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The TA Worst DJ Poll. (part 2) (pg. 20)
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| SYSTEM-J |
| Oh, I'm not just a racist. I'm also close-minded, I dislike anyone who doesn't mix like a prog DJ, I only listen to Ableton DJs and have been conditioned to think there's no acceptable alternative, I don't know anything about disco, I commodify music to the extent I get enraged about not getting entertained in exchange for £17, I don't understand selection, programming and placement, I'm uptight, self-loathing and I have ADD. |
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| enydo |
| Well, at least you said it. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| That £17 came with a ing booking fee. |
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| sg_57 |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
I used it in response to him comparing Parrish to Delia Derbyshire. Derbyshire was a pioneer who was making experimental electronic music before synthesisers existed. She managed to create alarming likenesses to techno in the mid-1960s using only tape manipulation. To compare her to Parrish and suggest he too is so far ahead of the curve he'll only be understood in decades to come is an absolute joke.
Again, it's this insistence of using avant garde, high-brow and canonical reference points to try and elevate Parrish through association. That's now comparisons between him and Picasso, Duchamp, Cage, Davis and Derbyshire in this thread - all people who completely changed the gameplan in their respective fields, all being compared to a man who DJs like it's 1976. I find this grating because it reinforces that pretentious and condescending subtext that Parrish is doing something complex, wildly different and worthy of comparison to canonical ground-breakers, something that his critics simply do not "get". Cross-fading, it suggests, is on par with Cubism, or Dadaism. |
Seems like you've become really irritated about someone else harboring an opinion different from yours.
The reason I quoted some of the artists I did was to try and illustrate that a great many of them were ridiculed because of what they did being so idiosyncratic and out of sync with the accepted wisdom of the times (like someone not beat-mixing and having the nerve to call themselves a DJ might well be today), and that it definitely took time for certain people to come around to their way of thinking.
But unquestionably there are people out there who do hold what TP does and his musical credo in very high esteem, and it is very possible that in years to come it will become apparent that - if not his crossfading - his sense of aesthetics, selection, the vibes he is projecting when he plays as well as his production techniques were in fact quite original, and worthy of attention.
Even if the analogies I used could arguably be somewhat exaggerated, surely you can easily understand the point I was trying to make with them, rather than focusing on the minutiae of what point each one used reached on the 'artistic relevance meter'?
Derbyshire quit the BBC in disgust, and a number of things like then-nascent synthesizer technology further drove her to stop making music completely. Obviously very few people understood what she was doing at the time.
Regardless of whether or not he played a few bad gigs which certain people on here had the misfortune of attending, the only fair thing to do would be for us to revisit this conversation in 20 years, and see if in fact TP's moody and unpredictable contributions have helped turn him into an iconic and legendary DJ figure or not. At the very least, and whether that's someone's cup of tea or not, it seems to me that he is being honest about it, and has clearly not chosen the easy road.
But whether any of what I wrote is the case or not, it stupefies me that such a thing would get your goat like this. After all, even if something is not your opinion, there must apparently be something worthy of notice in there, reading the effect it is having on you....
And lest you misunderstand what I wrote, I did not think that I singled you out personally in any of what I have previously posted, sorry if you feel this way but it wasn't the intent. We can still have a discussion about all of this, which I felt was relevant in a more general sense because it does highlight the disconnect between how utilitarian and polished of a product club music has become, and what some people more attached to the old-skool ways think it can and should still be in order to connect with the crowd in a more organic kind of way? |
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| enydo |
| Let's all get together and write a Choose Your Own Adventure. We'll call it... Trapped In The Club. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| quote: | Originally posted by enydo
Let's all get together and write a Choose Your Own Adventure. We'll call it... Trapped In The Club. |
The DJ makes a transition that sounds like a couple of horses galloping along. What do you do?
(pg 57) Cheer and keep on dancing.
(pg 68) Leave the floor in disgust.
(pg 77) Make a mental note to write a critique on your favorite message board. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by sg_57
Seems like you've become really irritated about someone else harboring an opinion different from yours. |
That's pretty rich given how I made a two sentence post about how Parrish fit the criteria of the OP and got a fifteen-page storm of people telling me I have "no business" calling him the worst DJ.
