jeff: an intelligent analysis, and to an extent i agree with everything
your saying...my mind is still open and sure we still need genres -
regardless of the fact that we dont like labels, we have to use them as well
and try to come to some agreement...fatboy slim & coldcut may both be termed
electronic(a) in the states, but for me it's like apples & pears...
and i liked your term "slop"
just to clarify: my comments represented my personal opinion
and experience, and was by no means intended to represent the
"ninja view" - the most exciting thing about ninja is that everyone
has a strong opinion about music and is extremely passionate about
it & respects everyone's right to say what they think...
At 12:19 pm -0500 22/10/00, Jeff Shoemaker wrote:
quoted 61 lines genres are invented by journalists (and now dotcoms) as places to
> >genres are invented by journalists (and now dotcoms) as places to
> >"hang things"-
> >not by musicians or record labels that love what they're doing. how
> >many artist interviews have i read where the artists are unable to
> >define what to call what they do?????
>
>while i think this is true to an extent. . .it cannot be said that genres
>are *completely* artificial and imposed by extra-musical forces. i mean,
>when i sit down to write a tune i will often think about genre. i too have
>been involved in many genres over my (admittedly shortish) musically
>conscious life (i'm 26, and let's say that i began to "think" about music
>in spring 1986 when i bought AoN "Invisible Silence"). since then i've
>jumped head first into many genres, and declared each to be the lost mother
>Ur-tounge of music (hip hop, metal, EBM, acid house, techno, belgian hoover
>tracks, uk 'ardcore, the whole new school ambient thing and idm, drum and
>bass, and finally whatever slop i'm into now). i like to think that i have
>matured, at least in the sense that i no longer think that whatever i'm
>into now is the great white hope of music.
>
>yet, at the same time, these genres were incredibly helpful in giving me
>the lexicon to think about music. sure, i could have been some musical
>savant who just naturally arrives at whatever semi-informed conclusions i
>would have arrived at, but that didn't happen. by comparing and
>contrasting differing musical styles i've learned SO MUCH about what music
>is. i can talk for hours about the differences in what Cosmic Baby (great
>example) and, say, Remarc brought to the musical table in 1994. i get
>invigorated by these discussions, and the whole "thesis + antithesis =
>synthesis" thing just gives me a boner. perhaps i'm just a jaded
>postmodernist crap artist, but i absolutely appreciate the differences in
>genre as something to examine and (possibly) cherish.
>
>i understand that Ninja Tune is based on the "melting pot" ideal, which is
>absolutely fantastic and probably one of the reasons that i consider it to
>be the best label in the world right now. but you can't say with a
>straight face that Vibert (whom i love), Roots Manuva (whom i don't), Burnd
>Friedmann and others on NT don't think about genre. Friedmann, a wonderful
>example, uses genre as a diving board to explore whatever fancy he has at
>the moment, be it jazz, dub, or pop. maybe if he wasn't doing this he'd
>just be making whatever electronic music he deemed appropriate (the musical
>savant thing), but he CHOOSES to align himself with these conceits, and i
>think the reasons for him ding so are obvious. personally i love this.
>hell, i'd love to see him explore tejano or black metal or appalachian
>folk, just to hear what a new perspective on old thinking can do.
>
>anyhow, i really wish i could boil down this stupid post into something
>simple and to-the-point. what i'm trying to say is that genre/formalism is
>a double-edged sword. it's not uniformly evil or good. i'd hate to think
>that the fact that journalists can option to use these labels does dilute
>their usefulness to honest musicians and appreciators of music. i will
>continue to use these labels, and if it makes me some kind of brainwashed
>robot then so be it :P
>
></self-righteous>
>
>------------
>1642 try 621
>------------
>
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