(idm) yawn

From Alex Reynolds
Sent Mon, Jun 7th 1999, 14:34
Simon Reynolds' NYT article
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/artleisure/electronica-ads.html) skims
over/ignores several important points re: use of electronic music in a
commercial setting that would have otherwise made it an interesting read:

==

Ads fight for a few seconds of your brain's attention. In a society with a
short attention span, a video editor must resort to a number of blatant and
subliminal editing tricks to catch you. The quick "cut-and-mix" style of
the music is currently the best means for distract-and-refocus, as well as
purchasing-data-loading into your brain.

Why didn't the article explore this avenue of the electronic artistic
culture in more detail: that area that "sells out" to make this type of
subtly manipulative "wallpaper" -- interviewing the people who make this
stuff (Fatboy Slim, Orb, Crystal Method, etc.)? I'd have been really
interested to read what Alex Patterson has to say on the matter.

==

What leads to the perception of no "overt meaning" in the music? Who gets
to make that decision: the listener or the record exec or ad agency, and
why is that important in terms of what motivates the (dis)use of
"political" or "subversive" music in commercials, i.e. who gets to make the
decision?

On the flip side, what real lessons are gleaned from the latest angry band
of the day (Korn) -- other than that youth angst is a marketable
demographic? Is there really any other possible message? If so, why weren't
the fans interviewed? It doesn't seem proper journalistic technique to
interview businessmen about the politics of music. Particularly when it
involves record execs talking about platinum-selling bands.

==

"Is this use of electronica as aural wallpaper by MTV and other channels
like Bravo contributing to the trivialization of this once alien music?"

A better question would be: "What other role could 'electronica' (ugh) play
in a consumerist economy that wouldn't have trivialized it anyway?"

I'm surprised that a journalist like Simon R. was not a little more
critical on this matter, given that he has written a number of
"politicohistorical" accounts of the "electronica" scene, with drug use and
the gay club scene as anathema to the oppressive culture around them.

Toning it down just to get printed in the NYT is kind of sad, but I guess
you have to pay the bills.

-A.

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Alex Reynolds / Biology IT Support
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