94. Jimmy Jam: Drum Machines, Synths, Tape to Digital, AI & the Future of Music (Plus MJ, Janet, Prince)

Episode 94: Jimmy Jam. Our first live audience interview! Jimmy Jam has lived through every major jump in music technology over the last five decades: drum machines, synths, MIDI, sampling, tape to digital recording, DAWs, and now AI. Together with Terry Lewis, he helped shape entire eras during these transitions, from Prince to Janet, Michael and beyond. Again and again, he showed that technology does not kill music. Musicians adapt, and the music adapts with them. In this conversation, we explore the real history behind the tools that changed everything, the fear curve that always appears during each breakthrough, and what today’s AI moment looks like through the eyes of someone who lived through many of the most important shifts in music technology. If you want to understand where music is going, you have to understand how we got here. Jimmy Jam has one of the clearest perspectives in the world on that journey. We recorded this in front of a sold out audience at the Abundance Institute’s Creative Frontiers event, and I could not imagine a better guest to talk about this moment in music history with. This is an important conversation, let's keep it going. Join us in the comments with your thoughts and questions, and let’s keep learning together. 'Go with Elmo Lovano’ is a weekly podcast where Elmo interviews creatives and entrepreneurs in music on HOW they push forward every day, got where they are in their careers, manage their personal lives, and share lessons learned and their most important insights. Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated! https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, Zoom hangs, invite only events, and discussions about music and music careers. Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/ The Abundance Institute is a mission-driven nonprofit focused on creating space for emerging technologies to grow, thrive, and have a chance to reach their full potential. Abundance hosts Creative Frontiers to bring artists, builders, and policy-influencers together to shape the future of creativity. Subscribe: https://creativefrontier.substack.com/ Website: https://abundance.institute/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abundanceinstitute/ Filmed LIVE at The Recording Club in Santa Monica https://www.therecording.club/ Follow Jimmy Jam: https://www.instagram.com/flytetymejam/ Follow Go With Elmo: https://www.instagram.com/gowithelmo/ https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo https://x.com/gowithelmopod Follow Elmo Lovano: https://Instagram.com/elmolovano https://x.com/elmolovano Follow Jammcard: https://www.youtube.com/@jammcardhttps://www.instagram.com/jammcard/ jammcard.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices