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What current genre is kicking it off PRESENTLY? (pg. 7)
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| SYSTEM-J |
There is a music journalist called Simon Reynolds who wrote a history of electronic music called Energy Flash. Here is one of his quotes from a book he wrote in 2007 summarising his position towards electronic music:
"[Electronic music] is still alive but as far as I can see has ceased to actually move. Oh, it throws up good stuff to listen to quite regularly but it will never again be what it was between 1988 and 1998, just as rock never really recovered the combination of epochal centrality and aesthetic forward-surge that it possessed between 1964 and 1974." |
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| ohbeone |
^^
wow what he says at 6:00 is excactly what's being talked about in this thread. "Music is boring and sterile and crap. It sounds like they just put it into the computer and didn't think about what it should sound like."
Amen.
oops...didn't see the post inbetween. I was pointing to the vid with legowelt talking. But System-J that is a very on the money quote as well. There's still good stuff...just not quite as changing and exciting as people might want it to be. I'd translate that to not as 'easy' as people want it to be to find good stuff. Music is a journey. Gotta keep on that trail. If something's missing or wrong...try to contribute. But complaining about music doesn't exactly get anyone anywhere. There is lots of yes, but there's lots of good stuff out there too. It does suck though loving a certain sound and then people seem to stop making that particular sound. I guess I'm happier on the whole cus I look more for a mood than a sound. And in every genre of music I can find the mood I'm looking for. There's good stuff. |
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| Cobalt |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
There is a music journalist called Simon Reynolds who wrote a history of electronic music called Energy Flash. Here is one of his quotes from a book he wrote in 2007 summarising his position towards electronic music:
"[Electronic music] is still alive but as far as I can see has ceased to actually move. Oh, it throws up good stuff to listen to quite regularly but it will never again be what it was between 1988 and 1998, just as rock never really recovered the combination of epochal centrality and aesthetic forward-surge that it possessed between 1964 and 1974." |
How depressing. I should read it. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by Cobalt
How depressing. I should read it. |
Energy Flash was written around 1998 and it's probably quite out-dated now beyond being a time-capsule of critical thought in the halcyon days. That quote is taken from his book Bring The Noise, which is an anthology of collected journalism written between 1985 and 2007, with little annotations at the end in which he comments on his own journalism in retrospect.
That quote is taken from his annotation to an article called Historia Electronica, and it's well worth reading because it encapsulates perfectly what makes electronic music different to other contemporary music, why we love it and why others fail to understand it.
Simon Reynolds is sometimes frustrating because he brings a lot of politics to his overview of dance music: he's anti-progressive and anti-trance for reasons more conceptual than musical, but that article and his (quoted) annotation are perhaps the single most perfect summary of electronic dance music I've ever read. |
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| Johan (DJ Irish) |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
There is a music journalist called Simon Reynolds who wrote a history of electronic music called Energy Flash. Here is one of his quotes from a book he wrote in 2007 summarising his position towards electronic music:
"[Electronic music] is still alive but as far as I can see has ceased to actually move. Oh, it throws up good stuff to listen to quite regularly but it will never again be what it was between 1988 and 1998, just as rock never really recovered the combination of epochal centrality and aesthetic forward-surge that it possessed between 1964 and 1974." |
Actually the book was first published in 1998 so he was rather quick in determining that everything after 1998 was stagnation. Nonetheless it's an interesting idea and I personally feel that there's not nearly as much experimentation going on as during the (early) 90s.
In the same vein I also feel that in general there's a lot less tolerance for experimentation among the audience/clubgoers. Everybody seems to be so hung up on genres and classifcation these days. Only sticking to their "own" style and slagging everything else |
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| sljiva |
| quote: | Originally posted by Johan (DJ Irish)
Actually the book was first published in 1999 so he was rather quick in determining that everything after 1998 was stagnation. Nonetheless it's an interesting idea and I personally feel that there's not nearly as much experimentation going on as during the (early) 90s. |
He didn't write that in Energy Flash, but in some other (newer) book or article. BTW, Energy Flash has been reissued earlier this year (for its 10 anniversary), with some new content and opinions towards EDM |
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| paulandrews |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
"[Electronic music] is still alive but as far as I can see has ceased to actually move. Oh, it throws up good stuff to listen to quite regularly but it will never again be what it was between 1988 and 1998, just as rock never really recovered the combination of epochal centrality and aesthetic forward-surge that it possessed between 1964 and 1974." |
So, so true... |
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| paulandrews |
| quote: | Originally posted by Cobalt
Very promising, but I'm not sure it breaks the house mold enough to really start a movement. Feel-good house is a reliable standby, but can it really dominate the industry again? |
Good point. I perceive this more as a part of the disco revival, but we'll see. Something needs to replace that 'electro' nonsense. |
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| Sykonee |
I'll admit the following is somewhat suppositional and lacking concrete evidence, but here's some thoughts on this subject nonetheless...
