From Player Pianos to iPhones: The Amateur in the Age of Mechanical Music March 7, 2011

Music and Sound Studies Colloquium Series
Sponsored by the U of M's Office of Interdisciplinary Initiatives
280 Ferguson Hall

Mark Katz
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This talk explores how amateur music-making has been transformed by, and has transformed, sound recording technologies over the course of the past century. Katz pursues this inquiry through three brief case studies. The first considers the musical uses of the player piano and phonograph by amateurs at the turn of the twentieth century. The second focuses on a musical phenomenon that arose in the 1970s but has remained influential since, karaoke. The final case study is situated in the early 21st century and examines how mobile phones, in particular Apple's iPhone, challenge traditional notions of musicianship and instrumentality.

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