[Dancecult-l] liveness

[Mark J. Butler]

Hello list,
In following this discussion I've been a little bit surprised to see,  
on a dance music list-serv, the term "live" and its cognates used in  
the most traditional sense. The notion of "liveness" is essentially  
problematic, and not just in EDM. Rather than saying that it doesn't  
work to speak of EDM as "live" (more on this below), I would say that  
the extremely high degree of technological mediation in EDM exposes  
the constructed nature of "liveness" in modern performance in general.

In fact, it is only when we’re aware of the opposing possibility that  
certain kinds of performances begin to seem "live." As Philip  
Auslander writes in his book Liveness, "the live is actually an  
effect of mediatization, not the other way around." In this view,  
"live" can be understood as a limit-term of "recorded" or "mediated."

I'm currently writing a book on relationships between technology,  
improvisation, and composition in EDM performances, for which I've   
been studying both DJ sets and laptop performances. In both contexts,  
musicians express great concern that their performances convey a  
sense of liveness. From a scholarly perspective, this should be  
familiar enough in the context of the DJ set; Kai Fikentscher and  
others have already written pretty extensively about the notion of  
"vibe." In the context of the laptop set, musicians seek to  
communicate the dynamic, 'here-and-now' nature of what they are doing  
through techniques such as physical gestures, the use of hardware  
above and beyond the actual laptop, and so on.

So, I would agree with Denise that DJ sets should be understood as  
"live," as should the many other kinds of performance that are  
proliferating in EDM contexts. But the concept of "liveness" needs to  
be viewed through a critical lens that highlights the many ways in  
which it interacts dialectically with sound as a recorded and  
otherwise technologically mediated entity.

Best,
Mark Butler

********************
Mark J. Butler, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Music
University of Pennsylvania
201 S. 34th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Office: 215-898-4524
Email: mabutler at sas.upenn.edu