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Towards a Post-Score Musical Perspective: A Critique of Ted Gioia as Convergent Evolution

1. Introduction: Ted Gioia's Assertions and Their Repercussions

In recent years, Ted Gioia has repeatedly claimed within the context of music criticism that "Spotify and TikTok lead to the death of music," "modern music is too reliant on visuals," and "true music should be heard live." While his stance certainly holds a degree of cultural critical value, and some of his criticisms regarding the transformation of the popular music industry's structure and consumption patterns are spot on, his underlying premise still stubbornly clings to a "score-centric" view of music, or a perspective that favors the "fixation of context as good"—values that should have been deconstructed historically.

Gioia's attitude seems to be a nostalgic inclination to re-institutionalize music as something "to be read." Given that such discourse risks misinterpreting the current state of today's music, a critical examination of his views is unavoidable.

2. Three Perspectives for Critiquing Gioia

2-1. Misunderstanding of Music Pre-Dating "Scores"

Gioia's assertions are based on a musical perspective overly dependent on the "reproducibility via musical scores" established in Western classical music. However, this is an extremely biased view when considering the entire history of music. Non-score-based, oral musical cultures have always existed, from African polyrhythms and Arab maqam to Japanese gagaku and biwa-hōshi narratives, 19th-century blues, Balinese gamelan, and even contemporary rave culture.

In other words, Gioia's stance that "score-based reproducibility equals the essence of music" universalizes a specific case of modern Europe. We cannot overlook this limitation.

2-2. The Double Standard of "Critique of Visual Reliance"

Gioia regards "music with dances" circulated on TikTok and "visually-biased artists" as evidence of musical degradation, but this dismisses the essential relationship between visuals and music.

Historically, music was not only "heard" but also "seen." The music in Noh and Kabuki, church music and stained glass, idol culture, and even contemporary VJ culture and live electronics—the combination of visual and auditory elements was not "degeneration" but "evolution."

Instead, the attitude that attempts to reduce music solely to "pure acoustics" is itself an illusion created by certain Western values after the 19th century. The integration of visual and auditory elements has returned to the core of music with technological advancements; this is not regression but can even be called a "return to origin as progress."

2-3. DAW and Improvisation: Compositional Theory in the Post-Score Era

Gioia criticizes DAWs and programmed music as "inhuman" and "lacking improvisation," but this is entirely the opposite. Ableton Live, Bitwig, Max/MSP, and even in-DAW automation, tempo mapping, and real-time performance features, actually embody the pinnacle of 21st-century improvisation.

The incorporation of recording and editing traces directly into performance is, in a sense, "modern jazz." Techniques shown by composers like Hans Zimmer, such as "opening up the auditory sense through spatial restraint," are precisely the culmination of improvisational structural design in the post-DAW era.

To consider these types of music "un-improvised" simply because they "lack a score" merely indicates a failure to understand the evolution of expressive forms.

3. Conclusion: Music's Current Position as Convergent Evolution

Gioia's "end of music" theory is narrow-minded and, in fact, misinterprets the current state of music. Today's music is in a phase where various elements that were previously differentiated—such as "improvisation," "composition," "visuality," "spatiality," and "narrative"—are being reintegrated in new forms.

This is a type of convergent evolution. Different music cultures and technologies—club music, film scores, electronic sound, performing arts, and SNS-driven dance music—have followed their unique lineages but are now arriving at similar structures as a post-score integrated whole.

Old-fashioned criticism like Gioia's rejects this diverse integration as "degradation" or "superficiality." However, music is always a dynamic practice generated by the auditory environment and sensibilities of its time, and it should not be confined to narrow definitions of scores or live experiences.

In the post-score era, music operates on context, not code (music theory). DAW-based construction, SNS-driven distribution, and live improvisation are all "music." Music isn't over. Rather, it's finally beginning again.