--- r stanton <industrialrobot@hotmail.com> wrote:
quoted 8 lines Teenage Riot member Nic Endo, where she makes the
> Teenage Riot member Nic Endo, where she makes the
> "Music has to be a physical or emotional experience
> and not people having a
> drink, looking at a white middle-class nerd with a
> Mac laptop."
>
> It'd be interesting to see how people respond to
> this...
I agree generally with your assessment, except I think
you are (and everyone else will) focus too much on the
latter part of the statement, and not on the more
important, operative first part. Namely, that music
should be physical and emotional, and shouldn't be
"people having a drink, looking at [insert whatever
you want]."
Taken this way, I agree with this statement almost
completely - I would also add "or possibly cultural"
after "physical or emotional". I have had little or
no physical or emotional connection to IDM (and
related stuff) when I've gone to see/hear it live,
which is why I've stopped going. The only reason I
went out before was to see what it was like, and the
culture doesn't exactly fit me, either.
The couple of good experiences I've had were seeing
Bit_Meddler at Record Camp in December, because he
made comments to us - acknowledging your audience is
*ALWAYS GOOD* - and Cex when I saw him once last year,
because his little show inherently acknowledges the
audience. Tip to artists - if you don't acknowledge
the audience, you're just a DJ, and DJs are boring in
a non-dance environment (at least to the average
audience - uber-intelligent music geeks will get off
on listening to neat tricks, but most people don't,
and don't care, and everyone knows that most people
are better than weirdo geeks). Even the better DJs
will say something occasionally to the audience.
quoted 3 lines Finally, who's to say that a white middle class nerd
> Finally, who's to say that a white middle class nerd
> with a laptop can't
> make emotional and physical music? I definately
I didn't get that from her statement. I got that
people "having a drink" and "looking" at that
middle-class white nerd isn't exactly physical and
isn't likely too emotional.
This sort of thing comes up in Theatre theory, as well
- the idea that the audience needs to be involved. In
both cases it's not the easiest thing to do, but the
IDM live shows that I've seen seem to try their best
to do the opposite - disconnect from the audience as
much as possible.
quoted 7 lines think that some of the
> think that some of the
> laptop-based music I've heard in the past few years
> has been both physical
> and/or emotional. The music-maker can't stop people
> from having a drink
> while making music...it's beyond their control what
> the audience does...
Setting has a lot to do with this - if the performer
is playing in a small bar, no matter how bootylicious
the music is, people aren't going to dance. Bars are
for chatting and drinking. Of course, then, this has
to do with promoters and club owners, etc...
quoted 6 lines I guess I'm just a bit angered by someone making
> I guess I'm just a bit angered by someone making
> blatantly false,
> hypocritical remarks like that, especially someone
> who supposedly is from
> the same "scene" or whatever. Blanket statements
> never ring as true.
I didn't like the statement, either, but i think
there's an element of truth in there with a lot of
relevance to the question of why this type of stuff
doesn't get immensely popular. There are many, many
reasons of course - I mean, Jimi Tenor puts on a huge
show to engage the audience, but he's not popular like
Britney Spears. Part of that is because he doesn't
have breasts, but a bigger part is that he doesn't
want to be popular (it seems) - if he did, he would
have stuck with Warp and let them do their magic.
So there are many elements, but I think the
live-related audience engagement element is important
for any act to consider if they expect to become
popular. This doesn't have to mean dancing - indie
bands will talk to the audience, etc - One of the big
draws for Tori Amos fans (ok, not the best example,
but...) is that she tells little stories in between
songs half the time. Same goes for They Might Be
Giants.
You don't just go hear music live to hear it played a
little differently - most people go for a connection
with the artist and the other people. Small bars and
introverted artists just encourages people to drink
and chat with friends.
IMHO, of course...
=====
.Adam
http://www.damek.org/
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