010 | Music of the New Normal (2021) 

In recent years, digital technology and the internet have been actively used for creative purposes and are actively driving a paradigm shift in music. Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, there has been a fundamental shift in the way music is created amidst a flood of technologies such as virtual reality, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence.

What's important is that music is freely fusing with various things beyond its traditional boundaries. As our daily experiences are converted into data, information that was previously unavailable, such as the real and the virtual, the human and the media, is beginning to mix. The composers mix and match materials encountered on the Internet, crossing sounds and bodies to capture the social changes shaped by technology.

The book begins by illuminating the changes that occur as the world becomes increasingly digitalized. Digital convergence, the seamless blending of disparate information, merges old and new media, the real and the virtual, the media and the body, and is reshaping the way culture is received and created. The ability to connect to a network with a small, powerful computer, access a wide variety of materials, edit them at will, and share them challenges traditional notions of creativity by simultaneously changing the way we create, use materials, and reproduce them. These changes are concentrated in digital convergence music. Digital convergence music is closely influenced by the culture it has shaped, and shows the tensions and conflicts that arise from the convergence of different types of information.

This book is not only about the latest musical developments. At the end of the book, the aesthetic significance of digital convergence music as the "music of the new normal" is discussed. The dynamics of digital convergence music, in which natural boundaries are dissolved and interpenetrated by digital transformation, call for a new aesthetic. It is not only about introducing new materials, media, and forms, but also about questioning the fundamental meaning of music. Therefore, we explore the aesthetic reality and potential of digital convergence music from three aspects: form, sensation, and life. Through this, we can understand the rapidly changing topography of music derived from digital convergence and imagine the future of music that crosses a wide range of domains.