Performance Rights Redux
Even John Cage had to deal with the vagaries of performance rights. The performance of Water Walk on the I've Got A Secret show in 1960 was pre-empted by a union dispute on jurisdiction for the programs that would be played on the five radios. (As a solution he just hit them or knocked them over.)
But we'll never know what it actually sounded like with the radios playing the 1960s programming. I wonder if Cage considered what radios would currently be playing, or that the concept of "radio" circa 1960 would eventually be completely changed? If he were alive today, I'm sure he would have used laptops and playlists, arguably less interesting than the random serendipity of a radio broadcast. One could find radio programs from 1960 on-line but would it be the same kind of randomness?
But we'll never know what it actually sounded like with the radios playing the 1960s programming. I wonder if Cage considered what radios would currently be playing, or that the concept of "radio" circa 1960 would eventually be completely changed? If he were alive today, I'm sure he would have used laptops and playlists, arguably less interesting than the random serendipity of a radio broadcast. One could find radio programs from 1960 on-line but would it be the same kind of randomness?
