Dance Music: talented vocals, quality production...so why isn't it on the air?

reply to post by italkyoulisten



And my point is just because you can plug a bunch of # in and push a button called "arpeggiate", that doesn't make you a musician. Electronica isn't a new thing.
It's been stinking up the place for at least 2 decades, probably closer to 3.
I'm not going to have a change of heart. I am old enough to remember when it started. It hasn't improved. In fact the technical prowess involved in making it has actually decreased, because most new gear will do a lot of the work for you. I know. I own a # pile of it.......

reply to post by morthn1waytoskinacat


"good and electronica do not belong in the same sentence."

radiohead. kid A, amnesiac, in rainbows

ratatat. classics

air. moon safari


enough said.

reply to post by italkyoulisten


And my point is just because you can plug a bunch of # in, push one key, and hit the arpeggiatte button, it doesn't make you a musician.
Electronica has been around for 3 decades. I'm not gonna change my opinion about it. If anything, it is even more skilless than it was. At least years ago you needed to have some musical ability. If you couldn't play a keyboard or program, or both, you were screwed. Not so anymore. @ grand will buy you a nice little set up, rtfm, and away you go. I know. I have all the gear in my studio. I use it for traditional, and "electronic" music (I can't afford the london sympony, so I fake it). Can I play cello or violin?
Don't know, never tried. But i understand music, so I can write and step input notes into my sequencer to "play" those instruments for me. It's cheating, plain and simple. If I need guitar or bass, I actually play it, becuase, I am a "musician", and it a hundred times easier for me to play those parts rather than program them.
Why?
22 years of practice.
Guitar and bass proficiency=22 years of practice.
programming a step input=20 minutes searching through pdf files in the manual.
That's the point, I don't care what freq it's in.

reply to post by italkyoulisten


That's your argument?
radiohead has guitars. (they suck, by the way).

reply to post by morthn1waytoskinacat


wow it's so much more than just plugging something into an arpeggiator. that's like saying rock music is strumming four chords over and over again on a guitar.

that's like saying funk music is a wah pedal.


you have to fix the rate of the arpeggiator. you'll then probably want to sequence it. or program it. or if you mix more than one note, the arpeggiation changes to accompany both. It's an instrument in its own right. Pink floyd used heavy arpeggiation in Run from Dark Side of the Moon to name one song. Does that make them bad?

reply to post by morthn1waytoskinacat


just because radiohead has guitars does not mean they do not play electronica. Early radiohead prior to Kid A is more rock and guitar oriented, and after more keyboard and synth oriented up until Hail to the Thief when it was a mixture of both and In rainbows kind of a follow up to Hail to the Thief except much better. Still, they used vocoders, samples, synths, heavily, especially in Kid A and Amnesiac. How are they not electronica.

and wow if you say radiohead sucks, then you have to say that every absolutely unique sounding breakthrough album they've come out with sucked. name me one album that is better and more unique than OK Computer.

radiohead may not be the greatest live band but they are amazing songwriters.

reply to post by italkyoulisten


So what?
I hate to tell you this but rock is just 4 chords over and over again(closer to 6 actually). Takes a lot more skill than to push i button and turn a knob till it's as fast or as slow as you like.
Do you own any of this gear, or are you just defending it cause you like it?
I do. And I know the difference, so save your credulity.

reply to post by morthn1waytoskinacat


yes. i make electronica. haha that is why i am defending it so much. specifically electronica dream pop.

www.myspace.com/surfis

I mean I used to look down on electronica too because I just thought it was a bunch of dancy techno sht but it's so much more. listen to radiohead's 15 step. it's ridiculous.

but what kind of music do you listen to then? i personally like all kinds.

reply to post by italkyoulisten


Unique? Hardly. Annoying and repetitive yes.
So i guess they do fall into the electronica category.
Can i name a better more unique album?
No. You know why?
Because there has been nothing unique or groundbreaking written since the late seventies. That would be Van Halen, Van Halen.
And yes I do say that about every album they put out. Overhyped and complete trash.

reply to post by italkyoulisten


Classical. Noone has said or done anything new in years worth listening to. I've heard it. I listen. Crap.

Originally posted by morthn1waytoskinacat
reply to post by italkyoulisten

 

Takes a lot more skill than to push i button and turn a knob till it's as fast or as slow as you like.

Ok did you not understand me? you still have to play on the keys, THROUGH the arpeggiator. for example, depending on how it's programmed, a C could be C E G, but if you were to press C and D at the same time it could be C F# A. you would play it the same as if you were playing a keyboard except combinations of notes make different arpeggios. no song can be just one note on an arpeggiator. If that's the kind of electronica you listen to no wonder you hate it.

and plus the arpeggiator is just one of a plethora of effects.

reply to post by morthn1waytoskinacat


Except when I'm drinking. Then I listen to the eagles because it doesn't piss me off, and it's in a key I can sing along too.

reply to post by morthn1waytoskinacat


ok seriously, OK Computer spawned a GENRE of music that tried to copy its feel. And Kid A and Amnesiac, there is NOTHING out there that sounds even remotely to either prior to their release.

Van Halen is alright. He has some good guitar work, but seriously, music is not all about technique. I used to think that too. I remember when I was younger I would always want to play the hard and fast music, until I realized one day music isn't about how crazy it is technically, but is instead how it sounds and the feel of it. Sometimes it requires some crazy technique to achieve a sound, and sometimes it doesn't.

reply to post by italkyoulisten


I understand it completely. It still doesn't require the great amount of skill that you are imposing upon it. About the same as getting your depth right on the delay, or the flange4r, or whatever. Mic placement requires more skill than an arpegiatter. Now, if you actually played the notes by hand, that would be worthy of respect, but as it stands, you said it yourself:
"It's an effect"

reply to post by italkyoulisten


Yeah, great, a whole genre of #. So did the sex pistols and any number of other talentless wads. Doesn't mean it's good.

reply to post by morthn1waytoskinacat


Ok I can agree with you that the eagles are an excellent band; a classic. However, i am saying that there is electronica out there that is just as good. you just probably haven't found it. Like I've said before, I used to dislike electronica for the same reasons, until I started getting into it and finding the real artists out of the mounds and mounds of trance-house bullcrap.

if you don't dig radiohead, that's fine.

I still highly recommend Air's Moon Safari album. When I first got it i could not stop listening to it for a month until it got old only to love it again a month later.

reply to post by morthn1waytoskinacat


Grunge comes to mind. I never met anyone who liked it, yet that genre lasted a painfully long time.

reply to post by morthn1waytoskinacat


but I do play by hand. I just don't use the arpeggiator much, because it doesn't fit with the sound I am going for. It makes everything sound too hurried and rushed, which is kind of the opposite to the dreamy peace that I am going for.

reply to post by italkyoulisten


There's a very good reason for that.
I'm not looking.
I haven't found a satisfactory way to put my eye out with a crescent wrench either.
Same reason.

reply to post by morthn1waytoskinacat


grunge lasted about a decade. it's not that long. nirvana was alright. kind of took it to the mainstream, but I do agree that it was not the best genre. which is why there are barely any grunge musicians left.

like you've said, electronicas been around for at least 3 decades.

bruce haack was one of the pioneers so actually 4-5 decades.

so there must be something endearing about electronica.

[edit on 17-5-2008 by italkyoulisten]