through its different shapes (blues, jazz, rock & roll, rock…), each one of them presenting a more or less direct connection with the classical Western musical tradition.” Moreover, apart from lacking harmony, electroacoustic seems just a revised form of western classical. Furthermore, the concerns about training and creativity are unheard of in west. Although restricted, but there are voices against aesthetic virtuosity of Electroacoustic works of music. Sources of music are easily accessible by all, may it be a software or recorded tunes. One needs not be a professional or at least educated in musicology and music to take up composing himself. The tendency is creating overall rush of substandard music or “noise” in the industry.
But there is also the other side of the story. Electroacoustic, in its all forms, has also come as a safety valve for many ambitious and under-resourced artists. Considering under developed countries again where producing good quality studio music is beyond resources of many talented artists, the sources of Electroacoustic music are easily accessible and cheap. One can acquire many tunes from internet and recorded on discs, not forgetting the music-composing software. Collectively these sources have rendered it far too easy to compose a number of tracks cheaply, record and launch an album. For an underdeveloped society, such a technology is blessing for many. Countless musicians in last few years have emerged, with significant success, owing to gains of Electroacoustic. In the backdrop, this also nullifies efforts against piracy. Though not main theme of this paper, piracy finds itself related to the problem of creativity as thousands of pirated records are available cheaply in these countries. There are numerous instances of sound-like songs heard in these countries that are almost replicas of some western tracks. Electroacoustic made it all possible.
The issue of creativity may seem controversial, but lately computer-composition has gained support among various social circles. First, listeners have become accustomed and less worried about over-shadowed traditional music. Most of the studies being done today focus on information systems designed to support and guide the people engaged in creative activity, and responsibilities regarding copyright issues among the composers. Electroacoustic has drawbacks that are surpassed by its massive acceptance among new age listeners. This is new form of creativity.
Bibliography
Miguel Álvarez Fernández : “Dissonance, Sex and Noise: (Re)Building (Hi)Stories of Electroacoustic Music”. ICMC 2005, Barcelona, Spain, 2005.
Cascone, Kim “The Aesthetics of Failure: ‘Post-Digital’ Tendencies in Contemporary Computer Music”, Computer Music Journal, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 12-18, 2000, p. 13.
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