I enjoyed the "Is Rock Dead?" essay and commentary. When I heard what was going on with house, techno, and breakbeat 'ardkore in the early '90s, I was excited, since I'd been a fan of electronic music since the '70s and there never seemed to be enough good examples of it. Suddenly the rhythms got more sophisticated and the music developed real energy and drive. I started taping a mix show off the radio and playing the tapes steadily; after a few months "rock," even the rock I liked, started to sound decelerated, cliched, and old. Now, to me, the wail and skronk of electronic guitars sounds false--an emblem of corporatized rebellion, devoid of meaning. And I disagree with Steve that electronic dance music has been similarly assimilated: yes, it's used in Volkswagen commercials, but TV and radio stations have always used electronic bleeps and trills for background. I remember hearing Terry Riley playing behind local TV news shows in the '70s, but that doesn't mean anyone was buying it or understood what it meant.
I have a record by the band White Flag which is 33 rpm 3/4 of the way through the record, it ends with an endless groove-loop track. Beyond that the rest of the record is cut at 45 rpm. I don't remember if the music is any good.
In the late 70's Smegma put out a 7" with one off center spindle hole.
I agree with Chatham that most of the interesting music to come out in the past 12-10 years was in the dance scene. Alex, the psychedelic 90's DID happen, just not on MTV or the radio.
Tom, my point is that most of the new electronic music I hear seems to have fallen into a rut, with less experimentation going on. At the same time it is featured on countless TV commercials and has been co-opted by MTV and pop producers.
At South By Southwest a couple of years ago A&R people were looking to sign "electronic acts" and nothing else.
Ahh, maybe it's just that I'm getting old.
I'm hoping that the techno-electronic-dance music will go through a simmilar reworking that rock-n-roll did with the British Invasion. (OK, I know that already happened around 1989, I'm hoping for a second)
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- tom moody 7-07-2001 6:48 pm
I have a record by the band White Flag which is 33 rpm 3/4 of the way through the record, it ends with an endless groove-loop track. Beyond that the rest of the record is cut at 45 rpm. I don't remember if the music is any good.
In the late 70's Smegma put out a 7" with one off center spindle hole.
- steve 7-07-2001 7:02 pm [add a comment]
I agree with Chatham that most of the interesting music to come out in the past 12-10 years was in the dance scene. Alex, the psychedelic 90's DID happen, just not on MTV or the radio.
- steve 7-07-2001 7:26 pm [2 comments]
Tom, my point is that most of the new electronic music I hear seems to have fallen into a rut, with less experimentation going on. At the same time it is featured on countless TV commercials and has been co-opted by MTV and pop producers.
At South By Southwest a couple of years ago A&R people were looking to sign "electronic acts" and nothing else.
Ahh, maybe it's just that I'm getting old.
I'm hoping that the techno-electronic-dance music will go through a simmilar reworking that rock-n-roll did with the British Invasion. (OK, I know that already happened around 1989, I'm hoping for a second)
- steve 7-07-2001 7:40 pm [1 comment]