Jacques Attali

In Context "Jacques Attali's essential argument in Noise: The Political Economy of Music is that music, as a cultural  form, is intimately tied up in the mode of production in  any given society. Attali believes that music has gone through four distinct  cultural stages in its history: Sacrificing, Representing,  Repeating, and a fourth cultural stage which could  roughly be called Post-Repeating. These stages are each linked to a certain "mode of production"; that is to say, each of these stages carries with it a certain set  of technologies for producing,  recording and disseminating music, and also  concomitant cultural structures that allow for music's  transmission and reception. Attali's notion of the Repeating stage  (1900 to 1970s when he wrote the book) is based on his ideas of exchange-time and use-time within music. Attali defines exchange-time as the time spent towards  earning the money needed to purchase a recording,  whereas use time involves he time spent listening to  recordings by the purchaser.  In a society made up of recording labels and radio stations, far more recordings are produced than an  individual can listen to in a lifetime, and in an effort to spend more time in use-time than in exchange-time  people begin to stockpile recordings of what they want to hear. Attali, states that this stockpiling has become the main method of use by consumers, and in doing so, shorter  musical works have been valorised. More importantly, according to Attali, this process of stockpiling removes the social and political power from music (Attali, p.101). In the age of Spotify, Soulseek, torrents and other  digital platforms, in what sense is Attali's judgement true?" Attali's judgement is true to some extent although the stages of production will continue to change and  develop. As technology develops the likes of  Spotify and other music streaming sites and apps reduce the costs and dated need or production.  CD's are dated in modern day and have lost  their appeal when most music now can be  streamed either free or at a lesser cost.