Since the 1950s, with the creation of the amplifier and the ability to record music in order to distribute it on a wide scale, the term ‘unplugged’ has become more of a genre of music rather than a literal term. Even if an act performs a track acoustically, the technology is still present in order to record and share the music with a large audience. Only when a song is performed to an in-house audience, without a microphone, amplifier or any form of electrical equipment, can the term ‘unplugged’ truly be labelled to popular music.
Technology is not only necessary for distributional reasons, but also artistic reasons; it can enhance a song, enabling layering of sounds, over-dubbing and the adding of special effects - as Theberge said, ‘without electronic technology, popular music in the twenty-first century is unthinkable.’ Therefore, as a technical term, no I do not believe popular music can ever be unplugged.
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This is a really well considered and well constructed post. I like the fact that you recognise that the recording process is, itself a creative use of technology that effects the music it produces.
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