you're absolutely right - however it can go to extremes and there are
drawbacks. some people tend to not look outside "their" category -
"Detroit techno sucks"
"I only listen to Swedish techno"
"minimal click house is where it's at"
"Detroit techno is the best"
etc.
categories do change the music as well - people start mixing only one style
of music and slowly, almost undetectable, the music changes - sometimes for
the better - sometimes not
I've lost count of the number of mixes I've heard that are one style only
all frickin night
it's easy for people to fall into categories but hard to break out of them
- and if you have a hard time categorizing a style of music then where in
your shop do you place it so that it will sell well? How can you get it
into the hands of people who might enjoy it?
A prime example of this is a little mix up that happened in my fav local
shop.
I ordered a copy of the Advent's latest LP "Light Years Away" - the shop
got it in and I bought it but somehow there was a mix-up and it didn't get
in my bag of purchases for that day. Instead, it accidentally got into
another DJ's bag. Now this DJ plays I guess what people would call hard
house and progressive house or some such category.
My name and number were in the record, since I ordered it, and he called me
up to let me know of the mix-up. I had already got a replacement copy from
the same shop so he said he'd keep it because he thought it was pretty cool
but didn't know what kind of music it was as he had never really heard
anything like it.
So - the shop placed the Advent LP in the "Electro" section but since this
guy doesn't buy "Electro" he would have missed it if it hadn't been for
this mix-up. He really loves the LP too. There is your drawback.
but I understand that to a certain point - a categorization of sound does
help.
We just have to remember to keep our heads up above the walls of those
boxes.
MEK
"john harvey"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "313"
<[email protected]>
lworld.com> cc:
Subject: Re: (313) what is
Detroit techno ...
03/24/04 12:41 PM
catagarisation is something that human beings do automatically - it's in
our
nature, and the reason we do it is for convenience and efficiency. In other
words it makes life alot easier. How could we communicate on this list if
we
didn't do it? I might want to say "i don't like hard-loop techno", and we
all know what that means. How would i say that without using the catagary
of
"hard loop techno" and why would i want to try and say it in a less
efficient way.
classifying music is no big deal, it's about the human language. we should
do it, we all do it, and it would be literally insane not to.
there are no drawbacks to it either - it doesn't change the music.
> >> Seriously,you can't begin to classify techno by categories,
>
> >yes you can.
>
> Well, I suppose you can also tighten your ass cheeks until they can break
a
> pencil but why would you want to?
>
> MEK
