The Fear That Synthesizers Would Ruin Music | JSTOR Daily | + Opinion

A German musicologist complained in 1954 that they reminded him of “barking hell-hounds.”

Source: The Fear That Synthesizers Would Ruin Music | JSTOR Daily

Opinion:

The above-linked article talks about early fears surrounding the advent of electronic music, but it points to a larger truth:

Technology is not the enemy. How we potentially misuse it is.

The fear of novelty and change goes way back. For those old enough to remember, the newspapers used to print daily stories about the evils of watching TV – I mean old CRT TV – especially for children.

TV was demonized as the great social evil. Called the “boob tube” by many, reading books was usually preferred by “responsible adults” who wished their kids to enjoy well-developed brains and advanced powers of critical thinking.

Next, of course, the demon moved on, just like it did in the New Testament from a man to a herd of pigs.

The new demonic host was video games. And back then, video games were nothing like they are today. Relatively simple games like Asteroids, Space Invaders, Tetris, Pong, Pacman, and Galaxian consumed the attention and quarters of many an afterschool teen. And the journalists were horrified.

Oh but wait. The story gets worse.

Around the corner, we had a huge devil just waiting to hit the scene. The demon’s name was the PC and its satanic power spread through its cloned minion PCs, all linked up on the World Wide Web.

Now the fearmongers really had something to bleat about.

Forget TV as the devil, for some reason “binge-watching” instantly became cute and trendy instead of an evil pastime. No, the real evil now was the internet.

Psychiatrists drew up all sorts of new labels and illnesses like “internet addiction,” “social media disorder” and so on.

Book lovers and those who see reading books as the only way to educate yourself clung on desperately. University professors and highbrow snobs felt their hegemonic grip on so-called “culture” weakening. So they became even more ardently opposed to the web, Wikipedia, visual docs and video games.

But here’s the punchline:

Scientific studies now suggest that VIDEO GAMES ARE GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN!

Sorry snobs and second-rate professors. Your days are numbered.

And don’t pick up your phone to tell anybody. Satan’s in there now. 🙂