Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education April 2018. Vol 17 (1): 97–113. doi:10.22176/act17.1.97 © Janice Waldron 2018. The content of this article is the sole responsibility of the author. The ACT Journal and the Mayday Group are not liable for any legal actions that may arise involving the article's content, including, but not limited to, copyright infringement. Questioning 20th Century Assumptions About 21st Century Music Practices Janice Waldron University of Windsor In this essay, I critique and critically reflect upon two questions derived from Action Ideal VIII of the MayDay Group: “We commit to understanding the wide range of possi- bilities and the limitations that technology and media offer music and music learning.” Before we can address the “how,” it is necessary to know the “why,” which I offer here. This includes questioning dichotomies based on beliefs that either no longer hold true and/or are based on a presumptive fallacy—first, that making music in the 21st century is an “either/or” proposition—i.e. one either makes music acoustically or digitally but not both, and second, an implicit belief that hands-on acoustic face-to-face music making is always preferable to making music digitally—either by one’s self or with others through technological mediation – for various reasons. I conclude with a discussion of the impact that corporate power on the Web has and continues to have on music making, and by extension, music learning, in the 21st century. Keywords: “bi-contextuality,” “long tail” musics, Web as “sociotechnical construct,” Web 2.0, online music communities, data mining. he rapid pace of technological change over the last decade, particularly in relation to social media and network connectivity, has deeply affected the ways in which we interact socially (and musically) among individuals, groups, and institutions to the point that it has become difficult to grasp what it would be like to lose access to this everyday aspect of modern life. To paraphrase William Gibson, “the future is with us now, only spread around thinly.” 1 Although Gibson wasn’t referencing music (and music making) specifically, his words aptly describe current 21st century music making (and music learning and teaching) practices. Like the fish that can’t perceive the water in which it swims, neither can we easily comprehend the importance of digital technology and communication in our daily lives. Because of technology’s all-encompassing pervasiveness, it is also T