Ted Rounds, associate professor of percussion, says the record industry missed out when it attacked Internet programs such as Napster, and now it must face a changing market.

"Record companies have failed to jump on the band wagon," Rounds says. "No one wants to pay $15 for a CD. Computers could have been the way to go."

Meanwhile, independent labels latched on to technology, and their audience will probably grow, Rounds says.

Kazadi wa Mukuna, co-director for the study of world musics, sees music as a reflection of time and culture. Jazz, blues and Motown has a heavy impact on the music heard today, Mukuna says, but now music is reiterating itself.

"Right now we are passing through a plateau. Things are subsidizing and seeking an outburst of something new," he says.

Technology is bringing about globalization, which causes the world to become more connected, Mukuna says. By making the exchange of ideas and cultural expression easy to obtain, musicians can share and benefit from one another.

"In the future, music would reflect the unification of world cultures. If you don't consider culture, you aren't looking right." Mukuna says. "Right now we have musics of the world. The world has not defined its music yet. It's right now in the process."

Chas Baker, director of jazz studies, says movements through music are cyclical and happen about every 80 years, and we appear to be at a standstill is because "we're stuck in such a small section of time." He reflects on the advances, such as radio and television, that have happened in the last century.

"All this happened within 100 years," he says. "If things can change that rapidly, what's going to happen in the next 50 years as pace accelerates? It's mind-boggling really."

He says computers have aided in the composition process, but this puts some strain on musicians because computers are performing the tasks an instrument would.