Post-Internet (music)

Post-Internet music is a style of 21st century music addressing the Internet's ubiquity in society as influenced by the post-Internet art movement. The term "post-Internet art" was originally coined by artist Marisa Olson in 2006. Writer Gene McHughe would author the blog "Post-Internet" in 2009, which developed and popularized the concept. In 2010, Canadian musician Grimes began describing her work as "post-Internet". By 2015, the idea of post-Internet music was formally introduced by Irish composer Jennifer Walshe. The term "post-Internet music" was originally used by publications to describe the work of composer Holly Herndon and London's PC Music record label and art collective founded by musician A. G. Cook. Record label, Hippos in Tanks founded by Barron Machat and Travis Woolsey in 2010, was defined as a new form of avant-garde and alternative music for "the post-internet age" by the Fader. In 2015, the London Contemporary Music Festival hosted an event entitled "Requiem for Reality", which focused on the idea of incorporating post-Internet art ideas into the context of musical composition. The event featured music by artists such as Jennifer Walshe, James Ferraro, PC Music associate Felicita, Neele Hülcker and Brigitta Muntendorf. Additionally, the style was initially associated with academia, art galleries and art school contexts. However, has since been attributed to several Internet related musical styles and microgenres.

Etymology

The term "post-Internet" was originally coined by artist Marisa Olson in 2006 to describe contemporary art that focused on the Internet's ubiquity in the 21st century. However, the term went on to encompass a movement spearheaded by Gene McHughe's 2009 blog "Post-Internet". The movement's influence has extended into music as well as broader fashion trends. In 2015, writing for Vice magazine, Robert Barry aimed to define post-Internet music in an article entitled "So What Is Post-Internet Music, Anyway?". He stated that at the time the idea of "post-Internet music" was scarce and usually applied to the work of Holly Herndon and London's PC Music record label and art collective founded by musician A. G. Cook. According to Barry, Max Pearl and Michelle Lhooq, writing in THUMP, argued PC Music was "post-internet art" and there was a connection between their sound and the post-Internet video work of Ryan Trecartin. However, Barry ultimately credits Irish composer Jennifer Walshe with introducing the idea of "post-Internet music" on Facebook in the spring of 2015.

Walshe described post-Internet music as "music written after the internet is as much a part of everyday life as electricity or indoor plumbing". She added that post-Internet music incorporates and showcases elements that make the songs in question impossible to have been written at any other time in history. However, Sam Mackay, one of the curators of the London Contemporary Music Festival, argued, "It's not simply that such music couldn't have come about without the internet, but that it actually probes and reflexively approaches that situation". In 2015, the LCMF's "Requiem for Reality" event was billed as a focus on exploring how the art world's "post-internet" ideas could work in the context of musical composition. The event hosted music by Jennifer Walshe, James Ferraro, PC Music associate Felicita, Neele Hülcker and Brigitta Muntendorf. Barry cited Walshe's forty minute video and performance piece The Total Mountain as an example of post-Internet music, adding that Walshe was looking to "memes on her iPhone for inspiration". The performance piece included YouTube clips, screen captures of Wikipedia pages, text messages, a "Twitter opera", valley girl accents and the Department of homeland security's flagged words list. It was premiered at the Donaueschingen Musiktage in Germany. In 2016, High Brow Magazine wrote an article on popular music in the post-Internet era, writer Sandra Canosa described "post-Internet" as not implying being beyond the Internet but denoting that it is no longer a novelty and has become part of everyday life. She added, "As with postmodern, post-rock, etc., the 'post' not only means that it comes after, but implies an awareness of its medium, sources, audiences and its limits." Writer Peter Defraene stated for HumanHuman, "The movement then takes this self-awareness as its new subject. The result is a metastate of looking." In 2018, music and culture critic Adam Harper wrote an article entitled "Charting the evolution of post-internet music" for Red Bull Music Academy. He stated that post-Internet music concerned art that "addressed the effects of digital technology on modern ways of seeing and living". He added that, "Just as not all books are about paper and not all radio shows are about electromagnetic radiation, the digital medium itself may be receding into the background as a style or subject matter for new electronic music". However, the phrase "post-Internet music" has also been used as an umbrella term to describe several Internet related musical styles and microgenres stemming from 21st century online culture. Additionally, Harper remarked that post-Internet art was usually "art that was based in relatively traditional gallery and art-school settings rather than an online culture itself, even if often drew from online culture." He cites that a quantity of "post-internet music" has been released under similar circumstances, including on outmoded media such as vinyl or cassette, with Gatekeeper's Young Chronos appearing as an exception due to the album being released on The Pirate Bay and a USB flash drive. Harper argued that "the whole notion of a musical expression that portrays a particular (past or present) cultural milieu with a degree of artistic distance – especially ironic distance – has been criticised as 'conceptual.' Conceptual music, it's argued or implied, is music about ideas or postures rather than emotions; its makers are veiled pretenders rather than authentic, expressive artists. Much of the criticism of what some would call post-internet music ('accelerationist' music is another term) has taken this angle."

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