Book Abstract:

All music has an element of virtuality, be it within the text, or in the act of
recording a piece, or in the performative persona of the artist. As
improvements in digital technology provide increasingly usable virtual music
spaces for bands and live performance, there has been corresponding growth
in scholarly interest in critical issues surrounding music and virtuality. In this
volume, the editors and contributors survey this terrain and examine how the
virtual environment has also allowed musicians to connect directly with their
audiences and fans. They address the complex issues of what it means to
listen and engage in an age of virtual music, the effect of illusion on the role of
performer and musician, and what technologies such as looped performance
animations and streamed music mean for our understanding of liveness and
virtuality. Their ultimate question is whether and how Internet-mediated and
face-to-face virtual practices give rise to an expanded conception of what it
means to be a musician.

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