On Tue, 16 Nov 1999 Steve81778@aol.com wrote:
quoted 5 lines letting people listen to the music of their choice is good manners,>
> letting people listen to the music of their choice is good manners,
> listening to music for production values and or motor skills is simply
> poor taste,
>
You're entitled to your opinion BUT:
No one is making much money doing 'this-listy' music. I
bet that among all the "international idm stars" there are maybe
a couple that make more money than I do writing my little boring
computer programs.
Part of the reason for the small audience is that you have to learn
to like this stuff -- a casual listener will find the music repetitive,
harsh and obtuse. Another part MAY be -- and this is my thesis --
that because the music is largely home made, it fails to have the
production values and sonic quality that the vast majority of people
have come to expect from their audio entertainment.
So when I listen to any music, on the radio or CD player or Vinyl,
I'm doing two things -- considering the music for it's intrinsic
musical qualities divorced from the medium, AND analysing how it's
recorded, edited, and manipulated to make it inviting ear candy.
And if you want production values for their own sake, you have
to look at the high-volume, commercial stuff.
It doesn't mean you have to love the music -- you can hate it, and
still analyze what they do to suck in the punters. My point is this --
what happens if you are somehow able to combine the idiosyncratic
artistry that you find in IDM with the techniques of big-bucks audio
production? You might come up with something of quality that's
also accessible to a wider audience.
There are people who have done this -- Orbital comes to mind. But
a curious thing happens when musicians get a clue about how to appeal
to more than a tiny community of likeminded nutters. Said nutters
desert their idols for being too successful, and find another scruffy
kid with a sampler to lionize. Too bad if the musicians in question
have something to say, and want as many people as possible to hear it.
They transgress against their core constituency by refusing to
sneer along with them at the wider audience they attract.
I think that's stupid. It rewards musicians for being
amateurish, inept, and obtuse. It punishes people for learning
the craft of recording. It punishes people for daring to try
and actually make a living with their music. And it perpetuates an
elitist subculture that's little more than an elaborate circle jerk.
Fuck that. I'm not going to apologize for listening to music just
because it happens to be popular. It's popular for whole host of
reasons, and looking consciously at those reasons is for me
just as interesting as listening the latest click-thud-and-screech
classics.
And Wells can kiss my ass. Some people never learn good manners.
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