Obligatory 2001 Post

[Chip McDonald]

Ok, yahoo, it's 2001.

 

.. and I'm sitting here realizing that, being on the older side of being a Gen X-er, the year 2 0 0 1 was sort of the last sign post on the road, so to speak.

 

Now that we're on the other side of it, and nothing happened - at least in the sense of a blinding actinic flash through the window followed by 3 seconds of painful incineration - where are we heading?

 

It seems the trend is to *mindlessly* push everything to the extreme these days. I predict this gets worse; there *is* a tomorrow, and it seems a bit boring so that will become exacerbated.

 

Which means I think music will continue to crash into more *forced* combinations of disparate styles, while on the far ends of the spectrum music will get lower, deeper, faster, while on the other end higher, whispier, and slower... any day now I predict the beginnings of aerogel music, which won't translate to MP3's upper bandwidth limitations: music that sounds like a slightly less morbid Ligeti combined with Enya's production style, but with a bent towards "total air-iness" above 8K...

 

.. While no doubt metal will continue lower, more primate in vocalizations to the point of distinct emulation of other species.

 

But the musical-gumbo approach will burn out in a few years - it's already getting hard to come up with a "new" combination (Gregorian house music; folk Polish rap; country punk; metal ska; swing core; etc.).

 

Something weird will have to happen culturally in under 10 years; I don't think the mindless trend can continue unabated as it is doing right now; either a new renaissance of music appreciation will occur, or we'll enter a musical dark ages.

 

I'm telling you - the notion that the cycle of the continuous consumption of "new" music as something to be taken for granted is NOT truth. I can very easily imagine, based on my encounters with a large portion of the youth by teaching guitar/bass, a future as follows: the old "classics" (basically the entire catalog of music produced until "now") are ubiquitously available somewhere on the Net at all times, and music is considered something akin to a "maintenance" activity.

 

I teach a number of kids today that listen to music that was made before they were born. That's an entirely new thing I think in the "pop" industry. There is a cadre of kids that are perfectly content listening to classic rock.

 

Or for that matter, "classic" alternative, defunct college rock: REM, for example.

 

The point being, a major portion of music being produced today has either a great novelty aspect to it, and that's going to wear thin eventually. If the industry doesn't go back to pre-80's standards of trying to put out great *music*, not "product" - there could be a gradual but definitive social perspective change towards the idea of "listening to music".

 

Or maybe I'm just still reeling from having one of the first things I heard in the 21st century tonight on television (and I don't even think it was EmptyV) being the following:

 

"and now, here is the foremost group in the growing booty music field today, leading such booty music acts as (name withheld, name withheld)"

 

Booty music...? Sigh. I hope I've not offended any possible booty music engineers or producers with my post, but you're probably making a nice amount of loot and probably don't mind it anyway, do you? Does this mean I have booby music to look forward to in 2002?

 

Or maybe I'm wrong: the apocalypse is the slow inundation and acceptance of the inane.

Oh well. Didn't I hear a rumor that King George Jr. was going to have Z.Z. Top at the inaugural? Maybe that's going to be the future: we musicians we'll be relegated to being Court Entertainers for Global Corporate Fiefdoms and Kings, doomed to being in glorified cover bands as the Musical Dark Ages envelopes the sensibilities of the New World Order.

 

Can anyone tell I'm off to a grrrrreat New Year?

 

I... defiinitely.....cannnn... feeeellll my... miiiinnd...... goinggggggggg...........

Daaaisy, Daaaaaais

http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald

[alphajerk]

well if its anything like the Moby concert playing on M2 right now live in scotland, its gonna be one shitty year. theres even live musicians littering the stage yet it still sounds like a drum machine mindlessly playing away inane drivel. a mass of people witnessing some of the most mindless crap i have ever heard spew from a stack of PA speakers. could music be more boring? sure, all i have to do is turn to MTV and see more crap. crap crap crap. MUSIC IS IN THE DARK AGES! it sucks sucks sucks. sick sick sick. six six six. the apocolypse IS here and the four horsemen are brittany spears, christina aguilera, n'suck, and hackstreet noise.

 

music has become the equilvilant that the WWF is to sports [not that the whole sports industry is any better]. the LCD is growing faster than the technological revolution and getting dumber by the second. we live in a world of idiots going so far as to elect one to president [by cheating no less]. what a way to start a new millenium.

[not Cereal]

uhhhmmm, i think it was BILL who cheated; on his wife. do we really want his choice of "number one" to fly the ship?

 

as for the hand recount, i counted and still have two.

 

as for music, i have given up on the pop scene. listen to laurie anderson, steve riech, la'monte young. awesome 20th cent musicians that the drab stupid consumer society overlooks because they are incompetent.

 

if we compare politics to economics, we will see one system designed to stop the tyranny of the masses, while the other is ONLY tyranny of the masses.

