Panicking Over Music—Our Oldest Tradition?
About this episode
The episode explores the historical fears surrounding new music technologies and their societal implications.
This is a paraphrased transcript. Listen to get the full experience Jordan [Orchestral overture] Imagine a new technology drops today, right? And the government immediately moves to ban it. They claim it’s going to fundamentally corrupt the youth and cause the absolute collapse of the state. You’d probably think it was, I don’t know, a biological weapon. Or maybe some kind of unregulated neuroimplant. Alex Exactly. But if you rewind to about 380 BCE, Plato was making that exact argument about a new type of flute. It is just a stunning historical reality. We tend to think of the history of music as this upward trajectory of universal celebration. Jordan Right, where society just marvels at the next great masterpiece or a cool new instrument. Alex Yeah, but if you look at the primary sources, the reaction to new musical expression is almost always sheer, unadulterated terror. Jordan Which is exactly what we are getting into today. Welcome to The Deep Dive . Our mission today is to track the overarching through-lines of this fear. We want to figure out why new music and new music tech always seem to terrify society. And what’s uniquely different about the panics you see in your…
People in this episode
Host: Jordan
Guest: Alex
Topics covered
- music technology
- historical panic
- cultural expression
- societal fear
- music history
Keywords
- music
- technology
- panic
- history
- Plato
- cultural expression
- society
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Plato, flute, lyres, 19th-century bal
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