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Ethnomusicologists tell us music is ubiquitous across time and place; the archaeological record for instance shows a rich tradition across many continents, from ancient flutes to bullroarers (Blacking, 1974; Nettl, 2015). With the advent of modern music technologies, such as synthesizers, digital sampling, stutter editing, and pitch correction, issues of aesthetics, authenticity, and the intersection with issues of human psychology such as cognition and emotion come to the fore (Hargreaves & Lamont, 2017; Hallam et al., 2018; Hodges, 2019; Meyer, 1961; Thaut & Hodges, 2021).
While some may argue that synthesizers and sampling aim to imitate natural sound, it is worth noting that even traditional acoustic strings, woodwinds, and percussion instruments (such as violins, cellos, oboes, pianos, and drum sets) also can be said to be technologies that aimed at least as much to imitate and recreate natural sounds such as the human voice, animals, or landscapes, as they aim to innovate as yet never heard sounds and places. There are many variations on the relationship between natural sound and technology modified sound; for instance, in 1915 Rachmaninoff wrote Vocalise for voice with piano accompaniment, but there have been a veritable plethora of versions since then, such as the technology of Jascha Heifeitz’s acoustic violin with piano and later Clara Rockmore’s electronic theremin with piano.
Do technologies make the audience experience less authentic or deeply felt? Are there ethical implications in technology use in music? While research on music and emotion continues to explore if certain tempi, rhythms, sounds/timbres, dynamics, melodies, harmonies, and structures/form are more or less associated with various human emotions, it is certainly clear that the best music, whether acoustic or electronic can be associated with profound human responses, much as the best art can lead to sublime emotional reactions that have been termed the Stendhal Effect (Finkel, 2023; Rich, in press). My conversations with Grammy Award winning musicians including Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea have confirmed these musicians view the technology as one more tool in their toolkits for realizing their musical visions; both have earned awards both for their acoustic work as well as their forays into the electronic realm. Even though the early days of synthesis may have included challenges such as instruments that were monophonic or that had difficulty staying in tune, or that reflected comparative simplicity in their waveforms, amplitude and filter envelopes and other variables, talented musicians have always found a way to create powerful sound with available technology (Anderton, 1992; Glinnsky, 2022; Vail, 2000) . Some may have aged less well! For instance, National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters Fellow Dick Hyman’s solo acoustic piano album Music of 1937 may have more staying power than his Moog Synthesizer hits “The Topless Dancers of Corfu” or even the “Minotaur” from the 1960s, but such anomalies should not in of themselves dissuade listeners from electronics.
More concerning than aesthetics issues, perhaps are the possible ethical issues involved. Does it matter if the listeners, the public, the audiences, and sometimes judges are led to believe a composition or recording was created one way when it was in fact created with special technology? Even the classic 1970s US Sitcom the Brady Bunch wrestled with this difficult moral dilemma in the much-discussed episode Adios, Johnny Bravo from 1973. In this episode teenager Greg is approached to be a rock star, but there’s a catch! To secure the contract he must have the backing band and studio effects provided by the music producers as well as wear the sparkling stage outfit. He fits the suit, and the technology gives a smooth sound, but in the end, after consulting his family, he opts out and follows his traditional values, a lesson to viewers to maintain integrity and one’s true self.
More modern-day versions of this fictional TV dilemma can be seen routinely in the music industry. For instance, some may remember Milli Vanilli, the German R&B duo from the 1980s who rose to great success and won a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1990. However, it infamously became known they did not sing the vocals on their music, and had instead lip synced in videos/performances; the Grammy was revoked. While that situation is an easy ethical call, the example does illustrate that ethics and aesthetics can in some ways be distinct. Listeners enjoyed Milli Vanilli and some still do; perhaps those that know the back story behind the lip syncing enjoy them less today, but perhaps for some listeners it is a moot, or irrelevant point.