 

'member MAO? his regime killed anyone with an education, empowering the uneducated masses.

 

same in CAMBODIA. smart = you get shot.

 

in america, we are at least not going to get shot by the government for being somewhat intelligent, although we are ostracized and segregated.

 

there are no cd's or dvd's available to me at "sam goody"

 

"best buy" at best has a pitance of art music.

 

plenty of xtina a-gorilla though.

 

the tyranny of the ignorant consumer mass must end now! join me in my crusade to empower the intelligent! do this by creating INTERESTING music, that has MORE than 6db of headroom.

 

create videos that stimulate your MIND and not your PENIS/CLITORIS.

 

stop pandering to the LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR

[Chip McDonald]

Originally posted by alphajerk:

well if its anything like the Moby concert playing on M2 right now live in Scotland, its gonna be one shitty year. way

 

I'd also like to point out the ubiquitous appearance of turntables as the "backing band" for all of the New Year's Eve broadcasts. It *used* to be live musicians, but... Oh well.

 

You know, I keep wanting to like Moby, I really do. All of my trendy friends - "he's such a genius", etc... "He uses live musicians on stage" etc...

 

"Porcelain" rules, I love it; and I like some other things he's done. But every time I hear him live it comes off sort of weak. He seems to be into doing guitar solos now as well - which is a GREAT sign - but... ahg. It's like the alternative Nazis made guitar solos uncool for so long, and now it's cool again - but only if it comes off like you don't really care about it. He must have seen the footage of himself last year that I saw, where for the whole show he basically just danced around and now and then said "GO" or some such into the mic; then, they cut away to the VJ and they say something like "he's SO great!!!". ?????

 

It's funny how America is finally latching onto the electronica scene, but it's doing so in a typically predictable pre-packaged commercialized way. 2001 will be the year of the Second British Invasion with the commercialized import push of the electronica scene I bet.

 

If I want anything to change this year, it would be the end of fashion ruling music. I'm so sick of hearing different social groups complaining about other social groups appearance.

 

The deconstruction of fashion started to happen with metal - people in general realize how silly that was - but it would seem the more "cool" fringe hoi polloi still maintain a grip on the psyche of so many. I bring this up because I look at Moby and I see he wears all of this clothing that would mark you as supremely uncool about 5-6 years ago. Now it's derigeur in certain circles; those same circles will repress anyone who dares fall outside certain fashion parameters REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEIR MUSIC SOUNDS LIKE, while at the same time proclaiming they dress down no doubt. Simultaneously there are other fashion cults going on at the same time. All of which think derogatively about the other: "oh man, look at that guy's sideburns" while *that* person looks at the person saying that and thinks "man, that t-shirt is so 90's" or something. Ridiculous.

 

What needs to happen in the year 2001 is the common realization that NO ONE CAN BE COOL TO EVERYONE AT THE SAME TIME. Stop worrying about it and play MUSIC.

 

Signed,

Mr. Ostensibly Jaded Legaltenderwalkingdownthestreet

http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald

[alphajerk]

bill cheated on his wife, not on his SAT's or the american public like dubya. if i was married to that, i would cheat on her too.

 

moby cant even sing. he was basically just dancing around the stage on this live show with a guitar or overly getting into something that wasnt even there in the music playing some simplistic line on the keyboards. get art neville up there if you wanna real keyboardist, damn all the meters is ya wanna shake yo booty.

[Anderton]

Great opening post, Chip.

 

Wasn't the internet supposed to be the great leveller that gave musicians other than pop groups a shot at recognition? That didn't quite pan out.

 

I think the problem is that people are getting the kind of music they want. This reminds me of an interesting story involving Keyboard magazine. They had just done a reader survey, and Dominic Milano, then the editor, suggested adding some feature (sorry, can't remember what it was, I think it may have been something involving sheet music). Anyway, not one reader survey response had asked for this, but he went ahead and did it anyway. The readers loved it.

 

Moral of the story: people can't ask for things they don't know exist. I place a lot of the blame for today's musical stasis on the lack of creative radio programming.

 

Interesting post too about the marketing of electronica. They will of course manage to miss the point entirely. Well, at least you'll still be able to catch some of the purer strains in other parts of the world. Here, all the politics will be cut out of the equation, and we'll be left with the superficial elements.

 

One more thing...about Moby. I chaired a panel once where he was a participant, he was extremely nice, very passionate about music, and respectful to others on the panel (one panelist didn't reciprocate, but that's life). I saw him do a gig afterward, and he didn't seem particularly comfortable on stage. I'm not sure he is now. But he's willing to push the envelope, so hey, cut him some slack! We could use more Mobys and fewer 98 Degrees any day.

 

n.p. DJ Rap, "Learning Curve."

[Chip McDonald]

Originally posted by Anderton:

Moral of the story: people can't ask for things they don't know exist. I place a lot of the blame for today's musical stasis on the lack of creative radio programming.

