ted gordon

How Electronic Music Changed the Way We Think Professor Theodore Gordon’s new book, "The Composer’s Black Box," explores the hidden influence of technology on human creativity.

What happens when musical instruments stop making sound and start making information?
Prof. Theodore Gordon explores how early thinking machines reshaped modern music and our ideas of creativity in his new book, “The Composer’s Black Box”

best review of my book so far: "This is a serious work on a similar academic level as the Zappa book, 'The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play'"

MIXOLOGY: Ted Gordon's "The Composer's Black Box: Making Music in Cybernetic America" Panel and concert about Ted Gordon's new book exploring the relationship between human musicians and their electronic musical instruments.

Feb 4 at @roulettenyc.bsky.social ! Talk & performance for The Composer's Black Box w/Marcia Bassett, @kfw.bsky.social, Luke Stewart. Such an honor for me to talk with such amazing musicians about agency, subjectivity, creativity, discipline, & so much more... roulette.org/event/mixolo...

Publication day! I couldn’t be happier that The Composer’s Black Box is now officially available from @ucpress.bsky.social and your favorite bookseller! Here are some of my copies taking their natural place on my bookshelf. Grab a copy here: www.ucpress.edu/books/the-co...

So psyched for this book event at @roulettenyc.bsky.social !

Very happy with the cover design for The Composer’s Black Box, out in December 2025 from @uc_press. I did the annoying thing and asked them to change the color blocks to Buchla 100 series colors and they somehow agreed!

do you think frasier crane was an ECM guy or a windham hill guy

YouTube video by Kybernetisch KRAFTWERK - Taschenrechner (Live 1981 - ORF) - HIGH QUALITY

my students will say this is from "the late 1900s" www.youtube.com/watch?v=mopX...

YouTube video by Toxxs Onderground KeyZ (TOKZ's Channel) Grandmaster Caz (Casanova Fly) - Casanova's Rap, 1987

forensic musicologists of bluesky: can anybody ID the drum machine used on this track? www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbE4...

orthographic error of the day: "john lenin"

HASTINGS: I say, Poirot, this vial’s labeled “hyaluronic acid”! Is it a poison?
SKINCARE HERCULE POIROT: Non, mon ami. This acid, it replenishes the skin’s barrier naturale
HASTINGS: So this is a gal who takes care of her skin.
SKINCARE HERCULE POIROT: *irritated* The gentleman may use it as well

….where’s the musicology?

Waits v. Frito-Lay, Inc., 978 F.2d 1093 | Casetext Search + Citator Read Waits v. Frito-Lay, Inc., 978 F.2d 1093, see flags on bad law, and search Casetext’s comprehensive legal database

TIL that in 1991 Tom Waits won a $2.6mil settlement from Frito-Lay over a SalsaRio Doritos commercial that impersonated his “raspy, gravelly singing voice”: casetext.com/case/waits-v...

And I also remembered that they were basically pioneers of video synthesis (e.g. their use of Scanimate for the "Let's Groove" video in 1981) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrle...

TIL that Earth, Wind & Fire attempted to go new jack swing and it did not really go well for them www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHxl...

and goddamn, his 15 minute solo in Paris from that same tour: youtu.be/NYQXBjW9ERM?...

Also this transcendent video of the Cecil Taylor Unit in 1969: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8esr...

Teaching 1970s Black technopoetics (Chude-Sokei) today, and very pleased to be reminded of both David Copperfield's and the Brecker Brothers' involvement in early P-Funk mythology www.youtube.com/watch?v=noqM...