In fact the world is changing. Ring tones outsell singles. The BBC just launched the worlds first official download chart. Producers make music with melodies designed for monophonic and polyphonic capabilities. Fast food and newspapers provide music, film and games free. Mobile phone technology will render CD players, tape recorders and turntables useless.
Webspace and RAM (Random Access Memory) are replacing record shelves. Amazon.com will replace HMV and Easons. God only knows what will happen to the little indie record shop and the ubiquitous rude, disinterested salesman. Credit cards will finally replace cash; our personal history will be saved on a biomechanical microchip inserted into our wrist. Ebay and Paypal will rule the world wherein socialising no longer takes place in a club or pub but the multimedia room at your friend’s house. Good or bad, right or wrong the revolution is among us. During the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Industrial revolution, print capitalism, what we now call the media, was a catalyst for change.
Today the media has mutated to be both the catalyst for revolution and the actual revolution. Everything is mediated. Everything is a medium. Nothing will ever be the same. No longer will life revolve at 33 or 45rpm. Life is to be lived at 512kbs, memories defined by pixels and success in terms of processing speed. There’s just never a Luddite around when you need one.
