this idea of music being assembled by each individual for himself (rather
than by professional musicians) is not quite moby's invention. jacques
attali, in his book _noise_, talks about the four stages of evolution of
music, the last of which being a stage of "composition," which is
essentially what moby describes. in fact, what he speaks of is already
quite possible ; it's just that the average schmoe can't do it, only geeks
and audiomeisters. the idea, i suppose, is that everyone should have
access to these tools. "giving the people what they want" is very much a
trend in pop culture these days, and as cheesy shockwave "music-makers" and
cd-roms become more and more *interactive,* it will eventually be we the
listeners that assemble each song based on our own specifications.
i disagree with it all. it creates a sort of infinite loop : if people are
given "what they want" from the get-go, how will they know what they want ?
what i want is determined by my past experiences, namely a number of
experiences that i did not want to experience. if i had gotten what i
wanted all my life, i would be either a wreck or a total blank slate. in
fact, all that i have to be thankful for is that which i did not want.
and--to restore idm content--that is why it is a good idea to listen to ep7
repeatedly. (cf. recent thread, "Re: chiastic slide") i think, of my
absolute favorite discs, probably one third to half i frowned at on the
first listen. the most lasting music is that which introduces one to a new
paradigm of listening, and therefore takes time to grown accustomed to.
Noah Sasso wrote (in the "cs" thread) :
quoted 3 lines if you don't like it, don't feel like you have to listen and listen until>if you don't like it, don't feel like you have to listen and listen until
>you do; listen
>to something else that you actually do like, and you'll be happier.
instant happiness is played out. live the idm dream and listen to
something that makes you feel a bit uncomfortable for a while......
.af.
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