Cobb

The Internet is a big thing for me. I came in around the good years of BBSing, when 2400 baud led to 9600 baud, and soon after, 14.4. Wow, 14.4.

When I went to college, there was this new thing they had there - the World Wide Web. At home I could still dial up to the bulletin boards, some of which had been using FidoNet to talk to one another. Wow - I could email people not on the bulletin boards I was on? Fascinating. Then I get to college, and I can email people all over the place and not be paying for it (well, not directly). The AOL account I had been using as part of a friend's dad's account (he was a beta tester) was no longer the joke of an "Internet" that the online service was at the time. Unfiltered joy!

What fascinated me was the way it was embraced by the students. It's just like "wow, there's all this information just "there" for the taking - cool." Changed my life.

I've been thinking about anime, and manga, alot. The question is really quite simple: will anime and manga play a role in 21st century culture comparable to the role African-American music has played in 20th century culture? Will those forms become world-wide hegemonic forms of popular culture? Are we in the Asian century? Will India emerge as the pre-eminent multi-cultural democracy?

On hip-hop, yes, the rise to dominance is remarkable. Here's the issue: first there was jazz, then rock and roll, then hip hop. When is hip hop going to fade into the background, as jazz and rock have done, and be replaced by something else? OR: is THAT whole game over by now so that we're going to see a new black/white musical dynamic?

yeah...you about covered it! My 20-year high school reunion is coming up this summer, and I've been thinking along these lines too. I never would have predicted how important the internet has become, especially in my own life....in 1984, I graduated from a high school of roughly 2500 students, and there were seven computers for student use. Seven. Personal computers? A toy for the rich.

What about cable TV? And consolidation of mass media in the hands of a few large companies...and at the same time, technology is enabling people to create and communicate their own media. Bored with cookie-cutter commercial radio? There's an endless number of alternatives out there, accessible from the internet.

Now, in my opinion the rise of hip-hop could have been predicted....easier to dance to than the Clash! I wouldn't have predicted that it would be so quickly embraced by Madison Avenue, though.

It's striking to me how the time frame of when new technology is introduced, and how quickly it becomes affordable for the masses (meaning me!) has changed. Much, much faster. I like that.

Interesting topic!

I sometimes think that the world of music is going to be swallowed up into 4:4 time. Just the other day on the BBC's 'The World' I heard some gourd players from Guinea 'Ba Cissoko' - truly amazing skills. The bassline was funky and he improvised over the top. So, like jazz, hiphop assimilates a wide variety of styles - it seems to be the way to get heard, just go with the hiphop bottom and anything and everything can be sampled on top.

A lot of what I listen to these days at work is the www.somafm.com stuff. Secret Agent is one of the streams, and also Groove Salad. This is the kind of music I had in my head back in my college days (early 80s) when I was trying to loop Steely Dan's 'Hey 19' bassline. I never expected the mixes to go as far as they have, however. There's a lot of middle-eastern vocals that sound great over the right dub tracks and I suspect we'll be hearing that for a while. I like bangrha too and all that tabla beat stuff, Talvin Singh etc.

It strikes me that what I've heard of African music is some of the happiest and upbeat. I play Angelique Kidjo for the kids (There's my boy Bill Laswell - in my view one of the most influential producers of our time), and even Fela has a sense of play when he goes political (Zombie is great).

I find myself wondering if music via this wonderful melange, can become 'more universal' or is this something akin to heat death. I stay excited but I do wonder if musicians feel, through the recording industries, any pressure to Westernize.

Cobb, I've noticed that with music too. Do you think that more people in the West are exploring other kinds of music by being exposed in this manner, or do you think that there's too much pressure to 'water down' to Western pop? Here where I live (remember the expression 'will it play in Peoria?' well, I'm south of there, so you get the picture) I'm surprised by the number of Joe Average anglo midewesterners who are listening to things like Bill Laswell, and then becoming genuinely interested in African and Asian artists. I think the next 'big thing' musically is destined to be global.

But back to twenty years...I've kinda had to stifle myself...my frame of reference vis-a-vis changes has been more around thirty years, as I have a four year old. My, the changes between the early seventies and now! But keeping it to twenty...I would never have predicted the rise of coffee, of all things. I mean, I'm Sicilian, and twenty years ago my neighbors were not drinking espresso or cappuccino....now they won't live without it! And the rise of 'ethnic food'...I used to be laughed out of the schoolyard for the things my mother put in my lunchbox. Now, it seems everyone knows about the variety of Italian, Mexican, Thai, Japanese, and other 'ethnic' food. And they're putting it in their children's lunchboxes. Ditto for the trickle-down effect of 'gourmet' food. And the interest in organic foods. And vegetarianism.

And what about the rise of women in sports? Title IX has been around for more than twenty years, so I'm not really thinking of the professional level, or high school and college. No, I'm thinking about the participation of the average woman in recreational sports and physical activity.

For me an outstanding change from 1984 to present is the automobile. In '84 a car with 100,000 miles on it was old and used up, now that's just about broken in. Growing up we were always scrambling to keep the cars running, now there's three cars in the family and the newest is a '97 with 130,000 on it and they all run like tops. And they don't rust like they used to. If you were transported from '84 to the present and drove around after awhile you'd be saying, "Damn everyone in the future drives a new car."
Anyway I enjoy the site.