From martin burbridge Sent Sat, Apr 10th 1999, 20:53
From martin burbridge Sent Sat, Apr 10th 1999, 20:53
> he's coming from - he's more interested in music as an agent of
> social change
> and personal transformation, and idm seems a bit too self-indulgent and
> deliberately elitist to work in that direction. Compare someone
> who makes
> "difficult/avant garde" music to a kid who goes out to raves
> every weekend and
> eats loads of drugs - Reynolds would argue that the kid is
> actually doing more
> to push the envelope, challenge the status quo, etc. while the
> "avant-garde"
> musician is actually just working within the system for primarily
> self-indulgent
> reasons.
i must say i kind of agree w/ brocks reasoning on some the points reynolds
makes, but from the original article there's a bitter edge that is
reminiscent of the gripes you get on this list from time to time, from those
who like melodic idm, and somehow treat the "avant garde" (and i'm using
this loosely) as a threat. and i wonder why?
why do some people seem to feel so threatened by the fact that others can
buy v/vm or lucky kitchen or diskono etc or even worse just download mp3's
of like minded efforts.
from reynolds perspective, if i was cynical, i can see why someone who makes
a living as a chronicler of 'underground' electronic music in the more
mainstream media would be upset by this. it must be difficult getting
someone to publish a book based on something that only 500 people may have
even heard let alone like.
the argument that for music to be worthwhile, that it must impact society as
a whole, i've always felt to be completely facile. in this respect music
such as "the macarena", the spice girls and garth brooks towers above
anything that gets mentioned on this list and will always do so. this is the
most music industry and media friendly end of the spectrum, because of the
mass market it serves. this mass market can also accommadate a quite
reasonable amount of marketable rebellion, from james dean and elvis to the
warning sticker emblazoned rap records that sell so much w/ their
formularized 'hood tales. they know how to handle idm, use it in commercials
and snippets, allow the odd (in both senses) performer get on mtv, but thats
as far as it'll go until someone like rdj has some real hits.
acid house may have been a widespread social phenomena, but when the changes
it brough are measured in aphex vids on mtv and number one singles for
underworld i think, so what?
so for now, i'll keep searching for the awkward oddball stuff that has
existed before idm, and will still be there when no one listens to idm
anymore ('cept those in "idm's not dead" t-shirts), and if that upsets
people like mr reynolds, sony, mtv, the new york times ... then, well we
must be doing something right.
-martin
"have you ever noticed that people who don't believe in evolution have dirty
knuckles?" - bill hicks