Week 5: Can popular music ever really be unplugged?

This would depend on the definition of ‘unplugged’; albums claiming to be ‘unplugged’ tend to simply be recorded without the use of electric instruments or special effects. Théberge claims that today’s popular music would be ‘unthinkable’ without the use of technology, and indeed technology is still a major part of ‘unplugged’ albums, and ultimately they could not be recorded without it. The use of microphones and amplifiers is now commonplace, so to be truly ‘unplugged’, popular music would have to be recorded acoustically or played with acoustic instruments and simply listened to live. The former option would be impossible with the use of the bass guitar and drums in most popular music, and the latter would be impractical as technology is essential for the audience to clearly hear the artist performing. Whilst it is possible for popular music to be fully unplugged, it is generally never done due to the sheer impracticality of the task.