Task 4 - Hyperreality

Hyperreality

'Hyperreality is used in semiotics and postmodern philosophy to describe a hypothetical inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced post-modern societies. Hyperreality is a way of characterizing what our consciousness defines as "real" in a world where a multitude of media can radically shape and filter an original event or experience.'

The development of music scenes as hyperreal.

Potentially, it could be possible to describe today's music scenes as being hyperreal, perhaps not so much in terms of the music itself, but more so regarding the following various music can attract, and as a result of this the, situation and context where a particular type of music is played. However, describing today's music as hyperreal can also be very easily argued in the way that music is, in essence, just music. Then again that is exactly what it is to the casual listener, 'just music', and in this form, it may well not be hyperreal. Many would argue however that it extends beyond this, there is far more to it, as music naturally develops a following of a certain category of people, and these people naturally adopt certain trends and ideas that stem from listening to a certain type of music, and the people who make it.

In terms of potentially being hyperreal, it could be argued that 99% of all music is pretty much a copy of something previously made. So essentially all of it is hyperreal, whilst somehow being original at the same time. A confusing one, so it would be better to delve deeper and examine the following scenes attract and the situations that stem from these. To make the hyperreality side of things clear, it is useful to examine certain situations, for example the roots of 'underground' music as such (to the extent that by the time it reaches the majority, it is not underground in the slightest). Perhaps one of the best examples would be dubstep as a genre of music, and what this means to different people. In it's earlier (fairly ambiguous) forms, dubstep was something fresh a new, built around deep basslines and minimal, scattered beats which gave it a lot of room for basslines to come through. Naturally, it was something that with a little help from the internet would travel far and wide and would receive a mixed bag of opinions; those that appreciated it and wanted to do the same would take ideas from one level to the next, pushing sounds forward until it became exposed on a much greater level. Of course, as time goes on, there would become a time when bigger record labels would notice certain areas of potential; in the case of dubstep, which was initially only effective on large soundsystems derived from dub cultures, bigger labels noticed that the a lot of the original sounds could not be heard on laptop speakers or normal computer speakers, so began to take on artists who were pushing a more mid-range sound; sounds that could be heard on laptop speakers.

Larger labels and more commercially successful nightclubs would begin to adopt these newer sounds that could translate easily from laptop speakers to your average club system, and market this as 'dubstep', even though this would cause a large disagreement between those pushing the sound as we know it today, and the sound that existed a few years ago. And so people attending these nights do not experience the real sound as it was originally meant to be, only a wildly mutated version tailored to suit the masses.

In this sense, it is possible to describe music scenes as being hyperreal – Presenting an idea/style of music to the masses under a certain name that meant something very different a number of years ago. The people attending these nights have a very different mindset and style compared to those who went to the 'original' nights (although of course, these nights were all copies of other nights, in their own certain way) – once upon a time 'dubstep' was about large soundsystems, deep, minimal beats and small clubs barely filling half capacity, whereas nowadays it is about something very different.