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The Music of the Future
The Music of the Future is not a book of predictions or speculations about how to save the music business or the bleeding edge of technologies. Rather, it's a history of failures, mapping 200 years of attempts by composers, performers and critics to imagine a future for music. Encompassing utopian dream cities, temporal dislocations and projects for the emancipation of all sounds, The Music of the Future is in the end a call to arms for everyone engaged in "to fail again, fail better."
- GenresMusicNonfiction
184 pages, Paperback
Published March 21, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 8, 2017
Valuable insights and ideas taken from a historical analysis combined with present day participant observations, probing what it means to be concerned with the future of music.
I’m a generous critic; the book isn’t always easy to read, it meanders non-chronologically, as the following chapters titled after years displays: 2016, 1913, 2014, 1852, 2015, 2079, 2016.
If you’re not already pretty highly versed in music history and the contemporary avant-garde, this could be a hard slog of seemingly inside references to composers and their works. If the music of the future is more than a passing interest and rather an obsession or a recurrent theme in your reading, and you’re comfortable reading a blend of academic and editorial styles, then Robert Barry will give you valuable food for thought.
As my interstate train pulled into Sydney Central, I read the final paragraph: “the train pulls into the station...” etc, which felt eerily beautiful, so any lingering doubt about 5 stars was forgotten as I stepped out onto the platform, and into the future, filled with inspiration about music.
I’m a generous critic; the book isn’t always easy to read, it meanders non-chronologically, as the following chapters titled after years displays: 2016, 1913, 2014, 1852, 2015, 2079, 2016.
If you’re not already pretty highly versed in music history and the contemporary avant-garde, this could be a hard slog of seemingly inside references to composers and their works. If the music of the future is more than a passing interest and rather an obsession or a recurrent theme in your reading, and you’re comfortable reading a blend of academic and editorial styles, then Robert Barry will give you valuable food for thought.
As my interstate train pulled into Sydney Central, I read the final paragraph: “the train pulls into the station...” etc, which felt eerily beautiful, so any lingering doubt about 5 stars was forgotten as I stepped out onto the platform, and into the future, filled with inspiration about music.
June 28, 2018
a relentlessly compelling book, intelligent, thoughtful, optimistic. if robert barry was your friend he'd be your most interesting friend. a wide ranging survey of that which has once constituted "the future", this book should become a reference point for anyone interested in the not-now
May 27, 2024
Witty, cogent, and full of little tidbits that made me smile. A well-researched history of a specific strain of what Barry refers to as "literary composers" who rest along a "speculative continuum." A lot of provocative, yet solidly argued theory to boot.
Some minor critiques: a big gap around the turn of the millenia to circa 2010 does not go unnoticed, nor the very normative (cis, het, white, male) angle which Barry takes while approaching progress. While more optimistic than Simon Reynolds, he does fall into some of the same pitfalls of selective examples. All said, nothing that can't be accounted for by placing due skepticism on the more emphatic claims within.
Nonetheless, altogether an excellent read and I would love to read more of Barry's work in the future.
Some minor critiques: a big gap around the turn of the millenia to circa 2010 does not go unnoticed, nor the very normative (cis, het, white, male) angle which Barry takes while approaching progress. While more optimistic than Simon Reynolds, he does fall into some of the same pitfalls of selective examples. All said, nothing that can't be accounted for by placing due skepticism on the more emphatic claims within.
Nonetheless, altogether an excellent read and I would love to read more of Barry's work in the future.
November 15, 2018
Robert Barry did a very very impressive work of research with this one and his aptitude to connect the dots even when they just seem impossible to be connect is really mesmerising.
As the previous review also mentioned, this book can be a difficult reading at some times. I personally think that's due the richness of information that Robert Barry presents his readers with. It's a book that's on the edge of being academic as it explores not only music per se but sociology as well.
As the previous review also mentioned, this book can be a difficult reading at some times. I personally think that's due the richness of information that Robert Barry presents his readers with. It's a book that's on the edge of being academic as it explores not only music per se but sociology as well.
April 15, 2019
"I went to The Electric Circus at least once a month," DJ David Mancuso would later recall in an interview with Tim Lawrence for the latter's book about the history of disco. "Everybody was having fun, and they had good sound in there. It was very mixed, very integrated, very intense, very free, very positive."
On Valentine's Day 1970, Mancuso decided to hold a party of his own. Flyers advertised it as "Loves Saves the Day". The event was invite only, held in the Dj's own apartment on the corner of Broadway and Bleecker Street. No alcohol would be served, but the initials of the title indicated the kind of substitute that would be provided. Pretty soon Mancuso's parties became a regular thing. Every Saturday night, midnight till six a.m. His home was rechristened "The Loft"
...
What started in clubs like The Loft and The Sanctuary was then taken to a whole other level by hip-hop DJ's. Tools like."
On Valentine's Day 1970, Mancuso decided to hold a party of his own. Flyers advertised it as "Loves Saves the Day". The event was invite only, held in the Dj's own apartment on the corner of Broadway and Bleecker Street. No alcohol would be served, but the initials of the title indicated the kind of substitute that would be provided. Pretty soon Mancuso's parties became a regular thing. Every Saturday night, midnight till six a.m. His home was rechristened "The Loft"
...
What started in clubs like The Loft and The Sanctuary was then taken to a whole other level by hip-hop DJ's. Tools like."
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews