# How recording profoundly changed music



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Recording changed music in a profound way, especially popular and folk musics. Before, the written score insured that music would be transmitted in an unchanged way, as a 'definitive' form. Folk, popular, and 'ear' music did not have this advantage; as it passed from player to player, it changed and morphed, just like that whispering game we've all played.

With the advent of recording, now music had an 'ear' memory which was not biological, but was objective and unchanging, just like a written score, perhaps even better.

Jazz musicians can now learn solos note-for-note, and popular forms of music are now acquiring a stable, unchanging history and tradition, which was formerly the exclusive domain of art music.


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