Re: (idm) listening to music...

From Mxyzptlk
Sent Sat, Jun 26th 1999, 21:47

Being ancient (42 with an impending birthday), I can tell you that I've experienced
similar paradigm shifts many many times. My *big* sister was 14 years older and I
had a brother 7 years older than me so I fell asleep nestled in the niche of our
old player (where the bass came from :-) and I knew the records by the colors and
amount of wear on the labels long before I could read. From Fats Domino to Doo
Wop/Chuck Berry to
Surf/Brits/Motown/Hendrix/Metal/Dance/Alternative/Goth/House/Techno - all required
a different way of viewing "songs". What I find as a thread is the *creative spark*
which can make an artist or a piece of music rise above its genre and grab you even
if it isn't your cuppa. I love Patsy Cline, for example. James Brown. Scott
(Engels) Walker.
    The thing about much of the current electronic (or at least, the past , say, 9
years) outpust is that it seems to require a much more radical shift than the
previous "breaks from tradition". It seems often to focus much more on repetition
than variance and therefore forces you either to pay closer attention (and become
more sesnsitized to the subtleties of it) and/or "go under" its spell and lay out a
heavier atmosphere than some of the more "conventional" styles. One of the strange
stumbling blocks for me is the presence of lyrics. I find now that rarely can I get
excited about them unless they are quite good (e.g., Costello) or there is a
particular artist whom I like a lot anyway (Bowie, Pet Shoppers, Underworld [hiss
all you want - I don't care and I'm old] ). Having said all of that, I can still
pull out an old Associates lp, spin some old Ultravox or Jimmy Ruffin and need to
accelerate if I'm in my car.

Gil Yaker wrote:

> Just curious here...
>
> For those of you who listen almost exclusively to techno / idm / etc...--

    jeff

"10,000 people all screaming the same thing at the same time are wrong, even if
they're right."

dancing/about/architecture "...with wandering steps and slow..." ICQ904008