Web's
much hyped "inter-activeness",the relationship we could have with the sounds we were hearing
was very limited -- like a radio's. While the sound streamed into our computer
and out the tinny speakers placed on either side, it was a reminder of
Bertold Brecht's complaint as long ago as 1939, that "radio is one-sided when it should be two."
Indeed one could argue that the most
interactive thing on most "alternative"
music sites
is not music or even
the music-related
text but
rather,
the ads and
the contests for
the sponsoring station and
its own sponsors. Currently, for
example, in our own town, the rock radio
sites are composed of biographies and pictures
of on-air staff, program information, concert calendars,
and contests you can enter or merchandise
that you can order. The conceptual models
these pages represent as they create
an aural and visual "home" within
the structual contraints of the
digital home page,
signify a tightly
bounded
space.