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It seemed like they had a larger social justice angle for the piece, then realized it didn’t read well or forgot to write it in the first piece. To be honest,
by nxc18 9y ago
It seemed like they had a larger social justice angle for the piece, then realized it didn’t read well or forgot to write it in the first piece.
To be honest, I expected the article to go that route just from that statement, but refreshingly it didn’t. While valid, the social justice argument is hard to take seriously - audio engineers are people, too, and you can’t expect everyone to be aware of every single one of their biases. Especially not back in the times when MP3 was created.
Still, it would be interesting to read about the technical differences between music in different cultures. As technology spreads in the developing world, accommodating all cultures will grow as an issue.
- sp332 9y agoAs MP3's have invaded more and more contemporary listening spaces, the class of privileged sounds which the format inadvertently creates has become more apparent... This format has become a curator for these spaces: allowing in a great deal of wonderful sound, yes, but at the exclusion of a vast territory in the available sonic terrain. Wondering what kind of creative expressions have been blocked by the status quo is absolutely social justice. Just admitting that MP3 might be holding back entire cultures or subcultures of music is going to be a big leap for some people.
- EliRivers 9y agoSo what wording should people use when they want to suggest that someone's culture constrained their thinking, without triggering the anti-SJW brigade? Some of those people are so easy to accidentally trigger and so sensitive. How could we have a conversation about this without upsetting them and the conversation subsequently degrading?
- tjoff 9y agoInstead of originating with gender and trying to fit in taste of music etc. into that. Start with what is relevant, the music, maybe that happens to fit nicely into what is considered popular for a specific group of people. Maybe not. "It seems they targeted this kind of music which would have been quite typical for XXX during that time." Or mentioning more specifically that they omitted this kind of music which could explain why it perform poorly in that context. The quote also reads that they it was designed explicitly for western-european men, the gap between that and "they might have biases toward their own taste" is astronomical.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]