Web integration of a scene erodes its scarcity-driven mystique and romance

Evidence

Another thing is that the hardcore continuum genres were very slow to get integrated with the web. When I did early pieces on 2step garage and grime, the labels and artists had hardly any web presence. Nearly all the interviews I had to do calling mobile phone numbers or speak in person, rather than do email interviews. It was only about 2005 that you started to get grime figures with Myspaces. It was only around then that you started to get tons of DJ sets being uploaded to the web. Before that the music was really hard to get hold of if you didn’t live in London, you had to mail order expensive 12”s and CD mixtapes. Now it is totally easy to stay on top of the music no matter where you live. But some of the romance and mystique of the scene has gone as a result. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1263

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes Walter Benjamin’s aura argument — mechanical reproduction/digital accessibility dissolving the scene’s aura. — connects to: Web-scale independent production exceeds 1970s countercultural reach but needs existential reframing — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1025; Social media constitutes a contextual monoculture that destroys meaning-bearing spatial context — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 548; Space-binding media create communities dispersed across distance rather than place — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 623

Broader Connections

• Social media constitutes a contextual monoculture that destroys meaning-bearing spatial context #expands (0.75) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 548
• Space-binding media create communities dispersed across distance rather than place #expands (0.72) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 623