Sources: tehcnology

Interesting consideration of Rick Beato’s recent video arguing, in part, why music is getting worse. DeLong compares Beato’s argument to the complaint of John Philip Sousa in 1908 that the infernal talking machines were stealing music from the people. Beato and Ted Gioia have been working on this theme lately and, while I’m a big fan of both Beato and Gioia and I think they have legitamate grounds for concern, I can’t help feeling that their arguments aren’t quite fully considered. The rescue of music from the ease and mediocrity of AI as propssed has the whiff of precisely the kind of control and professionalization that Sousa was arguing against, and suggesting to young people that they should just do it the way we used to sounds guaranteed to provoke eye-rolls…

The inclusion of Sousa in the article reminds me of a quite different use of the same argument of Sousa by Lawrence Lessig in his TED talk of 2007 arguing for freedom of the commons with respect to music — Laws that choke creativity.

I suspect, and hope, that this conversation goes on and sees some refinement.