I like some dance music, some electronic, etc.

I like Madonna's 'Ray of Light.' It makes me feel like I have velocity, like I have an answer to the confines of gravity. While I ahave no real interest or care for any of her other songs, save possibly 'Beautiful Stranger,' RoL gets me everytime. 'Dance' music that I like makes me feel that way. Some of it also makes me feel like a leopard, like a sweaty fuck machine, like an international man of learning and serial murder. Dance music transports me on occasion. This is one end of a spectrum of effects that music has on me, the commonality between all such effects being the production, re/discovery, or expression of deeply held feelings, for a lack of a more concise word.

When I look at a painting I ask only that it move me to continue looking. After that what I assume is the matrix of my own predilections will shape a response that drives any further viewing. From there I will say 'I like it' or not.

The same is true of music or film or dance, etc. Just keep me looking, just keep me listening and then I will say 'I like it' or not. In the end there is so much variety that I do not find having an affinity for something the be the most important part of the experience of art. I do not want to be bored or indifferent. In this way the creations of art that I do not like have done their job, as well.

I will naturally return to those centers of experience and expression that I enjoy and, in some instances, I have been ineluctably moved to produce some of my own.

The vacuity of the club/dance scene does not bother me in the least. It is not a realm that I frequent. The music that has been spawned by said scene belongs to me when I listen to it. It is no longer club music, it is no longer some functional pastiche of sounds and pulses arranged in the time frame of another. It is mine and I do with it what I like. And, in the process, I say 'I like it' or not.

The meaning that a song or genre has for its creators and the context in which it was produced are only one part of the equation that arises from an experience of art. The absence of a sense that I have an interest in said meanings and contexts does not inhibit my enjoyment of music or film or art, etc.

This thread was comical enough when it was just wondering what Steve's thoughts on electronic music were.

It has now passed well beyond insane in that people are now actively trying to convince Steve that the music he does not like has merit.

Please, for the love of fuck people. Go on with your lives.

Not sure if this was directed at me, but I wasn't doing any of that. I was just trying to stretch the terms "functional music" and "dance music" a bit... because it was hard to tell from the variety of posts here how each is defining them.

And yeah, of course it's silly to try and convince one to like something after he/she's explicitly stated why he/she doesn't like it.

I really love AC/DC. I love that all of the songs are in A or D, mostly 4/4, and each album is exactly the same as the one before it.

I dislike almost all dance music.

I can't justify the above, and am very comfortable with not wanting to devote the time to do so.

steve wrote:

7thHarmonic wrote: In my days of going to hardcore shows there were dudes there simply to do their hardcore dance moves with their buds.

Yes. Retarded, wasn't it.

This may have happened at hardcore shows in the eighties. I don't know how it was way back in the way back. The only references I have are videos. I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is no way it ever could've been any worse than it is today. It's just not humanly possible. People are so used to it at home that they form semi-circle pits no matter who is playing. The kids are opressed, man.

The saying goes "De gustibus non disputandum est".

You either like something or you don't. If you like it, you like it, you don't have to defend it or justify it. Andrew W.K. (whose music I really dislike) said something I really did like: "There's no wrong reason to like my music. There's no wrong reason to like anything." I would also say that there is almost no wrong reason to dislike anything. 15 or however goddamn many pages of long-winded and quite well-informed screeds on Frank Zappa did nothing but get me to take a closer listen to his music, which confirmed that I don't like it.

ironyengine wrote:Seriously, listen to electronic music if you want. I don't think Steve will care, so you shouldn't either.

And likewise, I don't see why anyone would care if he doesn't listen to electronic music.

It's all good.

John Peel once said in the mid-90s concerning the post-jungle rise of 'intelligent drum n' bass' that it made him want people to start making 'stupid drum n'bass' again, and I agree. After a while, I even started to appreciate the happy hardcore records he championed on his show toward the end (probably the only non-pirate show playing them in Europe.)

There's something oxymoronic about intelligent dance music. While modern electronic music can indeed be subdivided into dozens of genres and people, they all seem to share three characteristics: a) live real-time performance is replaced by reproduction of decisions taken in the studio b) a lack of lyrics and narrative, political or social content. c) usually, the audience's interest in an act's personality and humanity replaced by 'interesting sounds'.

Having sat through, in my time, 'live' sets by Boards of Canada, Autechre, Fourtet and a dozen other dimly-lit, chat free, standing still gigs of acts whose pretty bleepy records I have often enjoyed (ATP = very guilty), I invariably found myself longing for big dumb gestures, rather than the face of a bearded man (and it's always a man) illuminated by the sickly glow of his Powerbook.
Or as there is nothing to see, a DJ melting the sound system with real electro, or hip-hop, or drum & bass, or something else ass-shakingly exciting and fun. Why with these clipped, tiny glitchy software-chopped beats? Why not with the huge 909 kick drum that feels like someone punching you in the chest and making you jerk like a marionette?

IDM (the type with beats) is dance music for people who don't dance. There's a lot of individual waffles, but as a genre it's pointless and crap.

I had to laugh when I saw Steve's first response to the question. He's so predictable at this stage.

There are some really good 'electronica' or whatever you want to call it artists out there. Check out a band called Tarwater who sound as if they are influenced by Kraftwerk, Hip Hop and Folk. I wouldn't worry about labels being put on music. I really like Boards Of Canada but I'm not too keen on Aphex Twin and Autechre. These artists are often lumped in together yet I would think that Boards Of Canada have very little musically in relation To Aphex Twin. A lot of the 'post rock' stuff embraces electronic elements very well too. There's a lot of great stuff out there.

Egyptian Lover did more in one record than the entire recorded works of Mr. Albini put together.


Cybotron - Clear
T La Rock and Jazzy Jay - It's Yours
Sleazy D- I've Lost Control
Hardfloor - Acperience 1
Suburban Knight - The Art of Stalking
Underground Resistance - The Punisher
Joey Beltram - Energy Flash
The Mover - Frontal Sickness
Bad Company - The Nine

All broke new ground.
Shellac, ripped of Led Zeppelin.

krakabash wrote:Egyptian Lover did more in one record than the entire recorded works of Mr. Albini put together.

Oooh, snap.

You win the argument. I now like dance music.

steve wrote:

krakabash wrote:Egyptian Lover did more in one record than the entire recorded works of Mr. Albini put together.

Oooh, snap.

You win the argument. I now like dance music.

Well played.

Egyptian Lover, for god's sake. I love him.

Krakabash broke new ground.
Egyptian Lover, ripped of Kraftwerk.