IDM Mailing Archive

I haven't heard enough Beatles to say. Who said AE were gods anyways? It's my personal belief that electronic music, namely "IDM" as we call it, is going to be the next form of classical music. What's the next step? What aphex started but did not finish.. -Allen

quoted 2 lines Ever notice that there's more variety to The Beatles' work than Autechre,

> Ever notice that there's more variety to The Beatles' work than Autechre, > whoops, I mean Elvis?

DzrtMusic@aol.com wrote:

quoted 2 lines It's my personal belief that electronic music, namely "IDM" as we call it,

> It's my personal belief that electronic music, namely "IDM" as we call it, is > going to be the next form of classical music. What's the next step?

Seconded! I feel the same way about the IDM genre, especially when I attempt (in futility) to explain to all of the "Third Eye Blind" fans who ride in my car. "Oh, so you like Techno huh?" "er, well, It's not really techno, no" "What's all this bleeping and no words." "You have to have an appreciate it like classical music. Classical music doesn't have 'words'." "hmm, put something in with words." humans.... The saga continues.

On Fri, 5 Feb 1999, Tom Young wrote: [not sure who wrote this bit] | > It's my personal belief that electronic | > music, namely "IDM" as we call it, is going | > to be the next form of classical music. What's | > the next step? | Seconded! I feel the same way about the IDM | genre, especially when I attempt (in futility) | to explain to all of the "Third Eye Blind" | fans who ride in my car. Maybe daft to step into the fray right now, but I'll add my 2 cents. When I think of classical, I think of academic music, or music written under patronage. IME most IDM is constructed in a far more folk or pop manner (someone with native interest in the music buggering about with sounds and/or something to say). I'm also proud to think of it as more pop than classical, because on classical's own terms it falls down, as someone pointed out WRT holding Autechre up next to some of those pioneers of IRCAM, etc. On pop's terms, IDM is just great - it being exciting, moving, and (occassionally more than) a little lawless. I guess it shows I think a lot more about context and creation, when it comes down to these divisions... whatever. :-) Michael np. 'One More Chance' - Pet Shop Boys ____________________________________________ "His eyes are TV cameras" http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~michael/jj.html

Michael Upton wrote:

quoted 14 lines I'm also proud to think of it as more pop than

> I'm also proud to think of it as more pop than > classical, because on classical's own terms it > falls down, as someone pointed out WRT holding > Autechre up next to some of those pioneers of > IRCAM, etc. > > On pop's terms, IDM is just great - it being > exciting, moving, and (occassionally more than) a > little lawless. > > I guess it shows I think a lot more about context > and creation, when it comes down to these > divisions... whatever. :-) >

The Dance in IntelDanceMusik pretty much sums up the connection between IDM and pop, and I could see how you would make the connection, and in some respects, it's viable. My reasoning on the subject is this, however: Pop gains much of its emotional impact from its lyrics. Not to say that the music doesn't come into play, but when you take the lyrics away, you start to venture into the realm of elevator music sometimes. People listen and ask me, as I have begun to ask myself, What is it that I like about this music? So called 'higher music' such as Jazz and Classical, share this same defining charictaristic. There's no song to hum, no angsty lyrics, yet a good track can literally bring tears to my eyes. (?) IMO, it's all about texture and composition. Lyrical content, to me, is the big delineator. Humans tend to get distracted by words. They get confused when some try to communicate with tones, bleeps, and strings. _10m

Tom Young wrote:

quoted 7 lines Pop gains much of its emotional impact from its lyrics.

> Pop gains much of its emotional impact from its lyrics. > [...] > IMO, it's [IDM and 'higher' music] all about texture and composition. > > Lyrical content, to me, is the big delineator. Humans tend to get > distracted by words. They get confused when some try to communicate with > tones, bleeps, and strings.

Yeah, news flash. This realization seems to hit just about every fan of dance music, IDM or not. I find that lyrical content is not always distracting, though, if the voice is used more as an instrument and if the music is more than just background. For an IDM-ish example of this, listen to Bjork. Pop is about more than lyrics/vocals. About half of the pop songs I hear or own have more to their music than just vocal accompaniment. I'm no expert, but dominant melody and harmony, and adhering to certain major keys (A,C,D,E or G) definitely contribute to a song's 'pop-ness'. Re: Taco Bell, for the uniniated in Sweden... It's a fast-food restaurant chain formerly owned by Pepsi. They serve Mexican-style (emphasis on style.. this is not authentic) food like tacos, burritos, and abominable concoctions like 'Mexican pizza' and 'gorditas'. It's all very Americanized and leaves much to be desired, but it has the advantage of being dirt cheap. For a while, most of their menu was "59, 79, 99" (cents). Now most items are $0.20-$0.30 more, but still, you can fill up for $3, and it's better than McDonalds. Anyway, depending on where the restaurant is, you'll hear piped-in music that appeals to the local market. Around a college campus, the music will be 'alternative' like the mix that included Toxygene. In a rural areas, you'll hear country or pop. When the Star Wars movies were rereleased, they were playing Star Wars music. I've also heard Latin folk music in Taco Bell. Anyway, I think I'm more of a Taco Bell expert than a pop music expert. For a good laugh, and tips on producing pop music, check out http://nmol.com/users/vmg/product.htm. Mike

Many jazz and especially classical pieces have melodies that stick in my head for weeks, so that shoots your little theory in the ass a little. -allen

Let's not forget the Mike Dred & Peter Green album that just came out that has elements of programmed orchestral music (at least one whole track as well) and the old Machine Codes EP that has a dark orchestral programmed b-side. Also, as I mentioned before, the Orbital "Event Horizon" soundtrack had a good combination of orchestral and electronic composition. Any good/interesting multitimbral melodical combination stands a good chance of sounding interestingwhen played by an orchestra or acoustic instruments. It is all just composition. Those are examples that I think bring a logic to the comment about idm and classical. Also, Ryuichi Sakamoto conducted the Tokyo Symphony on "Playng th Orchestra", on which many of his older 100% electronic peices translated well. This is around the time he started composing for orchestra for "The Last Emperor". I suspect the reciprocal: the older composers , if alive today, would probably use midi and modules to at least work on their compositions, if not use the electronic sounds themselves. Easier than sitting at home trying to piece it all together on a single piano or violin (depending on the composer's main instrument of proficiency) Consider Conlan Nancarrow, a composer linked off this CLASSICAL page: http://www.mindspring.com/~rafflesia/musiclinks/classical.html ...whose music is multi-tempo, intricately arranged programming of player-piano rolls, clearly a precursor to midi, as many midi computer sequencers use the player piano roll as the basis of their layout and display of note lengths (esp Cubase "key" mode). Anyone stuck on classical music for all of the elitist stigma, well, all I can say is: there are many people who see IDM itself as snobby avant-garde wankery, so you you might as well get used to enjoying good music and ignoring the stigmas... Maybe one good place to start, esp if you are coming from dance music in general, is the classical stuff that was inspired by folk dance music (heck, isn't techno just 90's 1st world folk dance music?). "Bolero" or the works of Bela Bartok maybe... Solenoid np: Cylob's "Rewind" into PDF Crew (West Coast) On Thu, 11 Feb 1999 DzrtMusic@aol.com wrote:

quoted 5 lines Many jazz and especially classical pieces have melodies that stick in my head

> Many jazz and especially classical pieces have melodies that stick in my head > for weeks, so that shoots your little theory in the ass a little. > > -allen >