"Wightman, Scott W" <swwigh@essex.ac.uk> wrote:
quoted 8 lines what interested me about the recent thread was
>what interested me about the recent thread was
>1. the presentation of aphex as a pro-music biz "musician" (to an
> >extent)whose "only releasing accessible stuff" is cited alongside the
> >beatles' and dylan's and all them fucking things's's's' arsing about >(or
>even maybe perhaps though its remote) "innovating" in the studio >and then
>saying "it'll never sell". (p.s. backwards strings tapeloops >all that
>nonsense they did on the whitey album was done before by eg >can and pierre
>henry (well, probably! ;)) and moondog. i always get
I'd decided to hold off on chiding you for speaking directly out of your ass
the first time, but second time around I've had more coffee, plus you'd gone
ahead and posted 6 pages of garbled "Merry Christmas!" data in the
intervening period. First, Can didn't release a damn thing until a year
after the white album came out, so it's relatively obvious you're just
looking to namecheck things that you think have credibility rather than
speak to any sense of musical history. Second, yes, it's very apparent (and
very well documented) that the Beatles took many of their cues from a number
of other musicians. Paul was a big fan of John Cage, and wanted desperately
to be at the edge of what was happening in pop music. Lennon loved
Beefheart. RDJ loves Glass, and even took some cues from Tom J later on.
These things aren't damning, or even relevant to the idea that their
motivations are shite.
quoted 7 lines the impression of aphex as a sort of mischeivious nihilist - i think >that
>the impression of aphex as a sort of mischeivious nihilist - i think >that
>for him, as for most people on this list, making music is a >compulsion got
>from god knows where, and if one can be lazy and fuck >about with things
>and make money and explore create in a way >dependent on finance then why
>the fuck not? it's not as if aphex (mr. >nihilist in my head, remember) has
>a social conscience, and very >often that's all the better for our ears -
>but:
Do you really think that the beatles or dylan didn't play around with
guitars in their spare time? If you're OK with RDJ whoring off art for cash
(and dear god, the man writes tracks specifically for commercials), then I
don't think you're saying anything but that you like RDJ and the Beatles and
Dylan sound too commercial/ too many people like the Beatles and Dylan. Keep
in mind that one of the reasons this pair might sound commercial is that the
Beatles, in particular, have had such a ridiculous influence on pop music
that it isn't much of a surprise that a tremendous amount of radio music
sounds a lot like them, which tends to have a recursive effect on how the
Beatles are listened to. And Lord, Dylan was such a megalomaniac back in the
day it's difficult for me to defend his motivations, but first and foremost
the man wanted to be an "artist" with a personal mythology, not a commercial
success. Granted, his motives have probably changed over time. But really,
try to tell me AFX isn't a megalomaniac who wants to be an artist with a
personal mythology. I mean shit, Kid Rock cops the nihilist routine, as does
Eminem. And I hope you're not forgetting that Aphex in the US is released on
major labels and has distribuion deals with BMG.
I'm not saying that people's motives couldn't be better. I just question
your examples of the good and the bad side of the fence, and wish that your
whinging (a)morality made any sense whatsoever. It's possible to celebrate
some aspects of Mr. James' terminal adolescence, but he's not exactly an
extraordinarily defensible rolemodel on the topic of musical motivation,
regardless of his very public "I make music for me and fuck all" stance.
Cheers,
M.
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