Four Fields of Music Making and Sustainable Living

This paper introduces and summarizes aframeworkfor thinking about music making in relation to four distinct social fields: participatory performance, presentational performance, high fidelity recording, and studio audio art recording. Each field has specific benefits and constraints and fulfills different social functions. The distinct fields variably suit different types of individuals as well as different types of social formations. The author argues that presentational performance and high fidelity recording fit best with the profit goals and competitive values of capitalist societies. As relatively cooperative, egalitarian spaces that are about sociality, bonding, and fun, rather than about hierarchy, competition, financial achievement, or the creation of art objects, participatory performance provides a powerful experiential model of alternative values and ways of being for people in capitalist societies. Repeated involvement with participatory performance creates a special social space for habit change necessary. for developing alternative, sustainable ways of living.