I had to smile at these couple of reports from SXSW in the NYT ArtsBeat blog about technology and what it calls ‘rock elders’
Sometimes you can mark a generation gap with gizmos. At any SXSW event, a significant part of the audience is texting, taking digital pictures, or talking on a cell phone. It bothered rock elders like Van Morrison and R.E.M., who complained from the stage, while younger bands took the multitasking for granted. [SXSW: Hippies v. Technology – ArtsBeat – Blog – Arts – Music – Theater – TV – Movies – New York Times Blog]
Mr. Reed, who has long been a perfectionist about sound quality, has no love for the ubiquitous mp3. “You have the world open to you now,” he said. “You can get almost any song in the world as an mp3. Then you can try and find a version of it that you can actually listen to if you like good sound.” He added, “The technology is taking us backwards. It’s making it easier to make things worse.” [SXSW: Lou Reed, No Fan of MP3s – ArtsBeat – Blog – Arts – Music – Theater – TV – Movies – New York Times Blog]
