somewhat non-archaeological, but...
        on the weekend some guy was singing at a local beer-fest; old rolling
stones, beatles, simon and garfunkel tunes, etc. - all classics that everyone
over the age of maybe 20 has heard 1000 times or more (if not willingly, then at
least in the background, etc.) - the only thing remarkable about the whole thing
was that the songs were written and sung in english by a german speaker (you
could tell by his accent) in a city which used to be in east germany -
        i don't know if everyone else hanging out knew almost all the words to
these things or not, and i don't know if there is a term for this kind of
cultural transmission, but i keep wondering: what's it going to be like for the
generation(s) which currently consume(s) techno or rap (or any variations
thereof) about 20 years down the line? will they still be able to remember
whatever dance track was all the rage at the raves during the summer of 1999?
        i don't want to start a debate about the relative merits of different
musical genres here, i'm just wondering about something i'm only sort of getting
around to defining - anyone with a guitar and enough beer can sing just about
any bob dylan tune around the campfire, for example, but how can you whistle a
disco remix?
        a culture needs to be self-replicating - there are stories you tell your
kids because you remember your parents telling them to you once upon a time -
there are songs you sing and remember because that was the song you heard when
you first met so-and-so or... for whatever reason -
        but what happens when these relics or artifacts are replaced by such
ephemeral and short-lived phenomena as computer games and dance trax? will there
be some sort of existentialist vacuum (vaguely thinking of blade runner here) or
will something else to fill it? or has modern western culture somehow changed
itself in some drastic way, as a result of which that sort of memory -
whether shared or personal - will be a thing of the past?


geoff carver
http://home.t-online.de/home/gcarver/
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