The Rocklopedia Fakebandica now has a podcast.
Listen now!
Erlin Baque
Talented composer and musician from Lloyd Biggle Jr.'s short story "The Tunesmith." It first appeared in Worlds of If magazine, August 1957.
At first, he's trying to keep his artistic integrity (refusing to use a "harmonizer") whilst composing ad jingles ("Coms") in a future where, like the 1993 film Demolition Man, ad jingles are the ONLY music people listen to. When that doesn't pay the bills, he turns to playing a multichord in a restaurant, where he discovers he can totally manipulate the audience's emotions with his playing. He becomes a sensation, but goes up against the evil head of Visiscope International, who have a monopoly on coms, who has Baque framed for murder. But Baque sparks a shift in public tastes, leading to music of all kinds being rediscovered and appreciated.
Biggle actually had a PhD in musicology!
