Maybe the originality in composition thread is played out but...
[snip]
quoted 3 lines But seriously, studying other people's production> But seriously, studying other people's production
> technique too closely is a bit silly, you might end
> up sounding like a cheap copy.
[snip]
quoted 1 line and who did Aphex study to learn his technique?> and who did Aphex study to learn his technique?
[start rant]
All interactions with machines involve a certain amount of prerequisite
technique learning. Aphex did invent some new musical techniques. He didn't
invent rhythm, electronic engineering, or synthesis. He learned these
techniques somewhere and it appears that he studied these techniques that
others invented very closely.
Definitely there is a point where learning ends and innovation (or
communication) begins, but accumulating techniques is part of innovation.
Copying is a very efficient way of learning techniques. How did Bach arrive
at his kick ass innovative Baroque techniques? He literally hand copied the
works of the masters that had come before him. How do terrorists learn those
techniques in Afghanistan? They hand copy instructional manuals issued by
the US government in the early eighties. How do bedroom producer learn how
to make electronic music? By listening to Square Pusher's beats and trying
to figure out how the f*@k he does it.
All of these acts of copying can yield unexpected results. Who would have
expected that listening to Weather Report and Jungle would have fused in to
Drill n' Bass?
I think that the desire to make novel music for novelty sake is more of a
setback than copying. There are a lot of techniques that are only half
developed right now because the push is to find "the next big thing". If the
drive of the music is novelty the result is usually crap or easily
forgotten.
My main point is that examining existing techniques is a quick way to learn
the language. The fact that there is so much bad electronica available isn't
because people are "copying other peoples techniques"; It's because there
are a lot of people producing electronic music that are fairly inexperienced
and we live in a time that distribution is relatively easy (in comparison to
previous decades).
Oh... unless your talking about the kind of copying that Madonna does.
That's commercial plagiarism.
[end rant]
Chrz,
Noah
Listen Labs
www.listenlabs.com
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