Technology lowers the barrier to making sound but raises the risk of producing without musical development

May observes that in the early days, synthesis was a closely guarded skill — ‘a real synthesis was not a person that shared this music.’ Now anyone can make music without knowing what a synthesiser is. He is not against technology but warns against relying on it as a crutch: ‘We weren’t using the synthesizers or the sequencers or the programs just as a sort of crutch. It was an asset, but it wasn’t the crutch.’ He is concerned that electronic music lacks sufficient collaboration with acoustic musicians and that producers are ‘riding the coattails of technology’ rather than developing genuine musical sensibility. The lesson: access to tools is not the same as development of craft.

Examples

Rik Davis (Vietnam veteran, Jimi Hendrix fan) passed synthesis knowledge to Juan Atkins as something ‘sacred’ and ‘really special’. May contrasts this with today, when ‘you don’t even have to know what a synthesizer is to make music.‘

Assessment

In your own words, state May’s distinction between using technology as an ‘asset’ versus a ‘crutch’. Give an example from your own practice of each stance and describe the consequences.