To Ted Gioia, music is a form of cloud storage for preserving human culture. And the real cultural conflict, he insists, is not between “high brow” and “low brow” music, but between the innovative and the formulaic. Imitation and repetition deaden musical culture—and he should know, since he listens to 3 hours of new music per day and over 1,000 newly released recordings in a year. His latest book covers the evolution of music from its origins in hunter-gatherer societies, to ancient Greece, to jazz, to its role in modern-day political protests such as those in Hong Kong. He joined Tyler to discuss the history and industry of music, including the reasons AI will never create the perfect songs, the strange relationship between outbreaks of disease and innovation, how the shift from record companies to Silicon Valley transformed incentive structures within the industry–and why that’s cause for concern, the vocal polyphony of Pygmy music, Bob Dylan’s Nobel prize, why input is underrated, his advice to aspiring music writers, the unsung female innovators of music history, how the Blues anticipated the sexual revolution, what Rene Girard’s mimetic theory can tell us about noisy restaurants, the reason he calls Sinatra the “Derrida of pop singing,” how to cultivate an excellent music taste, and why he loves Side B of Abbey Road.
Follow Ted on Twitter
Follow Tyler on Twitter
More CWT goodness:
Coleman Hughes on Colorblindness, Jazz, and Identity
Peter Thiel on Political Theology
Jonathan Haidt on Adjusting to Smartphones and Social Media
Fareed Zakaria on the Age of Revolutions, the Power of Ideas, and the Rewards of Intellectual Curiosity
Marilynne Robinson on Biblical Interpretation, Calvinist Thought, and Religion in America
Marc Andreessen on AI and Dynamism
Marc Rowan on Financial Market Evolution and University Governance
Masaaki Suzuki on Interpreting Bach
Ami Vitale on Photojournalism and Wildlife Conservation
Rebecca F. Kuang on National Literatures, Book Publishing, and History in Fiction
Patrick McKenzie on Navigating Complex Systems
Conversations with Tyler 2023 Retrospective
Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food
John Gray on Pessimism, Liberalism, and Theism
Jennifer Burns on Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand
Brian Koppelman on TV, Movies, and Appreciating Art
Githae Githinji on Life in Kenya
Harriet Karimi Muriithi on Life in Kenya
Stephen Jennings on Building New Cities
Jacob Mikanowski on Eastern Europe
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Meaningful Life with Andrew G. Marshall
The No-Frills Teacher Podcast
Heal, Survive & Thrive!
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast