On 5/8/13 12:20 PM, glen ropella wrote:
For example, it seems to me that I see 2 opposing causal flows in
music. One is that in pop music, culture leads individuals. But in
folk or jazz or any live-music oriented domain, it strikes me that
individuals (or individual bands) lead culture.
It depends what you mean by `lead'. I'd distinguish between influence
and innovate. I'd claim that culture does not innovate, it can only put
down a road and encourage people to take it, and thereby set the stage
for innovators. That can be useful, if the taking the path, e.g.
watching the T.V. show or buying the iPhone, results in resources being
reallocated to those that do innovate, e.g. writers or communication
satellite engineers. A danger is that in providing a path, it decreases
entropy instead of increasing it. The television screenwriter realizes
there is no market for anything but CSI-type dramas, and stops working
on her craft. But I think at the end of the day it matters more that
she can be a professional writer at all, than that she has a market that
demands novelty and sophistication.
Marcus
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