week 5 - Can popular music ever really be unplugged?

In this day and age, it is extremely rare, and virtually unheard of to hear music that isn’t effectively ‘plugged in’. All kinds of music is now plugged in, even when you see a concert or an album advertised as ‘unplugged’. This is because it would be virtually impossible to play any kind of music to a crowd much bigger than 100 without some sort of amplification. However, amplification and electronic technology isn’t a bad thing, and is probably the reason why music is so popular these days. Paul Therberge agrees with this by stating that, in his opinion, ‘without electronic technology, pop music in the 21st century is unthinkable’. From the invention from Lee Deforest of the audion in 1904 to the Stratocaster in 1954 by Leo fender, this has all meant that in this day and age, we simply couldn’t live with music that is not plugged in in any way, so in my opinion, popular music cannot ever really be unplugged.