Sep 24 2008
The technological conundrum part 1
Hip Hop as a musical art form has always been a pioneer when it comes to technical advancements in recording and production equipment. In fact when one of Hip Hop’s original pioneers, Grandmaster Flash, found the original record mixing equipment insufficient in the late 70’s, he created his own mixer using parts from radio shack. His invention led to the adaptation of the crossfader and transform switches on DJ mixers, a function of the mixer that is essential and universally seen on equipment now. The various companies that have grown and flourished creating equipment for producers owe a large part of their business to Hip Hop artists.
But it hasn’t been all peaches and cream. Some people credit a recent innovation, Serato, with the death of vinyl records and the cottage industry that was created to manufacture and distribute this material. I know people personally who had lucrative businesses involving wax that now don’t exist because of Serato. Now all DJs want is digital copies of songs rather than the hard copy on vinyl. While I’m sure club DJs see it as a godsend, saving them space, time, and effort when traveling to the club, many purists hate the technology and the ramifications for the industry.
I spoke about another technology that some people feel is ruining music in general in one of my previous columns, the pitch corrector function employed by Zapp and Roger, and more recently T-Pain. Many mediocre voices are being covered up my this computer program, and it has definitely taken some of the organic feeling out of soul and R&B music, and made it much more processed and commercialized.
This is just an introduction to the topic, and in future columns we will delve deeper into the specifics of technology and the ramifications for Hip Hop music. But like everything in life, these issues have both positive and negative impacts on our music, so it’s important to discuss and understand these factors. You can always feel free to leave comments, but I would ask that with this topic in particular, I would like to hear how you feel about the technological conundrum.
