On Nov 1, 2007, at 10:43 AM PDT, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I AM NOT BORED WITH MUSIC.
I guess the way I worded it was that I was "waiting around"
for the new music rather than watching with interest (and some
trepidation - will I be left behind?) - my mistake.
I liked some of the prog rock stuff when I was at school -
I just liked it, it was the most interesting stuff to me as my
"ears began to open" about age 12 - 14.
Punk came along and I liked it at first as a pure fashion thing:
it was the rebel music when I was 15 - 16. Then I decided I hated
much of it as I came to find it musically rubbish (not all of it,
The Clash and The Stranglers came out of it and I still love them
as well as other people who got tied in at the beginning like
Siouxsie).
Then there was a real revolution to me - the bands I mentioned
above -
I was blown away.
A mere 5 years or so later I was blown away all over again by House.
And it wasn't like I'd never heard a Disco record. I reckon
this was revolution as well as evolution. But still I think you've
given me something to think about here. In fact I think just
about every post in this thread has. Cheers all!
I'm late to this game because I just spent a week in Cambodia
(where, alas, I only heard "very old music" - i.e. their two-bit
version of a Gamelan, at a Khmer dance performance in Siem Reap).
I've just tried to distill Francis' post down to the salient
issues he raised that few, unfortunately, addressed directly.
What he's saying is simple, really: Where is the New Music?
When all the DSP Madness software came along I thought we
were really on the cusp of something - people like Aphex
taught me that there was this infinite sonic palette out
there waiting to be explored, and he was going to be the
first of the Cortez/Vasquez de Coronado/Ponce De Leon/etc.
to lead us into these new realms. And the software was
going to take us there - the Infinite Sonic Palette was
surely within reach.
But then, sure enough, every DSP Madness song started sounding
more or less the same (to me). Gentlemen, I bring you Glitch -
already a musical dead-end. Autechre tried to find the trail
to the New World that way, and disappeared up their own arses.
What I keep waiting for - and don't hear - is what I think
Francis is waiting for: something so *new*, so "This doesn't
sound much like anything else" that it can truly be called
a new genre of music. (What was the last thing you could
call even close to that? Reggaeton? I don't even recall
ever hearing that term before a few years ago. Though I'm
sure one of you wags will step in and say Reggaeton is
no different in its own way than, say, Grime or Two-Step)
The interesting thing is, is this the way things will stay
until the death of Mankind? Did we really in the last
100 years or so go from very few kinds of music (Classical,
Folk) through an entire evolution and arrive in a stylistic
cul-de-sac with no outlet? Doesn't anyone find that astounding,
if so?
I mean, it's like being told that Mankind will have gone in
just over 100 years from not being able to fly, to flying
several types (propellor, jet, helicopter, etc.) of aircraft
to ... never traveling on vacation in planes going faster than
the Speed of Sound. Oh, wait ...
As for you, Francis, I have no answers, other than to nod
my head in solemn agreement. Maybe you, as a clear child
of the Post-Punk era, should do what I'm doing at the
moment - bury your head in Simon Reynolds' "Rip It Up And
Start Again", and reminisce about The Glory Years ;-)
- Greg
