Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture

* Book: Mashed Up: Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture, by Aram Sinnreich (University of Massachusettes Press), 2010

Description

"Music as an element of the cultural commons figures in a lot of these books, but USC lecturer Sinnreich makes it his door into a rapidly changing culture. In Mashed Up, the author explores the often antagonistic relationship between music and those commercial agents who would control its flow. He sees a natural affinity between China's Office to Harmonize Sounds and copyright-enforcing American record labels and associations: they both stand opposed to what Sinnreich calls "configurable culture." Artists today, the author argues, produce in relation to each other by nature - a mental feature he calls "DJ Consciousness." Configurable culture based in abundance and sharing is coming soon, Sinnreich writes, government and corporation alike better get used to it. Mashed Up attempts to blur the lines between private and property, between ownership and social production and its thesis resonates beyond the world of music." (http://shareable.net/blog/back-to-school-15-shareable-books-for-fall)