 

Well, that's what I mean by the Moby reference. There are some nice things being done in electronica - the S/N is extremely high due to the sheer avalanche of stuff being produced - but no one is ever going to hear it. The whole entertainment infrastructure here in America is so... rigid it's like the Seattle scene all over again: a scene that has been going on for a while, but it takes a Shaq-sized blow to the virtual head to make the corporations take a "chance" on anything.

 

I'm just afraid we're going to be fed a very sanitized version, and it's going to be awful, and it's going to be on the radio constantly and incessantly inescapable.

Moby is old news on the rest of the planet...

I'm not into actively listening to electronica, but I don't mind *some* of it in metered doses... but I'm going to HATE a watered down corporate version of it, which is what "they" will no doubt force into the gullets of Consumerist America.

 

the equation, and we'll be left with the superficial elements.

 

Right... but more importantly (to me at least), the element of experimentation will be killed. The great thing about the electronica movement is that it is fairly open to new sounds, and most importantly - *new structures*. I've heard a lot of cool underground stuff in that respect. The impetus to get into the market here will kill that I'm afraid, and the "Officialization" of the music will take the willingness to work new sounds into something a more "dangerous" thing. The radio in the U.S. is NEVER dangerous anymore...

 

was extremely nice, very passionate about music, and respectful to others on the panel

 

I'm not saying anything about him personally, I've never met him. I like some of his music - Porcelain (brilliant reverse envelopes, the tinkly piano bit - I'm going to steal that...), Heaven - the more atmospheric and less self-conscious tunes.

 

But I can't respect him trying to do guitar

solos for the sake of it. I get the impression he's trying to make a statement instead of making art; I could be wrong. But it comes off weak to my sensibilities. He doesn't add anything to his music by doing it, it's not his forte IMO.

 

willing to push the envelope, so hey, cut him some slack! We could use more Mobys and fewer 98 Degrees any day.

 

I appreciate his creativity; and good for him if he can get away with charging people to come watch him basically dance around. The gist of my post was that people will comment about how *genius* it is; they've just paid $$$$ to watch a guy dance around.

 

True, he's dancing to *his* music; but in the process he's not adding anything to the process. Even *if* he's a genius, he's not actively utilizing it. It's quite cool at the moment to call him a genius; I just have a problem with someone referencing someone essentially just dancing around as *the process* of "genius".

 

Or worse yet, the hippie thing has come back in the form of non-sensical rhetoric: "oh man, dude, Moby just, like, flowed the energy off the stage! It was so beautiful, man!". Sorry, I can't prop that up, it's BS in my book. Faux shamanism. It also makes me mad, because I feel one *can* use such melodramatic words to try to convey what happens at a concert - when *something actually happens* - but the meaning is discounted because so many people throw hyperbole around so recklessly. At the same time though - it's good to see herd mentality not twisted into a violent state, which is much easier to do.

 

Hats off to Moby for having a real band; I'm sure he can continue to find something to do during his songs other than play guitar solos.

 

I'll tell you what gets me: there *is* potential for pseudo-Hendrix like figure to emerge from electronica. I want to see Moby standing there with two of those new Alesis motion sensor jobbies, a Phatboy on a stand next to him hooked up to everything, a Roland MC-505 providing the beats with him using the infrared controller, ribbon controllers, midi pedals triggering samples with continuous controller foot pedals everywhere. I might even pay to watch that - since his art resides in manipulation of sounds, not the creation of them.

 

The thing that makes live music *potentially* great is the *potential* for mistakes. His show now is on rails. Yeah, he's going to make mistakes on guitar - that's a given, that doesn't count.

 

On the other hand, if there's a possibility he might pick a loop at the wrong tempo/pitch, or maybe his situational awareness falters and he grabs the wrong knob - *something great* can possibly come out of that. That absence of the element of musical danger is why music is so boring today.

 

So let me see him do a live show where he's really in control of some *critical* elements of the music...

 

Hmm.. No, I take all of that back, it's already been done.

 

Kraftwerk is electronica's Jimi Hendrix.

 

I remember seeing footage of them when I was a kid, long before _Computerworld_ came out. They were standing there onstage in their best Deutschlander-stentorian livery in front of their stainless steel looking kiosks... and the effect was that they were *wrestling* their "machines" to produce the music. One had the sense that each guy was responsible for producing a sound, and that there was a complicated, learned process involved with the familiarity of the machines: a movement produced a sound.

 

Which could have been illusion; but the illusion was *danger*: there was the possibility they could mess up. So, being onstage without the possibility of messing up - or worse yet, having the whole gestalt be such a thing where a mistake isn't really noticed as such - isn't as dangerous.

 

And not as cool, to me. But I'm just a peasant....

 

n.p.: Music for the Films of Buster Keaton, Bill Frisell... http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald

 

This message has been edited by Chip McDonald on 01-02-2001 at 08:32 PM