Friday 1 January 2010

The Twenty-First-Century Modern Composer

5 comments:

  1. The world most certainly does await. And with this ever increasing palette of software and tools and sounds to be used it is reaching an enevitable saturation point at which it all becomes dull. Electronic music in particular is on the verge of death. Nowhere new to go. We've heard it all before. A rennaissance is upon us and already in making with ears begging for something new, which will be drawing from the past acoustic,classical and indegenous realms.
    Real sounds from real instruments and natural sources. Music made by people and not by a person with a computer chock full of software.
    And I cant wait.

    >PooPoo tha Korruptah<

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  2. I agree with you on the Renaissance and the importance of the phrase 'music made by people', but other than those it seems that my views are the complete opposite to yours! I'd say that electronic music has only just been born and it has everywhere to go. We haven't heard any more than a tiny fraction of it yet. I'd say that if anything, it is the music of the past that is reaching saturation point.

    'Real instruments', 'Natural sources'? All technology is relative, and its possibilities are endless. Besides, most of the time the electronic music of the future probably may not even 'sound' like it came from a computer in the way that much contemporary electronic music does. Kraftwerk, for example, already sound a bit technologically archaic with their simple waveforms and structures. Eighty years from now, they could even be sounding technologically primitive.

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  3. Just saw that Tom Ewing wrote this as part of the debate that surrounded that "Decade in Music Genre Hype" article:

    I just want to be positive for a minute and say: sub-genres are SO GREAT. They’re one of the best things about music. These little sceney bubbles of everyone batting round an idea, running with it, trying to cash in, trying to imitate, not caring about being original, not caring about being ridiculous, just this mad goldrush sprint to work through something - it’s brilliant. Especially as no matter how stupid things get the ideas never get used up: every sub-genre, even if it dies out after a couple of years and gets snarked on, is a packet of possibilities, a music DNA branch ready for someone to mess about with years and decades later. They all matter.

    And for the fans they’re amazing too. Of course they look stupid from the outside: that’s what ‘outside’ is for. Ones that look great from the outside just become ‘pop’ I guess. Following one from the inside though, appreciating why one ridiculous blog hype is great and other one is crap, and figuring out what you love about a style, not to mention justifying it to the world (and of course maybe making it yourself) - it’s just a really good experience. If you’re a critic I’d say it’s an essential experience. Seeing all these little scenes and never really getting invested in any of them is like going to Disneyworld and just wandering around not actually going on any of the rides because, oh, that queue is too long and that one looks like it would be over too quickly.


    (got this from here.)

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  4. i like that quote. so true. And to clear something up. In regards to electronic music, i meant electronic as a genre, as it stands now, Techno, drum n bass, dubstep etc etc etc. Developing things further , it will no longer resemble anything that one could term electronic, even though its made with 'electricity'...but if theres no actual machines/hardware involved, is it 'electronic music'?
    >PooPoo the Korruptah<

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  5. I appreciate these blog posts
    thanks rouges

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