On Mon, 25 Jun 2001, Yulia Matusov wrote:
quoted 3 lines maybe everyone knows this except for me, but i am dying of curiousity...
> maybe everyone knows this except for me, but i am dying of curiousity...
> where did the name Intelligent Dance Music come from?
>
Even at the beginning it was generally considered something of a misnomer.
The mantra "IDM is a mailing list, not a musical style" hasn't been
effective in keeping it from general usage. In fact magazines like
Urb persist in using it as a pidgeonhole that seems to cover anything
that isn't straight up dance floor material.
Given a choice "Electronic Listening Music" or even "Experimental
Electronic Music" would be more appropriate. Even "Electronica"
is better, though that term seems to mean Fat Boy Slim and the Prodigy.
Even weirder, "Electronica" was an Internet mailing list before
it was a genre name. That list was a companion list of Analog Heaven,
and has been superseded by the more appropriately named "Digital Hell."
Perhaps it is just my natural monomania, but I seem to remember suggesting
'Electronica' when we were casting about for a name.
As uncomfortable as any reasonable person is with the idea of 'Intelligent'
music, as opposed to the other sort, one should simply accept the fact
that it's completely out of our hands. IDM, as a term, is here to
stay. But it's just a token, a signifier. The cool thing about
the music (and the occasionally cool thing about this list) is that
it's all about music that actively resists silly pidgeonholing.
It's just as appropriate here to discuss Bowery Electric as Francis
Dhomont. Or Aphex Twin and Kid 606, or Emmanuel Gottsching and
Jimi Tenor.
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