four fields of music making

i. Participatory Music
The example I chose for participatory music performance is a bit similar to the Shona religious ceremony in the chapter by Berliner. I found that Haitian vodou practices are traditionally participatory, with musicians and dancers feeding off of each other during the ceremony and focused on "the doing" or a common goal (prayers for the spirits). Vodou drumming in particular is highly intuitive and dependent on the other members of the circle and the dancers, making it especially inclusive and egalitarian.
Although most of the younger people in Haiti are drawn to western artistic forms and there are many popular Haitian artists (mostly American-inspired rappers) that perform within the fields of presentational and high-fidelity music, vodou traditionalists participate in a collective ceremony (like the bira of our reading) that exists outside the influence of the US (or other countries that emphasize the qualities of presentational and hi-fi music). This pocket of musical traditionalism (in a country that has been vulnerable to the influences of many world powers over the years, in every way-- even music) is limited in that it does not hold a universal appeal and does not attract an audience in the way that another field of music would; but that is not its purpose. The strength of this field of music making is that it unites participants and allows them to collectively bond in their activity.

I'm really sad that this video doesn't have the visual, but you can almost hear what it looks like. :)



ii. Presentational Music
The example I chose for a presentational music performance is a U2 concert from their 360 tour in 2011. I chose this because it was a spectacular event. The tour sold out every date within minutes of the tickets going on sale, and was aesthetically unlike any concert I had ever seen. The stage was configured so that the audience could almost completely surround the stage (hence 360) and a massive structure ("The Claw") was built above it with the sound system and an expanding cylindrical video screen on top. These special effects alone were certainly enough to keep the audience's attention (with his face magnified 100x on the screen, Bono's virtuosity was certainly showcased) but the band's interaction with the audience and the atmosphere of the show in general were unreal.
I also thought this concert would be a good example of presentational music because it deals with some capitalistic ideas-- the tour generated $736 million in ticket sales and was marketed as an unprecedented and innovative product. The audience bought tickets expecting to be entertained, those expectations were met and exceeded in many ways (at least for me), and the people on the other end made a lot of money. The tour also has identifiable characteristics of presentational music making: the band had infinite artistic freedom, room to show off and shine as individuals (Bono is a ham, but we all knew that already), and the goal of the show was not to intimately include the audience but to provide a spectacle for them. Our participation was not essential for the band to do their thing; we experienced a different type of flow on the ground and in the stadium than the four musicians did onstage, even though they did include us in some songs. This limitation was expected and did not bother me; the show did a brilliant job at what it was designed to do: entertain.

(Yes, this is the full concert... just in case you'd like the whole thing.)



iii. High Fidelity Performance
The song I chose for an example of a high fidelity performance is the song 'Blurred Lines' by Robin Thicke. It's currently number one on iTunes, and it's actually popular in Europe right now too (the first time I heard it was in France a few weeks ago-- it was on every radio station). The song itself indexes a live performance and sounds like something that could conceivably be performed live, but at the same time if you focus you can hear the influence of studio engineering (in the layering of tracks-- repetition of the MJ-ish screams and the timing of the cowbell).
I thought this was a good example of a hi-fi performance because this song was "performed" (recorded) with the objective of topping the charts, and the music itself is a commodified object. In our society this is perfectly normal; I wouldn't normally think twice about it. The fact that this song is being sold all over the world is one of the strengths of hi-fi recording;  marketing music as a "product" increases universal interest and access in a way that participatory music making does not. At the same time, although hi-fi music is intended to preserve the feeling of a live performance, it is still in reality just a copy, and some might say its authenticity is somewhat diminished.



iv. Studio-Audio Art
The song I chose as an example for studio-audio art is produced by two Austrian DJs. I've heard dubstep and disco before but I'm actually not very familiar with studio-audio art, and I learned about this song through an overseas friend (who claims that electronic music is very popular in France in Spain right now). When you listen to the synthesized sounds of this song (I really love it), there is no expectation that it should be performed live, and that's really fascinating to me because this piece of music exists as a separate entity and is free from any connection to an "original."
Studio-Audio Art is still sort of an enigma to me. It's not about achieving a collective feeling or stressing individual talents or replicating and selling a live performance. It doesn't emphasize individuals or virtuosity but at the same time it doesn't downplay either because it exists so separately from any kind of humanness. It's just abstract. I suppose this lack of human interaction can be seen as a limitation to some people, but at the same time it's the central characteristic of this field. I think it's really cool.