There is a lot about this post which is painted with blind sweeping (ignorant)
motions, as well as a little bit of insight here and there. However my
response is directed at a particular segment of the last paragraph which I
find particularly interesting. Interesting because of the umwelt which it
presupposes:
"As the phenomenon of music distributed through the Internet,
downloaded and CD-burned continues to develop, this global geektronic
network may well devolve into a barter economy, with bedroom producers
trading their music with other artists through the Net. Momus recently
suggested that rather than everybody being famous for 15 minutes, in the
future everybody will be famous for 15 people. That's what it's getting
like, and that's why we should be getting worried."
We are talking about a memetic redistribution along new avenues, new lines of
least resistance. To consider this a "devolution", to me, is puzzling. What
Simon is lamenting, whether he realizes it or not, is the possibility of
stepping outside, or at least around, pre established lines and modes of
social interaction. I am speaking here particularly about corporate
superstructures and the media machine.
Of course you can not be "famous" for only fifteen people, because fame is
really a kind of terrorism. It has been constructed in such a manner that it
will always be in earshot, so to speak. Just as it is purportedly impossible
to be anywhere in the United States now without being in earshot of some kind
of motor or loud machine. Being "famous" for fifteen people is more like being
friends with fifteen people, and if you step back and look at what a "barter
society" like this might look like, it is a thousand fold times more beautiful
than the status quo. Given the choice between a distributed network of the
"barter" kind, or an arborescent and imperial structure it seems as though
Simon would choose the latter. Of course we have a long way to go, and I
myself am guilty of the many geekisms which Simon points out. Geekisms which
are not at all disentangled from a rather murky relationship with capital and
neuroses. This subculture is not immune from the trappings of a neurotic
capitalism. Simon thus gives us a few things to think about. It is a shame
and also a bit strange to me that he can see the problems inherent in the way
we "Geeks" (Who love to dance) are e-trading, but is incapable of making the
necessary perceptual leap in attributing them to the way the "economy"
(Monetary, Libidinal, Memetic) is organized, and then to lament the fact that
it is precisely this kind of organization from which we are trying to break
loose.
Have a Ball All,
Christophe
franco ingrassia wrote:
quoted 51 lines [Find out more about this cool dude on
> [Find out more about this cool dude on
> http://members.aol.com/blissout/front.htm
> Hate mail is encouraged. (at least by me)]
>
> GEEKTRONICA, A/K/A IDM (INTELLIGENT DANCE MUSIC)
> This international network of home-studio-made, pressing-of-500 electronic
> music is basically the new lo-fi rock. That much is clear from the fact
> that Matador, home of Pavement and Yo La Tengo etc, now has a roster of
> seriously hip techno (Pole, Jega, Burger/Ink, Boards of Canada) and has
> done a deal with Warp, the pioneers of first-wave "intelligent techno".
> Then there's all these Pastels/Mogwai/Low type bands putting out remix
> albums with their tracks revamped by all the usual geektronic suspects.
> I call it geektronica because the people into it have the same trainspotter
> obsessive-compulsive collector mentality as lo-fi nerds, and because
> musically, it's deliberately enfeebled or impaired sounding. Just as the
> demographic constituency/class-base for lo-fi doesn't like rock that's too
> rockin' and rhythmically muscular, similarly the geektronica audience
> prefers dance music that isn't danceable. I'm not saying that good music
> hasn't come out of this area--IDM's patron saints Aphex Twin and Luke
> Vibert are household gods chez moi (although Autechre and Squarepusher,
> also patron saints, are decidely not), I dig Mike Paradinas, Jega and
> Boards of Canada. But this music's strongest trait isn't rhythm but melody
> (all those poignant or chipper or glum tunes) and timbre (another thing it
> has in common with lo-fi, an obsession with different grains of
> distortion).
> Lo-fi and geektronica fans have the same commodity-fetish for wacky sleeves
> and peculiar configurations of vinyl --split singles, one sided discs with
> drawings etched into the other side, flexis, 10 inches and 7-inches (and
> soon 8 inches, apparently), double-7inches, maxi-EPs and mini-albums.
> There's a whole on-line world of obsessives who trade and hunt down rare
> early 12 inches on labels like Skam and Rephlex, which sometimes fetch huge
> prices.
> Nothing against obscurity (that would really be the pot calling the kettle
> black I suppose) or unusual formats/packaging, or coveting rare records.
> But a lot of this geektronica stuff has crossed the line into wilful
> obscurantism. With records coming out in pressings of 250 or even fifty
> (with handpainted covers etc), you have to wonder what's the threshold
> below which music ceases to be a "cultural practice" and becomes mere
> hobbyism? As the phenomenon of music distributed through the Internet,
> downloaded and CD-burned continues to develop, this global geektronic
> network may well devolve into a barter economy, with bedroom producers
> trading their music with other artists through the Net. Momus recently
> suggested that rather than everybody being famous for 15 minutes, in the
> future everybody will be famous for 15 people. That's what it's getting
> like, and that's why we should be getting worried.
>
> Simon Reynolds
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org
For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org