"Every Home Is Wired": 1 -- The Net in Relation to Music Subcultures

"Every Home Is Wired":
1 -- The Net in Relation to Music Subcultures

This also represents a cultural move away from the mainstream, since in this system the 'mainstream' only is the odd collection of genres that are left once strong, well-defined topics and genres are moved into their own topical areas; newsgroups like rec.music.misc therefore cover only those 'other' topics which could not be defined precisely or are brought up too infrequently to justify special newsgroups. As a result such miscellaneous discussion groups usually draw relatively few regular participants and are filled with static informational postings pointing to more specific newsgroups and Web sites, or unwanted electronic junk mail ('spam'), rather than with lively interaction amongst an established community of users.	Bit 26
The Internet: A Mass Medium?
We have established, then, that global media content, particularly that relating to music, is becoming increasingly fragmented; the demise of 'mainstream' culture is a direct result of such 'virtual' localisation. The current 'technoscape' -- "the global configuration, ... ever fluid, of technology, and of the fact that technology ... now moves at high speeds across various kinds of previously impervious boundaries" (Appadurai 297) --, has also helped to create the mass appeal of such global, but 'virtually localised' media as the Internet. It has in large parts removed the problems with different time zones and the communication delays which have long plagued global communications systems -- as Rafaeli points out, "the Net stretches the edges of the synchronicity continuum. Communication on the Net travels at unprecedented speed. It can also be consumed at unprecedented delays. ... Interpersonal communication, once either face-to-face or time delayed, can now be both at once" (Newhagen & Rafaeli 6). Communication through email and newsgroups, in particular, removes the need for synchronicity of access that is fundamental to (direct as well as electronically mediated) face-to-face (FtF) communication, since mails and postings can be accessed whenever a user next logs on to the system.	Bit 27

Section 1 -- Go on to Bite:

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