A few quick responses:
From: Kurt Hoffman <supine@bway.net>
quoted 5 lines selling large quanities of disposable fluff, and it is left to the
> 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.
Well, you have to acknowledge that the idea of a "serious artist" is a
modern one (e.g. developed during the Renaissance), both musically and
societally. Beyond that, most "popular music" was passed on orally and
never transcribed (mostly folk songs; I'm sure some of the songs we sang
as kids have also been around for a fair amount of time). The two big
exceptions I can think of are "art music" (=classical) and songs involved
in religious participations (psalms & hymns in the Western tradition; I'm
sure there are thousands of other non-Christian examples).
My point is mostly to say that what we're talking about pre-dates and
supercedes the record business (which in its current form hasn't even been
around for a century).
quoted 6 lines 'timelessness' seems to fascinate the IDM list; the topic comes up
>
> '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.
Pretty funny, that.
From: "brian albers" <brianalbers@hotmail.com>
quoted 4 lines For any piece of music to be considered 'timeless,' it must transcend the
> For any piece of music to be considered 'timeless,' it must transcend the
> era in which it was composed. So to me, timeless music seems to fall into
> two catagories- the totally sugary bubblegum pop music and the over-the-top
> avant gaurde experimental pieces.
My argument was actually that the idea of "timeless" is a false one that
relies on mankind's persistent delusion that our own existence is
permanent (both as a species and as a culture). I think this is somewhat
related to the concept of being ahead of one's time. How can you really
be ahead of your time until after said "time" has come? You obviously
can't, which is the same problem with trying to figure out what will be
timeless (or a good price to buy Cisco).
From: "Anig Browl" <anig_browl@yahoo.com>
quoted 3 lines Isn't this a contradiction in terms? Bubblegum is something you throw away
> Isn't this a contradiction in terms? Bubblegum is something you throw away
> when youo get bored with it. Simon and Garfunkel music isn't bubblegum, it's
> ballad. Britney Spears is bubblegum.
So is Phil Spector, which is why your argument doesn't hold water.
From: "i o" <iostream@angelfire.com>
quoted 4 lines it seems to me that the timelessness of IDM is severly undermined by the
> it seems to me that the timelessness of IDM is severly undermined by the
> fact that so much of the music is created in the context of everchanging
> technology, which doens't lead musicians to spend as much time perfecting
> their compostional skills. this isn't necessarily a bad thing (i often
Yeah, I do think that there is a lot of music which coasts on the whole
"gee whiz" factor of its underpinning of technology and which won't be
nearly as compelling a few years down the road. I actually don't want to
get into to this, but I will say that this kind of music would probably be
much more popular if we as a society had a happier relationship with
computers.
-rob
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