Musiksoftware und die Demokratisierung der Musikkultur. Zu den Effekten der Digitalisierung für Musiker

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Abstract

Facing the possibilities of digital music production and the internet, the digital revolution promised to bring about a democratisation of music culture. Although a common and widespread theme accompanying media technologies and the aesthetic discourse, an analysis and review of these claims are missing in the field of music research. The aim of this paper is to discuss the effects digital media had for musicians. How did musical practise and artistic strategies change in the context of the digitisation of music culture?
On the way to a cultural and media history of music making, I critically engage with the theme of democratisation in relation to digital media. As computers and music software increasingly have become a commodity, they are part of a dynamically changing consumer culture. Besides these aspects, the computer challenges the very idea of musical creativity and gains technical agency by formalising and simulating not only other instruments, but composition styles and music cognition itself. Taking this into account, the idea of democratisation appears more as a starting point than the effect of music software.