Anyway, this book provides valuable insight into the relationship of fringe art/music, and the future of society. Attali postulates that society is founded upon the idea that bad noise must be subverted. Therefore, all forces effecting social change, at some time, have been subverted. Given time though, they find their way into society by way of, here, music, and begin to cause change.
This is a very interesting and well conceived book. A great read for philosophy student and musician alike. It puts a new spin on the effect of music on culture, and the reciprocal relationship between art and society. Good stuff.
In closing, and in response to the previous reviewer, "college isn't taken as seriously as it once was" simply because the hallowed halls are clogged with students who readily dismiss works of sound thought because they don't like having to look up words or work for their own enlightenment.ENDs
There is a lot of coverage of European classical music in terms of "Who is paying whom" as well as the current recording industry. He also gets some things wrong, such as his coverage of Free Jazz (Carly Bley is black?), to which he nevertheless is sympathetic towards.
Therefore, I don't know how much you can trust his conclusions, but at the same time it gets the reader's mind to consider all sorts of new facets, and that is why this book is great.
