Greetings.
I agree that one of the defining characteristics of Pop is the intention of
the artist to appeal to "The Unwashed Masses", but to this I say that the
activity on this list over the past year (as compared to, say, 5 years ago)
is good evidence that even this place has its "unwashed masses".
This is not to say, however, that this is some sort of decline or that we
should return to 'the good ol' days', but only that we should recognize the
change for what it is. I like pop music and the expanding recognition as the
scene grows is good for the artists, but this is exactly how Pop starts. The
genre expands to capacity, then splinters...traditionally, it becomes the
elite/old skool crowd and the newbies. Pop music is often the last remnant
of a splintered scene and the beginning of real acceptance. If IDM (or
whatever the hell we're calling this stuff these days) is ever going to
cross into mainstream culture, it has to create a pop mentality.
Taking electronic music in the last decade as an example, look at what the
Chemicals, the Orb, Prodigy, Moby, Orbital and fatboy slim have done to move
our little scene into the mainstream. Each of these bands had moments of
experimentalism that drew us closer to the mainstream (and vice versa), but
I wouldn't call any of them IDM (well, maybe orbital in the early days...and
the orb has huge crossover appeal). Now, look at the current generation of
electronic musicians, crossing boundaries (playing with technology), making
news(e.g. mp3.com), looking more and more like mainstream culture everyday.
I remember the cries years ago that this music was hard to find, that no one
knew anything about this stuff, that you had to get online to find
like-minded fans...but it's changing. It happened; electronic music is
catching on. One of the inevitable results of this is that a Pop mentality
has creeped into some of the music. As more people listen to and create
electronic music, as it becomes harder to match creaters with listeners, Pop
will grow.
If you're still not buying it, consider rap, consider punk. It is the fate
of rebellious, exploratory creativity to become popular...hence, art becomes
pop. Andy Warhol knew this years ago, but few knew what he was saying and
the message was lost in a hairstyle.
This progression has interesting consequences for our cultural view of art,
but that's another conversation.
---brian
-----Original Message-----
From: Josh Davison [mailto:yoshi@enteract.com]
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2000 4:20 PM
To: Gause, Brian
Cc: 'idm@hyperreal.org'
Subject: RE: [idm] Six of one! 1/2 dozen of the other!!!
the word pop is indeed derived from a slightly longer word, "popular".
but i don't think that just because something is more popular than
something else automatically makes it "pop."
while i'll agree that Aphex and Autechre are certainly a helluva lot more
popular than Richard Devine and L'usine, i have a hard time applying the
term Pop to either of them.
I think the defining characteristic of Pop music is the intention of the
artist to appeal to The Unwashed Masses. The Spice Girls are Pop. Puff
Daddy is Pop. These artists (loosely applied term, heh heh) try very very
hard to make sure that their music challenges nobody, and appeals to the
widest demographic possible.
I guess you could draw the further boundary of 'Mainstream Pop' and
'Underground Pop' and in that case i suppose you'd probably wind up
catching about 1/3 of aphex's material in there ... but that's not my
point
My point is that the size of the audience doesn't dictate whether music is
Pop. It's the artist who dictates this by aiming their music at the
current tastes of the Mainstream.
I remember Balil, B12, Beaumont Hannant and many other artists that don't
start with the letter "b" and I think that if anything, most of the new
music discussed on this list is 10 times more challenging than what those
guys were doing five or seven years ago. I know that's an unfair
comparison for me to make, but I think that just because many of the
people on this list weren't kicking it old school with their Artificial
Intelligence compilations in 1993 doesn't mean that the music discussed on
the list is Pop.
--
String Theory : Digital Music for Humans
http://www.enteract.com/~yoshi/index.cgi
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