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From:
Kurt Hoffman
To:
Cc:
R. Lim ,
Date:
Sat, 18 Aug 2001 10:24:37 -0400
Subject:
Re: [idm] 'timeless' music
Msg-Id:
<p0510030eb7a41aaf5876@[216.220.110.184]>
Mbox:
idm.0108.gz
"R. Lim" <rlim@escape.com> wrote:
quoted 3 lines I like to subscribe to the theory that the "timeless" music du jour is>I like to subscribe to the theory that the "timeless" music du jour is >that which represents the belief system of the dominant social class of >the time.
<Oways@msn.com> wrote:
quoted 3 lines U're quite right, for the people who control and dominate>U're quite right, for the people who control and dominate >the chief means of mass communication will dictate what >>"is" and "is not" "timeless".
in terms of the people who control the media...i wonder how much they have to do with long-term historical appraisals. at least in our own era, the music industry is too obsessed with making a quick buck to have much to say about the 17th century. they are concerned with selling large quanities of disposable fluff, and it is left to the cognoscenti, to the academics, to freakish obsessives, to serious musicians, to the idle rich. etc., to deal with the distant past. i mean, most of the artists we know from centuries past aren't bawdy-house singers, they are (for better or worse) serious artists. with that in mind, one could conclude that all current popular music (even Prince, even electronica) will drop into the dusty recesses of libraries and archives within three hundred years. so, you know, enjoy the fragile flowers while they're blooming, they will never smell as sweet again. 'timelessness' seems to fascinate the IDM list; the topic comes up from time to time. perhaps it's a response to the short shelf-life of most electronica. the impression one gets, however, is that few list subscribers have much interest in music from other epochs beyond that of their own childhood. k --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org