Yes, Christophe, point well taken. If you attempt to trace the origins of
something but have no definable context, point, or direction, everything
goes all apocryphal and you end up with the horrible muddle that you seem to
be writing [about].
But it also seems obvious, in the colloquial sense-- and that's what we're
doing here, right? having conversations with assumed mutual backgrounds? --
that anyone talking about origins or catalysts is *not* attempting to
stretch it back to the origins of time or attain the ultimate subsumation of
the categories. And no one said a word about Athena from the head of Zeus.
Generally, and one should give them the benefit of the doubt on this before
expanding the discourse to questionable extremes, they mean that *this is
the place where it first surfaced in a form that I can recognize it* or
*this is what launched whatever idea we've categorized "like this" into the
general consciousness*. And sure, it all comes down to preferences, personal
and shared histories, depth of penetration into a subject, and that lot. But
it's not that difficult to understand. It's what allows one to write about
anything like music history or roots and still, miraculously, be understood.
Was Detroit THE catalyst of electronic music? No, of course not. People were
making electronic music long before anyone in that specific Detroit scene.
Was it the root of techno? If by techno you mean that style of electronic
music that sprung up in Detroit in the early eighties, with definite funk
influences and cross-pollenation with hip-hop: sure, why not. Let it be said
and believed. Build shrines to Juan Atkins and let him name our children,
for the savior has come bearing gifts of bass and funk.
Every time that someone who's had a few philosophy, linguistics, or
sociology classes jumps up to declare that we cannot speak as we do because
the categories are arbitrary and blurred, something in all of us dies a
little. Just a little. Please. Stop it.
Cheers,
Matthew
From: Christophe McKeon <c.mckeon@rcn.com>
CC: idm@hyperreal.org
Subject: Re: [idm] Detroit in the news
Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 12:41:59 -0400
quoted 13 lines A "catalyst" as far as I am informed. Is that which makes some kind >of
>
>A "catalyst" as far as I am informed. Is that which makes some kind >of
>reaction/transformation possible, which at least in chemistry, >would not
>have taken place w/o its presence. Kind of like the element >which brings
>the whole ensemble to a more active state. A 'key' of >sorts, opening up
>the possibility of emergent and synergistic >behavior of the entire
>ensemble, whatever it may be. I think it is >safe to say that this is also
>it's adopted vernacular meaning. I >think if we want to talk about
>catalysts, we should perhaps be >talking about the relationship between
>humans and machines after the >advent of the transistor. In other words,
>music has been around for >ever, and "electronic music" was thought up, at
>least in theory, far >before any body actually built the machines capable
>of making it. The >catalyst in this case is the technology,
<Snip>
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