Program Length: 1 hour
Produced: 1996

Art is the engagement of the world.

Introduction
This documentary examines the impact of technology on the business and artistic worlds of music. It helps viewers realize the overall environment within which musicians must navigate successfully -- technology, studios, distribution, videos, etc . It also describes significant changes occurring in the music business as a result of computer uses and the internet. The video is very useful for helping viewers consider and evaluate their relationships with music and artists.

It is not necessary to view the entire video -- selected segments will help students focus on the main points effectively. It is not recommended to view segments all the way through -- stop the tape or freeze the frame often at specific points, e.g. after a statement by an interviewee, replay the statement once or twice, and discuss the statement fully before proceeding to the next selection. Students might take notes during each discussion for future reference.
The overall frame of the documentary is the Macintosh New York Music Festival - a six-day city-wide event show casing new movies and new technology. From there, the video moves to new media producers, then to students in a high technology classroom.

1. Andrew Rasiej - Digital Club Network
"The goal is to try to build a network of clubs all around the world where you would go to a website and see a concert in a club of an artist you like or maybe don't know anything about. And this technology allows an opportunity to present local culture to the world."

Would you welcome the chance to visit clubs around the world to sample the music being played there? Which of your local bands do you think would be successful on the Digital Club Network?
Would you visit once in a while or every day?
Do you think the Digital Club Network will be popular? Why?
What is there about live music in clubs that would be missing from seeing them on the internet?

2. Carol Kahil - Festival Organizer
"New technology can never take the place of the live music. Nothing can ever take the place of live music. It can only enhance it."
What does 'enhance' mean? How can technology enhance live music? What does the live music lose when it is technologically enhanced?

Jennifer Morton - The NewMusic
"If you have the time, you can explore in a way that's different than going to a record shop. You've got everything: you've got the bio on the band, the interests of the band. Even the links (other internet addresses) are interesting because it spreads that community and it is very much a community that you can be a part of."

Do you have friends that prefer the same bands as you do?
Do you enjoy talking about the bands with them?
Would you like to know more about the bands? What?
Would you like an opportunity to ask a band member a question?
Would you like to join a larger community of fans so you could share your enjoyment and knowledge of the music?
Would you like to do this by writing and receiving electronic messages? How would this electronic community change your experience of the band? Would you be more likely to buy the band's next album, its T-shirt or attend a concert? Why?
If you have internet access, investigate the band links and the Ultimate Band List in the Appendix.

3. Adam Bowen, a Hawaiian teen, takes us on a video tour of the Cyber Cafe in Maui. There is a Virtual Reality room, snack bar, dancing, and an internet cafe, where people can browse the net or engage in chat (real-time electronic conversations) with others. The Cafe attracts people of all ages, not just teens.
Would you like to have a Cyber Cafe in your neighbourhood?
What Cyber Cafe activities do you find most attractive?
How often do you think you would visit the Cafe? Why?

4. Byron Wong - Random Media Core Inc.
"For $12 I can have a digital master of something I decided to do on a whim and in another 20 minutes it could be accessible to everyone around the world if I decide to put this online. Wow."
How is this method of music creation and distribution different than one using recording studios, companies and music stores? How would it change the way musicians play their music? The way the fans enjoy their music? How might it change the relationship between fans and musicians?
5. Todd Rundgren - Musician
"For me, the whole paradigm is about that wire -- how the wire connects between me and whoever's interested in what I'm doing. Once that's there, that entire old structure that requires all those middlemen and all those manufacturing procedures and trucking and handling and arm twisting to get it into the record store and someplace where you can find it and getting radio stations to play it that so people will know it's there -- all that stuff is bye-bye."

What 'structure' is Todd Rundgren referring to?
What structure has he replaced it with?
How might we interpret the video editor's spatial placement of a small close-up of Todd Rundgren inside the Todd Rundgren website?
If you have internet access, investigate the Todd Rundgren websites in the Appendix.
Todd Rundgren's second sentence is very long - about 60 words. How does the long length of the sentence support the point Todd Rundgren is making about structures?

6. Compare Todd Rundgren's statement to the one made shortly after by Allan Reid - A&M Records. Describe and discuss the two points-of-view, one by an artist, one by a business person.
"On a creative end you still need people going out, finding artists, helping artists find a home. The internet is one way of doing that but it's still about going through radio, being on TV, still about being on the road touring.
These are still going to be the key elements of breaking bands. The internet is just a whole new form of media that the labels and artists have to look at and embrace."

What does Allan Reid mean when he says 'finding artists,' 'find a home,' and 'breaking bands?'
How is this an example of seeing the structure from bias of the record company point of view?
How do you think an artist like Rundgren, who has 'embraced' the internet, would respond to these definitions of 'finding artists', 'find a home', and 'breaking bands'?
If the internet becomes the kind of distribution structure Rundgren describes, what will happen to the record companies?
Visit some record company websites (addresses are listed in the appendix) to see how they are using the internet.

7. Paul Kelley - Media Instructor
"There's a gap between people who are my age and people who are now in high school who are teenagers who are just comfortable with the technology. They can live with it. It's a well-formed extension of themselves."

Do you agree that there is a gap between the feelings of teenagers and adults toward technology?
What examples can you provide?
What do you think Paul Kelley means when he says that 'Technology is a well-formed extension of teenagers?'
Is it possible for adults to gain a comfort with technology? How?

8. Patrick Watson (1976) - broadcaster and past-president of the CBC
"Once the dispossessed and powerless have access to the means of information, they can no longer be misled by Establishment Bullshit. And that in itself is a revolution."

What do you think Patrick Watson meant by 'the dispossessed and powerless,' 'the means of information,' and 'Establishment Bullshit?' How can access to information be a revolution? What music industry revolution is described in this video? Patrick Watson made this statement over 20 years ago. Has the revolution begun? How?
Appendix of Website Addresses
MuchMusic -- http://www.muchmusic.com
Indieweb -- http://www.indieweb.com
Laurie Anderson -- http://www.voyagerco.com/LA/room.html
Smashing Pumpkins -- http://www.cs.gfc.edu/~snickeso/sp/index.html
Todd Rundgren -- http://www.tr-i.com/
Todd Rundgren -- http://www.roadkill.com/todd/trconn/
Polygram Records -- http://www.polygram.com/polygram/
Monster Magnet -- http://www.amrecords.com/current/magnet/music.html
Tori Amos -- http://www.fyi.net/~aj03/tori/tori.html
A & M Records -- http://amrecords.com/
Blue Rodeo -- http://www.bluerodeo.com/Welcome.html
Planet Zero -- http://www.to.or.at/subrise/planet.htm
See Also
Media Launchpad -- http://www.oise.on.ca/~nandersen/pad.html
Cable in the Classroom -- http://www.cableducation.ca/cic/home.html
Alanis Morisette -- http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/4916/alanis.html
Electrazine Index -- http://www.enews.com/zones/
Ultimate Band List -- http://american.recordings.com/wwwofmusic/ubl/ubl.shtml

 
Written by: Neil Andersen
Neil Andersen is an award-winning Curriculum Consultant with the Toronto District School Board. He is also a speaker and consultant in media and communications technology. His most recent work includes the Between the Lines CDs, the teachers' study guide for the award-winning Scanning Television, and study guides for Space, Bravo! and MuchMusic's Cable in the Classroom broadcasts of original media literacy programming.

For more information about MuchMusic's educational programming -- or to give us your feedback -- please contact: 

Calla Dewdney
Public Affairs Coordinator
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