And as for why I'm irritated, I've been over this before. That ludicrous character profile I've listed above is basically every veiled-insult or character assassination that's been levelled thus far in this thread. I'm not irritated that you like Parrish, but I'm irritated at how you deal with people who don't agree with you.
| quote: | The reason I quoted some of the artists I did was to try and illustrate that a great many of them were ridiculed because of what they did being so idiosyncratic and out of sync with the accepted wisdom of the times (like someone not beat-mixing and having the nerve to call themselves a DJ might well be today), and that it definitely took time for certain people to come around to their way of thinking...
Derbyshire quit the BBC in disgust, and a number of things like then-nascent synthesizer technology further drove her to stop making music completely. Obviously very few people understood what she was doing at the time. |
Is Parrish ridiculed or misunderstood, though? You seem to have constructed a sweeping State Of The Nation condemnation of modern clubbers based on my opinion of Parrish, and then you tell me your comments weren't aimed at me. Who are all these people hating on the guy? In this thread the only people who I can recall recounting bad experiences with Parrish are myself, bas and Jay. I don't think any of us remotely fit this strawman you've constructed of the anti-Parrish listener.
Derbyshire quit the BBC in part because she wasn't getting paid writing royalties, despite the composer she worked with lobbying for them. The BBC literally could not understand how her work could count as "writing". That's being a victim of idiosyncracy and boundary-pushing vision. Theo Parrish picking up a nice little cheque for playing a main stage and not bringing his A-game is not remotely comparable. In any way.
Funny thing is I see it exactly the opposite way: I don't see Parrish as some misunderstood rogue at all. It's not like he's struggling for gigs. As I said earlier, to me Parrish looked like just another producer who'd turned to DJing to make his money and got by on name and cred. That may be unfair, but that was the spectacle at the time. I think most people in that venue didn't give a that Parrish wasn't trying, because clubbers aren't very discerning. I don't know if that's a "modern" trait, but many people are happy enough to turn up, take drugs and cheer the man on stage. It's weekend escapism, not a pursuit of art. |
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| A.B |
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| Mr Game+Watch |
| quote: | Originally posted by Zyklon_Jay
the whole Disco movement in the 70's was considered a fad too.;) |
People still consider Pokemon a fad :p |
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| EddieZilker |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Oh, I'm not just a racist. I'm also close-minded, I dislike anyone who doesn't mix like a prog DJ, I only listen to Ableton DJs and have been conditioned to think there's no acceptable alternative, I don't know anything about disco, I commodify music to the extent I get enraged about not getting entertained in exchange for £17, I don't understand selection, programming and placement, I'm uptight, self-loathing and I have ADD. |
Sig worthy! :stongue: |
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| nefardec |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
I used it in response to him comparing Parrish to Delia Derbyshire. Derbyshire was a pioneer who was making experimental electronic music before synthesisers existed. She managed to create alarming likenesses to techno in the mid-1960s using only tape manipulation. To compare her to Parrish and suggest he too is so far ahead of the curve he'll only be understood in decades to come is an absolute joke.
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?? I didn't suggest that. If anything he's too far behind the curve(tm) to be understood in decades to come. But there are many curves and I think Theo's still pushing the Ron Hardy curve forward.
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Again, it's this insistence of using avant garde, high-brow and canonical reference points to try and elevate Parrish through association. That's now comparisons between him and Picasso, Duchamp, Cage, Davis and Derbyshire in this thread - all people who completely changed the gameplan in their respective fields, all being compared to a man who DJs like it's 1976. I find this grating because it reinforces that pretentious and condescending subtext that Parrish is doing something complex, wildly different and worthy of comparison to canonical ground-breakers, something that his critics simply do not "get". Cross-fading, it suggests, is on par with Cubism, or Dadaism. |
Ok, fair criticism. Instead I will compare him rather to someone like Werner Herzog. |
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| sg_57 |
This picture has potential...
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