From martin wood Sent Wed, Jul 7th 1999, 16:32
thats pretty much how id describe the difference...pretty much everything i write is a track...only the occasional song as such... but its still a pretty blurry line between the two... i think that the word song is used (by me anyway) when you can relate the structure / composition of a song to a previously established form of music...whereas tracks are just tracks...they start..they go on for a bit..then they stop... martin >> please define: "song". >> please site examples and references. >> i was under the impression all the idm stuff i had was in the form of >> song. g> Well - I didn't get that one by you eh? Well - to me there are TRACKS g> and there are SONGS - if you stop for a moment, you can probably see g> where I'm going with this. g> Songs are more structured it seems whereas tracks are more like... I g> don't know... um just music... Songs tend to have melodies, many tracks g> don't. g> I'm not fully in tune with what IDM is - I actually think it's a stupid g> name - anything with the word 'intelligent' in it makes me wonder... g> like the CIA! It's like when some company releases a product or service g> and they slap on the word 'Professional' - always makes me question the g> true value... if something is intelligent or professional, then it g> doesn't need to be stated as such. g> So... songs... well, lets see - I write music - some of what I write are g> songs - others are tracks - the stuff I write on guitar I tend to call g> songs - the stuff I create with my synths/sampler/computer/sequencer - I g> call tracks. WHY? because the guitar stuff is more "song" oriented in g> terms of progressions, musical structure, a chorus, verse, etc. My g> TRACKS on the otherhand move from this comfort into a more non-linear g> environment - it's more of an sonic exploration. g> A lot of the music I now buy leans towards TRACKS - I tend to feel that g> a lot of electronic music can be defined more as tracks than songs. It's g> really a useless thing to define - but it's an interesting one to g> contemplate. g> After thinking more about it - "Music is" has a blend of SONGS and g> TRACKS. g> I don't think I explained myself well - but hey, I'm usually still in g> bed at this hour! g> Sorry I couldn't site references for you - I have a shitload of work to g> do today including some silly meetings. %