![]() In an essay on the merits of playing copycat published in the February Harper’s, Jonathan Lethem traced the origins of American pop to the “open source” culture of blues and jazz and noted that recording techniques, which allowed for literal duplication of sounds, have steadily enhanced the artful cribbing pop’s innovators employ. ![]() This idea has always been pretty much a lie, given the history of music-making as a borrower’s art. For a traditionalist like John, it’s a scary time - old standards are dying fast.Ĭonsider one of the enduring myths of pop: that originality is paramount. The music industry is in tatters the noise that amateurs once kept to themselves emanates from every corner of cyberspace, and between the money-obsessed mainstream and the hype-addled underground, there’s no agreement on what will endure. ELTON JOHN’S recent public outburst about the Internet’s effect on pop - he suggested that a five-year cyberspace shutdown might be the only way to renew the music’s creativity - was greeted with eye rolling and the general consensus that he should splurge on an iPod. ![]()
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