To an Application Unknown
Let us activate the imaginary DR DJ momentarily, to perceive this “what-if.” A DR personality releases a monthly playlist. It is quite eclectic. Still, it is dominated by Western ideas of genre. There are many hip-hop tracks on the playlist, American hip-hop from black communities, for instance. These tracks fall side by side with pop music from an array of geographies, all Western. The hip-hop tracks oppose the racial inclinations of the pop music, diversifying the overall impression of the curation. Even though the playlist appears racially representative in embracing diasporic communities, it is still biased by a Western frame. It underrepresents other geographies in terms of songwriting and production. Here, the metadata-structure kicks in by activating interrelations in the music archive that might tell the stories differently. One month, the DR personality adds a track by American rapper Nas called Adam and Eve (2018). This track is interesting in that its production revolves around a recurring piano sample from a track called Gole Yakh (1974) by Iranian progressive rock musician Kourosh Yaghmaei. Here is a different story to be told that springs from a diasporic, yet Western, source. The application presents a playlist, that’s it. However, the interactive functionalities are structured in such a way that the user can take off in curation and engage in the experience of discovery by cutting through the archive, exploring different trajectories, and comprehending how a history of recorded music is to an extent nonconforming when it comes to chronologies and cultural dispersion.
There is another side to the application’s functionalities. In following the line from Nas to Kourosh Yaghmaei, the user becomes aware of the Western anchoring of the music archive beneath the application. Gole Yakh is the only music in the archive by Kourosh Yaghmaei, revealing that both track and artist have been added due to the connection with Nas’ track. The geographical and cultural diversity is thus forced from a Western frame and constrained to a minimum. The application shows two sides to the epistemology of interrelations. On the one hand, interrelations make ventures in different and sometimes surprising directions, and they palpably show how recorded music consists of dynamic multiplicities that resist the straitjacket of chronological ordering as the only reasonable way of understanding its history. Furthermore, the interrelations develop different cartographies in terms of understanding from where music comes, and how it moves and flows. In the production of Adam and Eve, Iran and the Middle East are just as defining hubs for contextualizing the music as the US and North America. The interrelations argue that time and location are not to be perceived as fixed categories. On the other hand, interrelations make it possible to hone in on limitations and narrowed presentation. Music by, and information about, Kourosh Yaghmaei is clearly only present owing to other logics, because of Adam and Eve and a wish for highlighting all production-related elements of this track. Diversity appears forced and untruthful, and it in fact strengthens the Western bias of the music archive. The interrelations not only work to tell versatile histories of recorded music, they also tell an unattractive history of DR’s music media. Moreover, the interrelations themselves are a symptom of this: ordained as an intent for openness and equality, they actually end up pointing back at the Western origins rather than opening up paths for new and different knowledge. That is the interrelations’ backside, but it is an important and valuable backside.
The playlist by the DR personality empowers the user to take a step outside its curated confinement. In my example, to take a step into an African diaspora and further into an Iranian past of pre-revolutionary progressive rock music. The user is situated in the enlightening trajectories of the music-historical interrelations, and the user experiences the music by way of these interrelations and their potentialities. Many paths can be taken, always. One is always centered, moving from the middle and out. And when the interrelations point out that they are reaffirming Western modalities, the user can experience the music by way of that. The interrelations are flawed, and they always will be, but the application, in providing direct interaction with them, offers a platform where the interrelations function as critique of the biased rootedness of the music archive. The application teaches its users that perspectives are many and that it is okay to go with one as long as the others are recognized. DR DJ epitomizes public service: if one accesses the playlist just to listen and appreciate the curation, it is pure entertainment, but if one takes the invitation to start the investigation in the middle and follow the shoots of the interrelations, it is public education in terms of diversity and cultural awareness as well as critical thinking.