quote:

Originally posted by Clovis Mathew Jonson - Symphony For The Apocalypse

Which opens the gate for another question... do the titles of songs affect your emotional response to them?

In other words, would your emotional response to that song differ if it were named Mathew Jonson - Cold Blue Ocean or Mathew Jonson - Babies in a Blender (assuming you heard/read the title prior to hearing the song, or at all)?

I think, yes. For me, anyway. Which seems shallow, but I definitely listen to a song differently than I would have when I don't know the title (or even artist), I think.

It could be named "Kiss Me I'm Irish" for all I fucking care...when you hear that first bit of gorgeous sweeping synth it's over...

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quote:

Originally posted by ******** Seplling don't demonstrate intelligence and educatoin - knowing does.

quote:

Originally posted by paulandrews I think this is quite relative. One man's cheesy is another one's soulless garbage. I'd say there is no place for big catchy hooks. Try to listen to this, it's something that's considered 'cool' now, even on RA: http://mp3.juno.co.uk/MP3/SF305184-01-01-01.mp3 The emotions are there, they are just more subtle.

I think this is an argument that is almost a self-contradiction. If "it's all relative" then how can we in any way discuss general trends with regards emotional content? How can you say the emotional content of that track is "more subtle"? More subtle than what? What are you comparing it to? How can you quantify "subtlety" if you can't quantify emotion at all?

The myth here is that subtlety is desirable and superior. It's a myth we buy into more and more, but it's still a myth. The myth is that the sample you posted is somehow superior to any given late-90s prog track because it is subtle. The myth is that emotional content that is not subtlely presented is "overblown" and "cheesy", the latter being the greatest myth of all the ones here. Cheese is ultimately a myth- it predicates aesthetic ideologies.

The reality is that emotional content can be subtle or it can be direct. Neither are inherently good or bad. The reality is: direct presentation of emotional content is just as difficult to achieve as subtlety. A big catchy hook that works is just as valuable as music as any sample you can throw at me.

___________________
Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/

quote:

Originally posted by paulandrews The emotions are there, they are just more boring.

Fixed.

quote:

Originally posted by PETRAN So what is the modern EDM that is "emotional and moving" and not just "driving/dancey/"fun"? Because, honestly, its getting very difficult to find it.

I sooner would get emotional when seeing thousands of party people having fun and completely get into trance than just from a track listening at home. Although I really like and enjoy massive build-ups, for me it's always the combination of music and surroundings which triggers the emotional part.
People dancing, eyes closed, not bothering what's happening around them, don't care people are watching or someone is thinking. I think (in) Trance also has to do with Emotions.
I also can remember like yesterday the first time I heard the long intro version of "Jam&Spoon - Right in the Night" with the great guitar intro in, at that time the biggest European disco, the Dockside Belgium. Very impressive and emotional.

But I never saw someone cry in the 15 years I went to clubs weekly.

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Longest (classic) Trance playlist on YouTube (5000 tracks released up to and including 1997), click here

every now and then some trance tracks pop up that really hit me, pure emotion... like in the last ASOT, actually two tracks in that one, the new alex morph track and daniel kandi remix of Time to Rest

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quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J The myth here is that subtlety is desirable and superior. It's a myth we buy into more and more, but it's still a myth.

You're absolutely wrong, there's nothing more emotional than random bleepy-bloopy sounds in generic wank tech/minimal house tracks that everyone seems to be so infatuated with these days.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J You think our emotions have changed in less than a decade? I don't accept that for a second. I think the dominant attitudes towards emotion in our sub-culture have changed, and most people will swallow the ideological myths around this shift, re-aligning themselves to the new ideology. Superlatives of beauty, emotion and cheese are being used all out of proportion today, usually by the people who have accepted the aesthetic upheaval of recent years without being critical of it.

no no, i don't mean emotions in the human sense, I mean something more like 'the vibe'. You are right on when you say attitudes towards emotion in sub-cultures.

For instance, there is a sort of hedonist, free of responsibility, destructive degenerate vibe in tech house/minimal/techno right now that is very different than the lovey-dovey vibe in old school rave

Bring back the lovey dovey vibe!

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J The reality is that emotional content can be subtle or it can be direct. Neither are inherently good or bad. The reality is: direct presentation of emotional content is just as difficult to achieve as subtlety. A big catchy hook that works is just as valuable as music as any sample you can throw at me.

This I totally agree with.

I wasn't implying subtlety > direct emotions. You said that emotions are uncool nowadays - I think they are still glorified, just maybe in a way which doesn't suit you and your taste.

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"All revolutions are the sheerest fantasies until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities."

quote:

Originally posted by paulandrews This I totally agree with. I wasn't implying subtlety > direct emotions. You said that emotions are uncool nowadays - I think they are still glorified, just maybe in a way which doesn't suit you and your taste.

"The medium is the message."

You can't claim that the presentation (or "glorification", as you put it) is different but some root emotional meaning remains constant. And the medium currently fashionable is minimal and all its not-technically-minimal-but-copping-the-same-techniques imitator sub-genres. Less overt presentation = less overt = less. Less emotion is fashionable.

___________________
Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/