From Darren Keast Sent Wed, Sep 8th 1999, 08:54
From Darren Keast Sent Wed, Sep 8th 1999, 08:54
Well, I get the strong impression the writer is being tongue-in-cheek ("a corporeal
effect as
watching a Nude Girls, a Groinchurn, a Nine, or a Fetish live onstage. These
people are gods!"--that MUST be a joke). But if their overall point is serious, which
it seems to be, I would point them to the argument posed by David Toop in "Ocean of
Sound" that electronic music, in the tradition of gamelan and other non-western
musics, involves a different kind of listening--an extended, indirect form. He makes
the comparison to all night gamelan performances where people listen for a bit, fall
asleep, have converstations, etc, rather than listen intently to every note. Dance
music is meant to be listened to over an extended period of time, not in little hour
long sets that rock bands put on.
The argument that rock is superior since it demands close attention is one of those
boring old leftovers from the editorial chambers of Spin and Rolling Stone...it's
almost as bad as the "but they don't play real instruments" whine.
darren
Irene McC wrote:
> This was written by a friend who's a free-lance correspondent for a (South
> African) magazine called SL : this was posted on their on-line site and had my
> jaw hanging open :-) I'd be curious to hear other people's opinions on the topic.
> http://sly.co.za/flashbaby_060999.asp
>
> Monday, 6 September
> The Body Electric
> Miles Keylock
> Flashbaby ponders just how people engage with music
>
> It's no revelation that I have a fundamental problem with the way people seem
> (not) to listen to music these days. It's been a major thorn in my proverbial hide
> that so-called dance music genres - music that's sole function is as a
> commodity which primarily allows people to dance - have such a following in
> this country.
>
> Perhaps it's not really a question of insisting that one listen to the music, now
> is it? Isn't it more an issue of how - or whether at all - people actually engage
> with the music. Be this cerebrally - a desire for an escape from the stimulus of
> the body, or viscerally - a search for transcendence through the body itself.
> Perhaps this is one reason why fans of dance music are only too willing to
> tolerate self-indulgent and exaggerated sets from DJs.
>
> Don't let anyone try and tell you otherwise, dancing to house music or drum
> and bass or trance is about the individual losing contact with the body, literally
> getting out of their heads. Ultimately dance music is not about the DJ - who, if
> anything serves merely as a conman, a visage, a cover version of the author.
> And don't listen to your friends whining on about how "electronic music is so
> cool because it's about the death of the author and the search for a new
> signifier confronted with the pre-millennium realities of this post-modern era."
> Bollocks! God is not a DJ! And a DJ will never be God.
>
> Despite their posturing endeavours there is no way that listening to a DJ spin a
> few discs or a couple of records can have as meaningfully a corporeal effect as
> watching a Nude Girls, a Groinchurn, a Nine, or a Fetish live onstage. These
> people are gods!
>
> The appeal of rock music is that it speaks precisely to the body. It's about
> embracing the fleshly textures of the music in all it's potential carnality: it's
> about sex, booze, drugs and rock'n roll. All you have to do is listen and hear.
> Whether you dance or not isn't an end in itself. By contrast, dance music is
> simply about denial of the body. It's about a new age, smart drinking, asexual
> looking, pill-popping paranoia of the flesh.
>
> The next time you go to a drum and bass club, just have a look at where the
> kids are. Deep inside their own heads and way up their own arses. I'm sorry,
> that's certainly not listening to the music. 'Cos if anything, dancing with and
> inside yourself seems kinda sad to me. Who are you communicating with? The
> DJ? I don't think so. They're definitely playing the music for themselves.
> Perhaps the beats then? Oh, please. I think not. All you're doing is sitting in a
> corner, sucking your thumb. And if that's engaging with the music, then I'm
> happy to be an old bastard who still lives with his mother.