In my area, raving developed completely new music audiences and ways of
experiencing music.
those ways were not "new". they may have been new to you and your
contemporaries, but an examination of the history of music will show
that those ideas were not new.
Well ... to my knowledge some of the PA setups that we were using in the
early 90's had never been done before.
Maybe they don't do it where you guys are. But here rave systems are setup
so that all the speakers face towards the centre. The sound surround the
dance floor and envelopes the audience from all sides.
No other event that uses amplified sound for music will do this usually.
So I had always considered this a new way of experience music. Over the
years many people have commented to me that it was this immersions in
the music that formed a life changing experience for them.
It could perhaps be compared to the architecture of cathedrals, or the natural
reverberation of large caves where sound is reflected back at the listener from
all directions, giving them a rare and unique sonic experience
I'm not sure what lead people to set the sound systems up in this way, and
weather it was intentional based on some sense of historical understanding of
sonic power or some crazy idea at the time, who knows. However it has become
an unassuming trade mark of electronic music and Dj culture in my region.
Personally I can't separate a piece of vinyl from a sound system. The vinyl
itself
does not make any sound. Like a music score it holds the information that can
be tranlated into music, so while it represents the music, in my mind it is the
sound system that is the instrument of sound.
While some people might be fixated on the vinyl or recordings and their
significance in the world of music. I remain fixated on the sound systems that
produce the sounds that are interpreted as music.
Its a complex chain of affairs .. but is the artist the person who records the
record
or the person who builds the sound system? Or is it the Dj who plays the record
or the Engineer who tunes the system and the frequencies that you hear.
Our societies have ways of isolating these roles and giving one more importance
over the other .. but if one role can't exist with out the other .. which is
really
more important.
I'm not prepared to decide myself, but I am prepared to challenge the existing
ideology in order to create something different.
.simon
