Musical concern: Burial
Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 3:09 am
Nerby Bear wrote:Modern electronic music is not complex music, by and large. It is not generally musically complex, and it is not generally emotionally complex.
By and large neither is most modern rock music. If a person spent as much time listening to and appreciating "modern electronic music" as most of us have 'indie-rock', I think they could likely have an opposing but no less valid perspective.
By and large, different styles of music place a greater emphasis on different aspects of music. 'R&B' for example places a strong emphasis on harmony, 'pop' music on melody, and many forms of 'electronic' music and 'hip hop' places a strong focus on rhythm. On the surface, to the 'outsider', many genres all 'sound the same.'
tmidgett wrote:More important to me, however, than complexity is nuance. Most classical music is highly nuanced. It seems to me that most modern electronic music is not nuanced. It functions primarily as mood music, and narrowly focused mood music at that.
Modern electronic music is not complex music, by and large. It is not generally musically complex, and it is not generally emotionally complex.
More important to me, however, than complexity is nuance. Most classical music is highly nuanced. It seems to me that most modern electronic music is not nuanced. It functions primarily as mood music, and narrowly focused mood music at that.
This is totally the wrong thread in my opinion for this discussion as the artist in question deserves little defense, but to generalize and judge a wide spectrum of electronic music based on what is in TV commercials, co-opted popular culture and other lowest common denominator manifestations would be like someone judging the Chicago music 'scene' based on the Smashing Pumpkins without knowing Touch & Go, Thrill Jockey, Drag City et al even exist.
"Rock music is boring, its all the same shit, root, third, fifth, one, four five. Every singer sounds like the runner up in an Eddie Vedder karaoke contest. Guitar, bass, drums, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus. Predictable and redundant."
With 7 notes in a standard scale, melodies are a bit like snowflakes in which theoretically there are almost endless combinations, but that is only true for complex snowflakes and complex compositions. Nano-snowflakes can be exactly alike, and often are. Similarly the majority of 'rock songs' are quite simple and there are a finite number of progressions that are considered musically 'pleasing' to most people's tastes.
When 'rock music' was new and fresh the majority of great melodies were up for grabs on a first come first serve basis. To be perfectly honest, bands like the Beatles etc. certainly gobbled up their share. Good luck writing a catchy punk song with a chord progression that hasn't been used 50 times already...
Nerbly bear wrote:Can't really judge, since I'm not sure what this music's aims are in the first place.
The aims are the same as any music, to facilitate experience and to evoke thought and emotion. While much electronic music can be quite simple and repetitive, in the correct context it is exactly this simplicity and repetitiveness which gives it its power.
The earliest music of mankind shares many similarities, because it relies on the concept of entrainment. The human brain has a tendency to change it's dominant EEG frequency towards the frequency of the dominant external stimuli applied to it. This is known as the frequency following response and is ubiquitous throughout human culture, from ancient tribal rhythms in Africa, shamans throughout the world etc. it is everywhere often in conjunction with mind altering substances.
The same concept is used in Tibetan singing bells where the resonant frequency of the two bells is slightly off and when struck together, they create a third modulating tone (the difference) well below the normal range of human perception which the brain can entrain or synchronise to. Anyone who has tuned a guitar is familiar with this phenomenon.
Usually the entrained rhythm is somewhere in the theta range. This is the brainwave range associated with REM sleep, visionary experiences, deep meditation and is also the range where most of childhood is spent.
Get out your pencil and do some trusty BPM to LFO (hertz) calculations...
Music tempo is quite often synced to natural rhythms. Many musicians naturally gravitate to these tempos unconsciously.
In the tempo of 120 BPM used very often in electronic and other styles an 1/8 note is exactly 4Hz, the start of the theta brainwave range which is 4-8Hz. A 16th note is 8Hz, the crossover point between the theta range (associated with the subconscious mind) and the alpha range (the bridge between the subconscious mind and the everyday alert, beta state).
In a practical example of these concepts, a very common EEG biofeedback treatment for depression and substance abuse known as the Peniston Protocol (http://www.enhancementinstitute.com/neuropublished.html) aims to increase the ratios of alpha and theta brainwaves and then achieve "crossover" where the theta amplitude surpasses the alpha amplitude. It is believed that state dependent memories and trauma from early life (spent in the theta) can be be brought to the conscious mind through the alpha "bridge" and resolved. All the shit that constantly eats at a person unconsciously can be released...
What about 60 BPM, the good old ballad/love song tempo? The same idea. Although 59 BPM (117 BPM for faster songs) would be more precise. At 59 or 117 BPM the 1/16th and 1/32 note respectively are 7.8Hz (the exact frequency of the Schuman cavity resonance).
Hmmm... is it a coincidence that (h)our clocks are synchronized (60 beats/seconds per minute) to the 'heartbeat' of the Earth which wasn't discovered until the 1960's? I think not!
This is the frequency following response in action. Its no different than if you randomly put a bunch of grandfather clocks in a single room, in time their pendulums will synchronize, stick a bunch of women in a house together and there menstrual cycles will synchronize, put a bunch of people on a dance floor (or around a fire) for hours which rhythmic music and eventually they will 'synchronize' as well.
'Rave music' and culture is about the boundary dissolving experience of unity and ego 'trance n' dance'. This goes back to the origins of humanity and is every persons birthright. Unfortunately though, like every genuine expression of human emotion (like the psychedelic movement of the 19060's, the punk movement of the 1970's, the underground rock movement of the 1980's), the 'rave' culture of the 1990's was co-opted by Madison Avenue and commercial interests, diluting it of its soul and meaning.
While no more musically 'nuanced' or 'complex' than the the punk music decades before, there are many similarities. It was about a new sound and form of expression, fully removed from he culture that spawned it. Just like any kid with an attitude, passion and a DIY aesthetic could pick up a guitar, play three chords really fast, scream his/her lungs out and by doing so steal, subvert and more importantly reclaim culture for themself, a different generation found its mode of expression in drum machines, synthesizers, sequencers and samplers.
For me the best explanation of this culture that I was never a part of, came from those who were. The 1999 documentary "Better Living Through Circuitry" was a real eye opener. I highly recommend it. There's probably a torrent somewhere you can "sample"
This same leveling of the playing field is happening again. Music labels, A&R men and big budget recording studios are obsolete. YouTube is the new MTV, Cubase/Logic is the new Hit Factory and the internet is the new record store.
Its a bad day for rock stars, but a great time for people who love making/playing music not as a means to an ends but as the ends itself. There's never been a better time for music (of any genre) and personally I'm eternally grateful for those that helped blaze the trail for the rest of us. Suddenly the trench isn't so deep.