From Alex Reynolds Sent Fri, Feb 5th 1999, 23:48
From Alex Reynolds Sent Fri, Feb 5th 1999, 23:48
We've looked at the mathematics of music, ignoring all rational thought on
the matter whatsoever -- and that's all well and good -- but what about the
reviewers themselves?
I submit for your consideration the NI, or Namedropping Index of an
electronic music critic:
number of different artists' names dropped in the review
NI = -------------------------------------------------------- * 100
number of words in the review
Perusing existing bodies of work in the field of IDM-criticism, ultra-cool
David Toop currently has the highest published NI rating (81.27) in
existence for his masterpiece "Ocean of Sound", with an average of about
eighty-one artists mentioned for every hundred words in the book.
Simon Reynolds came in a close second at an NI of 78.66 for his ambitious
"Generation Ecstasy", but finished a resounding first on a GI (Genre Index)
of 84.32, identifying genres such as the "artcore" crowd, and even making
some up when the deadlines loomed.
Reynolds' research lab is currently working on an experimental piece of
music criticism that will have an NI of 99.94 when published. This
extremely dangerous piece of journalism will be composed almost entirely of
musicians' names and may need special protective gear to be read, because
thereafter you will think the author to be so hip your head might explode.
-A.
>Date: Fri, 05 Feb 1999 15:12:05 -0500
>From: Adam J Weitzman <xxxx.x.xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx>
>Subject: (idm) Re: music/math
>
>I think that from now on, whenever I review a release, I will express it
>in mathematical terms. All IDM releases will be described by a
>mathematical expression involving beats (B), funkiness (F), noisiness
>(N), cut-up (C), subliminality (S) and Autechre units (Ae).
>
>For instance:
>
>Autechre's latest album: 9Ae + 7B - 4F + 2N...
__________________________________________________________________________
Alex Reynolds E xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxxxx.xxx
UPenn : SAS Computing : Biology Dist Support V +1 215 573 2818
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/biology/ F +1 215 898 8780
'The central message of Buddhism is not "every man for himself"!' -- Wanda