Do we lose agency over our work once it’s recorded? How does sharing our artworks change them? What should be shared when we can’t guarantee appropriate context?
Disciplines:
The recorded voice has so many dangers that are unconsidered, as with every new technology for the transmission of ideas.
A live performer will make decisions based on who they expect to attend. Knowing how to respond to an audience is a skill.
A live performer can provide context for what the audience is about to experience, or what they just experienced.
I think of the song, "Baby It's Cold Outside," with the now-controversial line, "say, what's in this drink?"
My understanding is that the composer wrote it for his wife, and she was proud to sing a song where she could take control of her sexuality. "What's in this drink" was a way to sidestep the (white) expectation of submissive feminine sexuality; to get what she wanted without suffering for going against the status quo of that era.
I'm not from the generation in which that song was first popularised. I hear that line and have a visceral gut reaction that she needs to chuck the drink, get out of that house immediately, and find safety.
If I were to perform that song, I would update that line (and potentially other lyrics) to keep the original meaning. That discretion is one of the benefits of an experienced artist performing live. If any audience members remembered the original and wanted to hear it, I could explain my reasons for the change. They might not like it, but they would have a chance to understand.
Before recorded music, songs were always experienced with context. There are work songs, celebration songs, mourning songs, spiritual or religious songs, and so on. Each song had a place in the cycle of life or the cycle of a day, and could only be created and witnessed by the people present in the moment.
Now we listen to recordings of songs, speeches, and various other performances, in all kinds of situations. With no context, it's easy to misunderstand, misuse, and/or disrespect what we hear. It's easy to mistake the illusion of connection and understanding for the real thing. It's easy to consume and appropriate without witnessing.
We're left with a (retroactive?) decision about what should be shared when we can't guarantee appropriate context.
Do we lose agency over our work once it’s recorded? How does sharing our artworks change them? What should be shared when we can’t guarantee appropriate context?
