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History of UK Electronic Music?
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| Scrittah |
So. I'm writing a paper for my Brit Lit class. On British Electronic Music. And I need help.
What I'm looking for are books, websites, big musical achievements and landmark albums, and significant artists, covering all the genres that were either born in or evolved in the UK. I especially need book recommendations; whether those focus on specific genres or on music as a whole are both fine. I'm not sure whether or not I'll be able to have a musical portion to go along with it, but my teacher's pretty cool about this kind of stuff, so anything really good is fine too.
Until I know more about the history, this is how I plan on structuring it:
Early music experimentations (Musique Concrete and such)
Early synthpop/"industrial" stuff (kind of developed at the same time - for synthpop I'm probably just going with the basics, for "industrial" stuff I've got Cabaret Voltaire, and a few other artists covered in the Synth Brittania special)
UK Garage
Acid House?
Breakbeat Hardcore
Jungle/DnB
UK Hardcore
Liquid DnB
Garage offshoots
Grime/Dubstep
Again, I don't know jack about this, which is why I chose this subject, 'cause with the exception of DnB and Dubstep, I haven't really gotten into the UK Music scene at all. If anything here is really, really wrong, please tell me. And thanks. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| You're writing a paper for a literature class about music? |
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| pozz |
| unless you plan to write a tome, you should restrict yourself. just writing about musique concrete is already an enormous task, even if you plan to summarize each genre/movement within a few lines. otherwise your paper is gonna read like a stitched together sketchy history via a list of pieces of music. it's better to take a few years and zero in on those. |
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| Scrittah |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
You're writing a paper for a literature class about music? |
Yep. Our teacher's pretty lax about what we do in class. In addition, it's almost entirely outside of class, over a couple of months, so it's not like it's using up class time.
| quote: | Originally posted by pozz
unless you plan to write a tome, you should restrict yourself. just writing about musique concrete is already an enormous task, even if you plan to summarize each genre/movement within a few lines. otherwise your paper is gonna read like a stitched together sketchy history via a list of pieces of music. it's better to take a few years and zero in on those. |
I'd rather cover a wider range of genres - though, certainly shorter than the one I posted - but not very deeply, for a few reasons. The first is that I'd like to cover a wide range of music, just to keep it interesting. What I'd like to do is arrange it chronologically, and describe each genre briefly: focus less on specific pieces and albums and more how the genres evolved. I could, however, pare that list down into four or five genres - maybe cut out Musique Concrete, as it wasn't really something specific to the UK, but keep in Synthpop, Garage, DnB, Consolidate Acid House/Rave Breaks into a single group, and finish it off with Grime/Dubstep.
That said, it's a six or seven page paper for an 11th grade British Literature class. I'm not planning on it being something huge. |
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| pozz |
:stongue: that was me thinking this was for a university class. again, your paper should have a central focus. if you are gonna focus on the transformation of the music from genre to genre, then maybe, as you know the most about it, use all of the genres listed to chronologically set up dubstep/grime. then talk about it's influences, and particular reasons why it's big today, later relating these to the development of its sound.
dunno where you are gonna find the literature, but even citing TA is alright. plenty of knowledgeable people around, and alot of discussions have went on in the past about these topics precisely. maybe they aren't too penetrating, but they will offer great historical material for research. |
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| Scrittah |
| quote: | Originally posted by pozz
:stongue: that was me thinking this was for a university class. again, your paper should have a central focus. if you are gonna focus on the transformation of the music from genre to genre, then maybe, as you know the most about it, use all of the genres listed to chronologically set up dubstep/grime. then talk about it's influences, and particular reasons why it's big today, later relating these to the development of its sound.
dunno where you are gonna find the literature, but even citing TA is alright. plenty of knowledgeable people around, and alot of discussions have went on in the past about these topics precisely. maybe they aren't too penetrating, but they will offer great historical material for research. |
That's not a bad idea. After all, dubstep is pretty much the only one of these genres anyone in my class will have heard about, though their idea of dubstep is pretty much restricted to the super filthy frat party stuff (not that there's anything wrong with that).
As for sources, there's no problem with me finding any number of internet sources - the problem is finding three print sources to back it up. Can anyone think of any mainstream magazines, maybe, that would have relevant articles? Living in the suburbs, I need to find something my library could get on loan, because god knows I'm not going to find anything in my school or town libraries. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| I know plenty of good print sources, but I'm not going to tell you any of them. Write about a piece of literature, for Christ's sake. You don't have nearly enough space to do justice to the subject you're attempting to cover, and so you're going to deliver a ty hash-job that doesn't teach you anything about the subject you're supposed to be studying. |
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| nefardec |
What the hell did the UK have to do with musique concrete? Someone educate me...
Anyway as far as sources, use the wire magazine.
Probably the closest thing to brit lit your class would experience, from what you're saying :p |
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| pozz |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
I know plenty of good print sources, but I'm not going to tell you any of them. Write about a piece of literature, for Christ's sake. You don't have nearly enough space to do justice to the subject you're attempting to cover, and so you're going to deliver a ty hash-job that doesn't teach you anything about the subject you're supposed to be studying. |
it's pretty acceptable to write about music these days as a kind of text.
@nefardec - if you are talking about the movement, then nothing, or at least nothing recorded. but in the 40s Tom Jennings made the Univox and in the 50s Christopher Strachey made some of the first computer music and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was established in the '58 (they made the soundtrack for Dr Who there). Scrittah was trying to set up a chronology of electronic music.
@Scrittah - i found this book around the house: Electronic Music Pioneers by Ben Kettlewell. Not much on the UK in there, but good if you are interested in the history. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by pozz
it's pretty acceptable to write about music these days as a kind of text. |
He isn't writing about music as a kind of text. |
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| Mr Game+Watch |
| Simon Reynolds - Energy Flash would be a good start, I'd think, for a UK perspective on EDM. Also research the term "Hardcore Continuum" |
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