I can't help but think the lack of direction and innovation within electronic music is a small part of a much larger problem: the current mindset that music is far more disposable than its ever been. Let's face it: the next generation doesn't quite feel the same connection towards music as Gen-X or the Baby Boomers did, because they treat music as a free commodity to be obtained on a whim. No matter what else they'll claim, they don't care about it as much because they don't have the same intimate connection you get when you actually own a physical copy of a record or CD. They just buy less, and probably can't even afford to buy it the same way previous generations did since all their funds go towards expensive gadgets like cell-phones and laptops now, along with the user fees that come along with such devices.
If you look at music as a whole, there really hasn't been anything innovative in years. All the old foundations are clinging to their empires by avoiding upsetting what they still have. And this new generation just doesn't strike me as one that will create some kind of new musical revolution like we've seen before because they just aren't as emotionally invested into it as previous generations were. I mean, they're actually satisfied with ringtones!
So what you have is the old guard mostly maintaining what they know or cobbling together bits of pieces of what's already been done. This at least retains your initial audience, and thus sustains your current career. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by Johan (DJ Irish)
Actually the book was first published in 1998 so he was rather quick in determining that everything after 1998 was stagnation. Nonetheless it's an interesting idea and I personally feel that there's not nearly as much experimentation going on as during the (early) 90s. |
Sigh. Please read more carefully. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sykonee
I can't help but think the lack of direction and innovation within electronic music is a small part of a much larger problem: the current mindset that music is far more disposable than its ever been. Let's face it: the next generation doesn't quite feel the same connection towards music as Gen-X or the Baby Boomers did, because they treat music as a free commodity to be obtained on a whim. No matter what else they'll claim, they don't care about it as much because they don't have the same intimate connection you get when you actually own a physical copy of a record or CD. They just buy less, and probably can't even afford to buy it the same way previous generations did since all their funds go towards expensive gadgets like cell-phones and laptops now, along with the user fees that come along with such devices. |
Yep. I've been talking about this kind of thing for a while, the current "cheapness" of music and how it might make it seem less "important" to people on a subjective level. Pasting something I wrote in another thread:
"...in the digital age it's ridiculously easy to saturate yourself with new electronic music of all kinds, discussion with likeminded listeners, DJ sets, production, etc. Anything you want (except for that old fresh feeling of "newness") is right at your fingertips, a few clicks or keyboard strokes away.
When I think of what EDM culture must have been like before the Internet, a metaphor comes to mind: starvation. If you lived anywhere but in a few big cities, your exposure to new electronic music would be extremely limited. When you found a record of some previously-unheard-of genre of music in a shop, it must have felt like a little miracle happened or something, like finding an oasis in a desert."
I think the argument about the "cheapness" of music may also apply to the means used to create music
A few more sketchy thoughts:
1. I think that people are generally becoming "overstimulated," for lack of a better word. I tend to think that the best creativity happens when people let themselves just work away at their art for a long time, uninterrupted, by themselves or maybe with a friend or two. But the way things are headed now...
...with cell phones and instant messengers and the hundreds of hours of music that everybody has on their hard drives and the constant temptation to turn on the Internet for some amusement (I've grudgingly come to accept that the 'net can be at least as much of a brainless time-waster as TV ever was)...
...there may end up being a lot less uninterrupted "creative time," simply because there are so many possible distractions.
2. I also think that people using their everyday e-mail-school-word-processing-net-browsing-etc. computer as the centerpiece of their "studios" might put them in a different mindset than if they just had a pile of equipment whose sole purpose was to make music. Who knows...
3. Another thing is the connectivity brought by the Internet and the way it might change producers' attitudes toward their potential audience. It's so much easier for a producer to figure out what's "popular" in the world at large and get tracks out there for evaluation. I think what this may do is make producers more sensitive, even oversensitive, to the reactions of others, even to the point where they might construct a track along certain lines, e.g., "I'm gonna make something that *insert big international DJ here* would play;" not out of any unique artistic conviction, but simply because they want to make something that's more likely to "get heard."
I think that the way the EDM scene used to be more "dispersed," for the most part composed of local enthusiasts and weirdos, may have led more people to say " it" and just do whatever the heck they wanted, just exploring sounds and arrangements with complete freedom, since God knew they weren't going to get famous or wealthy off of making bleepy dance music.
4. Final point I think, is that the Internet revolution has to a large extent "depersonalized" the way that people locate and consume music. You don't really have to interact with anyone, certainly not face to face, to find new tracks or buy stuff or hear a set or get your tracks heard or whatever. It used to be that whole new genres of music would get named after specific places -- "garage" for the Paradise Garage, "house" at The Warehouse -- can you really imagine that ever happening again?
I sure can't.
I think that taking the face to face element away, and also effectively separating "dance music" from the visceral "dance" aspect of it, may have drained some vitality out of EDM.
Hopefully at least a few people have the energy to read all that. :wtf: |
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| ohbeone |
^^
+1
I read it all. How could I not? Very right on. Nothing really to add. |
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