Andrew Keen notes in his recent book 'The Cult of the Amateur' that we are entering a 'uesr generated' era, where tracts of 'reliable', trustworthy' and 'quality' information have been poorly substituted by online downloads (more often than not illegal), piracy, internet shopping and an array of user platforms that seek to recreate a plethera of multi-media options, searches and even creative 'masterpieces'.
Keen is at his most aggressive in terms of peer produced content when he laments the closure of his favourite record stores and music availability online. Keen attacks the current cultural 'choice' provided by Web 2.0 that is dependent upon those anonymous reviews from itunes or Amazon.com - a 'death rattle' in the face of the co-bodily encounter and superior knowledge of the music clerk.
However, and contrary to Keen's bewail-ment, the popularity of music is stronger than it has ever been before. In part this is to do with Web 2.0; audiences who now have access to the 'creator' of their favourite music content. The mass production of information in this way means that audiences can find out much more detailed add-on information, subscribe to authored blogs etc. On MySpace if you are accepted as a 'friend' you can even become your favourite bands NBF (New Best Friend).
Such actions are for Keen representative of the 'death' of popular culture and failure to engage to requisite experts when seeking music content, news headlines, even topics for school homework. A pretty bleak picture in the reign of 'the amateur' and peer production that is Web 2.0.
To go back to our musical context, Keen may be mistaken. There is still demand for preserving the physicality of music appreciation. From buying cd's and enjoying the atmosphere of a music store to standing up to your neck in mud and being carried along by the atmosphere. Take this years Glastonbury, sold out in record time with participants willingly engaging with known bands, discovering new ones and all that mud! . As Adam Webb writes in today's Guardian 'The Vinyl Frontier' there is still demand for preserving the physicality of music appreciation. From buying cd's from a music shop and gently strumming through their back catalogues.
Current trends are re-focussed on the role of the independent retailor to 'pass the baton on' where they encourage new music and break new acts. Alongside this the back catalogue offers a new generation of music lovers a way to get excited about music that cannot be replicated on itunes. Here the embodied interaction between music dealer and audience enjoyment retain their place despite Keen's concerns to the contrary.
What Keen really overlooks, is how the audience still appreciates and seeks to get excited about music. Whilst Web 2.0 has given rise to file-sharing, illegal downloads, and so forth to the detriment of music retailors such as HMV and Tower Records, the audience want to get excited about new bands, share, remix etc with one another. Perhaps it is not the 'cult of the amateur' that is failing Web 2.0, but Web 2.0 that is failing the rise of a more confident and peer produced audience.
Sources
Keen, A. (2007) The Cult of The Amateur
Webb, A. The Guardian 'The Vinyl Frontier' Friday July 6 2007
7/6/07
