Through extending the practice of replication, unusual and unique ensembles became the focus of interest, and musical craft was concentrated on how to blend these ensembles. The artistic problem was in mixing gestural and timbral metaphors from different cultures. The shifts in meaning from one context to another could be significant. The judgement call as to appropriateness was usually decided on the basis of what a piece was intended for.

Through accepting tonality and performance as the basis of music, the most significant impact of digital technology in neo-world music styles was in modes of authorship. This was brought about through a combination of the substitution of captured snippets of music in the place of live performers playing for specific pieces, and the use of ‘found performance’ as instruments. The result was to make production the main focus of the music. This approach is found forms of ‘world beat’ by groups such as Deep Forest who used traditional music blended into western popular music formulas; and in techno and industrial forms of popular music.

With the continuing fall in the costs of digital equipment from 1985, and the increasing costs of hiring live musicians, it is perhaps not surprising that engineers, deejays and programmers were largely responsible for the development of these new popular music styles in the 1980s and 1990s. Production as an art form that began in the analogue recording studio allowed the development of the mix as a performance, illustrated in the work of Horn, Miller and Baker. Producers in the digital realm could manufacture music without an extensive background in performance and composition, negating the notion that musicianship must be based on experience in traditional performance practice.

Editing or assemblage supported the notion that performance on a recording was no longer a sign of authenticity (Frith 1996). Provided the sampled performance was musical, aspects of musicality could be incorporated through re performance; performance becoming virtual in this context. The demise of the live performer and performance through using sampled extracts or loops was aided with the use of step-time programming facilities to trigger samplers (Lehrman & Tully 1993).

Editing as composition was reinforced by two other shifts in authenticity that began in the analogue era. New synthesiser technology meant that acoustic instruments ceased to be a source of sound authenticity. Consolidating this was the expanded range of new timbres that samplers could produce based on natural sounds. Sound itself could then no longer guarantee authenticity (Frith 1996).

Production based approaches in popular music however remained grounded in popular song forms and known performance gestures. The contradiction in retaining this underpinning was that again the approach may have led to the continuing impoverishment of the older acoustic aesthetic on which it was based (Whalley 1998). A change with the use editing approaches to create music was reducing the use of harmonic direction as an aspect of musical expression. The extensive use of rhythmic loops in these idioms also undermined musical direction yet reinforced motion: the most static aspect of the rhythm function in music. The dilemma is not restricted to popular music. ‘Cut and paste’ performances in electroacoustic music face similar problems in constructing a sense of direction (Body CD 1993).