Lacking of.. TODAY

The Lounge
#62

I was feeling guilty about some comments I made earlier on this thread…about being able to tolerate only a few moments of most music posted on this forum. So I decided to listen to the entirety of the next audio link I clicked on.

I’m not trying to go after anyone personally. There were some nice things about the song. It was well produced. I liked the sounds used. What bothered me was how typical the song was in its overarching structure. I use the word overarching in a literal sense. One big arch, spanning the length of the piece. If I heard that overarching form for the first time, I would probably think it was the coolest thing ever. But for the thousandth time?

Start the song out with ambiguous rhythm, add the drums in at some point, layer, layer-more, keep layering. Do something in the middle that might be called a bridge, though it sounds suspiciously like the rest of the song. Near the end of the piece pull away a bunch of layers, returning to a state of ambiguity much like the beginning of the piece. The song ends with the musical equivalent of contemplating one’s navel.

Whenever I complain about the quality of techno music, someone comes to the community’s defense by telling me that the music isn’t being produced to please ME. Absolutely! I wish, however, that more of the music sounded like it was written solely to please the artist. Because so much of it sounds like it’s written to please OTHERS through the use typical forms and techniques.

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#63

Can you show us some of the forms that you like which are not typical? Also how do you decide if another person’s music sounds like it was created to please them or created to please others? Some people do like techno. Or even rock n roll!

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#64

Maybe, and I’m just spitballing here, but maybe some music is better appreciated when you’re floating off of some mash pipes in a warehouse than sat at home stroking your chin.

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#65

Am I correct in thinking you only like through-composed music?

#66

There’s definitely been a transition into something new with the inception of the internet, and it’s a lot different from those movements of yesteryear in how we access music culturally. I’m not entirely sure whether that’s a good or a bad thing. Will we ever get another musical phenomenon such as Hip Hop for example? Is everything now too easily accessed, leaving zero time for that organic growth? You could argue the same is happening with cinema, yet there’s never been a time in history where information is so readily available. I think there is so much amazing music being released regardless of whether it is tied up in a movement and there’s too much out there that I’ll never ever run out of options. It’s actually overwhelming at times.

#67

My grain of sand to this thread: I am 46 and happier than ever regarding the electrronic music scene. Finally there is a generation that loves the explorative diverse music made in the 90s and embraces any kind of technology to make it. Thanks to this paradigm shift I have been able to finally make all the music I had never let myself do before cos there where very dogmatic standards in dance music and even in the experimental scene. The audience is waaaay more open now. Remember the boring linearity of a DJ set back in 2010 to put an example!! Beware I am talking about the underground or middleground scene, not commercial music scene which has and will remain always simplistic and digestible.

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#68

I’m not about to defend every piece of music posted on this forum - but what I would say is that many of the conventions you cite exist for valid causes.

In regard to music that is designed for clubs, or at least to be considered in how it can work in relation to other music of the genre, then those intro/outro conventions are there for a reason.

I know I get well fucked off if a track I like starts off with some freaky off-beat clatter.
Tbh I reckon all electronic music should start and end with at least 2 minutes of isolated kick drum.

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#69

All techno must henceforth be composed in the form of a fugue!!

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#70

I’d be happy if all tracks were just isolated kick drums, to be fair.

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#71

I teach the classic dance track structure to my students, and also how this standard has been questioned in the last 5 or 6 years and now you have a whole scene that is brave enough to include all kinds of electronic music in the middle of a main hour DJ set and the audience likes it anyway cos they are mostly centennials. I agree with the intro and outro percussion only, I try to keep this in my productions, but the rest of the track is much more free than the classic build up / drop / explosion / out. Nowadays people dare to put B parts and even more sections in dance tracks, much more influenced by other forms of music like fusion jazz or IDM. Best time ever!!

PS: also we have finally reached the revisionist era of electronic music as a popular genre, so now everyone is looking at the pioneering styles and the eclecticism that existed in the 80s and 90s. Very healthy for a music genre!

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#72

So would the rest of us

:wink:

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#73

Be the change you wish to see in the world. Seriously! I would love to hear kick-only tracks from you. Maybe a delay if you’re feeling saucy

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#74

This is the closest I’ve come so far, at least regarding the music I’ve shared with the world.

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#75

I didn’t get techno music.
And then one night I did. It was like flicking a switch. Drugs may have been involved, I’m not sure, but from that point on I was able to enjoy some music in a way I hadn’t before.

My point is that it is more subjectively different from other music than it first appears. That’s not to say it’s all good, most of it isn’t, same as other genres, just that it makes less sense than you might think to judge it by the standards of traditional musicality.
Have you ever had that experience of suddenly ‘getting’ a whole genre and realising your prior feelings about it somehow missed the point? It’s an epistemological thing.

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#76

Too many (distinctly Model:Cycles?) hi-hats :wink:

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#77

Yeah probably

It was ages ago, can’t remember

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#78

That would be a good Jolly Discs release.

#79

Made a good me release too.

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#80

Fair enough. If I asked you listen to a recording of my fourth grade beginners playing Twinkle Little Star, you’d be pretty underwhelmed. The context, in this case, is what makes the music cool. Same with dance music, I suppose. And, yes, I am home stroking my chin, and maybe that is part of my problem with dance music.

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#81

There’s a lot of real estate between truly through-composed music and repetitive music. All my favorite forms of music involve some type of formal repetition and are, technically, not through-composed.

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