Thanks to the age of MP3s, "there are no obscure albums any more, or obscure bands." Such easy availability, however, can hamper how "cool" a band is viewed by an audience. "Coolness in subcultures has a lot to do with difficulty. How do you separate out the newbies? How do you figure out who really belongs. There has to be kind of a learning curve," he said.

By using cassettes, labels are "deliberately re-introducing friction. It's the work that bonds people together in subculture. It's the work that makes the music feel special and secret."

With the development of new media, basic concepts tend to get invented over and over again, "often independently and in different places," Brunton said. 

"Look for moments of flourishing where all these different people are collectively exploring some research space. It's normal for most of them to not make it," Brunton said. 

Although Brunton spoke at a conference of technically minded computer programmers and administrators, his lessons were not lost on the audience.