Likewise, with emerging technologies, new ethical issues abound. Most recently the Grammy Awards have needed to address the use of AI eligibility for awards, noting that songs created with assistance of AI are indeed eligible for awards, but that a human is required to be involved at least in part in the creativity (McIntrye, 2023). While music technology may be yet to reach the point we see in fictional treatments of robots and AI, where society must, for instance, contend with the moral dilemmas of pulling the plug on potentially sentient artificial beings, perhaps those days are on the horizon sooner they we may think. In Klara and the Sun, the recent novel by Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro (2021), we see the focus on Klara, a highly intelligent “Artificial Friend,” who as the novel opens, waits patiently in a store for someone to buy her. She’s eventually selected but is taken to the remote prairie, and ultimately is settled, stagnant and immobile, in a scrap yard for old Artificial Friends where she can watch the Sun and mull on her memories. Would an ethical society consider such treatment of a sentient being unethical and immoral? Arguments that a being must have equivalent brain power to a human to merit ethical treatment do not tend to hold under even cursory philosophical examination, as Martha Nussbaum argues in part in her recent book Justice for Animals (2023). Can Klara live her best Artificial Friend life potential sitting in fixed position in a store window or scrap yard? Can a puppy live happily in a tiny suburban back yard? Our musical instruments may not yet have the cognitive or emotional capacities of Klara or a puppy, but they may one day. What we do know is musicians can become as attached to their instruments, as they can to humans, such as guitarists naming their axes, and sleeping in bed with them, or electronic musicians obsessed with finding parts to keep their vintage gear working (anyone have a Buchla they are willing to send me?). I recall recoiling in a combination of both ecstasy and moral horror seeing an original piano by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731), probably the first true piano, freely open to public play, but in a state of great disrepair, in an Italian museum some time ago! Throughout the ages our connection to human technology can be a close, and emotional one.
Though this brief column can’t hope to answer each of these questions, it is evident that while the specific new technologies change over time (Rich, Kumar, & Farley, in press), from ancient flutes and bullroarers, to modern stutter edits, pitch correction, and digital sampling, that the aesthetic and ethical issues will continue to be ones musicians and audiences will need to engage with, and that psychology and psychologists can and should play a significant role in understanding and optimizing these innovations.
References
Adios, Johnny Bravo. (1973). https://bradybunch.fandom.com/wiki/Adios,_Johnny_Bravo
Anderton, C. (1992). Electronic projects for musicians. Hal Leonard.
Blacking, J. (1974). How musical is man? University of Washington Press.
Finkel, M. (2023). The art thief. Knopf.
Glinnsky, A. (2022). Switched on: Bob Moog and the synthesizer revolution. Oxford.
Hallam, S., Cross, I., & Thaut, M. (2018). The Oxford handbook of music psychology (2nd Ed.). Oxford.
Hargreaves, D., & Lamont, A. (2017). The psychology of music development. Cambridge University Press.
Hodges, D. A. (2019). Music in the human experience: An introduction to music psychology (2nd Ed.). Routledge.
Ishiguro, K. (2021). Klara and the sun. Vintage.
McIntrye, H. (2023, September 6). An AI-created song is looking to make history with a Grammy nomination. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2023/09/06/an-ai-created-song- is-looking-to-make-history-with-a-grammy-nomination/?sh=57fd40bd2616
Meyer, L. B. (1961). Emotion and meaning in music. University of Chicago Press.
Nettl, B. (2015). The study of ethnomusicology. University of Illinois Press.
Nussbaum, M. (2023). Justice for animals. Simon & Schuster.
Rich, G. (in press 2024). Prosocial influences countering popular music’s portrayal of risky behaviors. In C. L. Wright, L. A., Ey, K. M. Hopper, & W. Warburton (Eds.), The importance of media literacy: Getting the most from the digital world. Cambridge.
Rich, G., Kumar, K., & Farley, F. (Eds.). (in press). Handbook of media psychology: The science and the practice. Springer. (foreword by Danny Wedding)
Thaut, M. H., & Hodges, D. A. (Eds.). (2021). The Oxford handbook of music and the brain. Oxford University Press.
Vail, M. (2000). Vintage synthesizers: Pioneering designers, groundbreaking instruments, collecting tips, mutants of technology (2ed ed.). Backbeat.
