easily the smartest thing ever said about electronic music

from simon reynolds, who has his moments, despite everything:

"Electronic music strives to create experiences instead of describing them."

(i have no clue where i found this originally.)

fucking ace quote, thx for posting!

Use your philosophy knowledge wisely and write a thesis about this sentence, playboynumbers.

  On 8/13/2009 at 7:35 PM, playbynumbers said:

 

 

"Electronic music strives to create experiences instead of describing them."

 

What is implied ? "To listen to Electronic Music[...]" or "To make electronic music[...]" ?

Anyway, as sexy as this quote may appear, it is nonetheless valid for any genre of music. I'm not impressed.

I mean, if music is an experience, then what kind of music is only descriptive ?

not sure i agree with this. maybe some electronic music, but there's plenty that has a certain impressionistic slant to it that immediately brings to mind an experience. but i guess it isn't describing it in the literal sense of lyrics, maybe? i don't know, doesn't most music try to do this?

remove the word electronic. still valid. more so

  On 8/13/2009 at 7:45 PM, the anonymous forumite said:

  On 8/13/2009 at 7:35 PM, playbynumbers said:

 

 

"Electronic music strives to create experiences instead of describing them."

 

 

 

What is implied ? "To listen to Electronic Music[...]" or "To make electronic music[...]" ?

 

Anyway, as sexy as this quote may appear, it is nonetheless valid for any genre of music. I'm not impressed.

I wouldn't say its valid for most of pop music :/

  On 8/13/2009 at 8:00 PM, Rabid said:

  On 8/13/2009 at 7:45 PM, the anonymous forumite said:

  On 8/13/2009 at 7:35 PM, playbynumbers said:

 

 

"Electronic music strives to create experiences instead of describing them."

 

 

 

What is implied ? "To listen to Electronic Music[...]" or "To make electronic music[...]" ?

 

Anyway, as sexy as this quote may appear, it is nonetheless valid for any genre of music. I'm not impressed.

I wouldn't say its valid for most of pop music :/

And yet , it is. Consider it a bad experience :)

i do not agree with this statement at all.

I just googled "quotes about electronic music" and I think this one's better than yours:

  Quote

Somebody will ask those of us who compose with the aid of computers: 'So you make all these decisions for the computer or the electronic medium, but wouldn't you like to have a performer who makes certain other decisions?' Many composers don't mind collaborating with the performer with regards to decisions of tempo, or rhythm, or dynamics, or timbre, but ask them if they would allow the performer to make decisions with regard to pitch and the answer will be 'Pitches you don't change.' Some of us feel the same way in regard to the other musical aspects that are traditionally considered secondary, but which we consider fundamental. As for the future of electronic music, it seems quite obvious to me that its unique resources guarantee its use, because it has shifted the boundaries of music away from the limitations of the acoustical instrument, of the performer's coordinating capabilities, to the almost infinite limitations of the electronic instrument. The new limitations are the human ones of perception.

• Milton Babbitt, quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812

music is dead

  On 8/13/2009 at 7:35 PM, playbynumbers said:

from simon reynolds, who has his moments, despite everything:

 

"Electronic music strives to create experiences instead of describing them."

 

 

 

 

(i have no clue where i found this originally.)

found it

the medium is the message

  On 8/13/2009 at 8:37 PM, Adjective said:

  On 8/13/2009 at 7:35 PM, playbynumbers said:

from simon reynolds, who has his moments, despite everything:

 

"Electronic music strives to create experiences instead of describing them."

 

 

 

 

(i have no clue where i found this originally.)

 

found it

lol please tell me you photoshopped this just now

I pretty much agree, but only under the scope of Western musical history.

I believe Simon Reynolds is one of the main dudes involves in The Wire magazine.

  On 8/13/2009 at 7:50 PM, zaphod said:

not sure i agree with this. maybe some electronic music, but there's plenty that has a certain impressionistic slant to it that immediately brings to mind an experience. but i guess it isn't describing it in the literal sense of lyrics, maybe? i don't know, doesn't most music try to do this?

i would say that basically all modern western music, from classical composers to indie rock bands, are representing something through music --- in bach this would be the gospel of matthew, or whatever, and in radiohead it would be post-whatever angst. this is especially obvious when there is language involved, and the majority of music has language involved somewhere (opera, choral, etc.).

electronic music, and at least i think this is what he's getting at, creates something sheerly new; there's nothing that it refers to other than itself, no narrative. in a certain basic sense, of course all music leads to 'new experiences'; but electronic music doesn't have a narrative (usually) and isn't describing some experience that happened to the artist. boards of canada are CREATING an atmosphere of childlike wonder/dread, not representing it through lyrics; you aren't experiencing childlike wonder/dread as mediated through them describing their own experience (with the music as just like an accompaniment to emphasize it).

  On 8/13/2009 at 7:45 PM, the anonymous forumite said:

Anyway, as sexy as this quote may appear, it is nonetheless valid for any genre of music. I'm not impressed.

it really isn't. radiohead's "pyramid song" isn't creating a NEW experience, it's RE-creating thom yorke's experience in the british museum (long story), which he translated into a very specific series of representations. sure, it's new for you, but it's a representation not of some artist's experience in the studio (which even electronic musicians have, obviously) but the experience that LED TO the experience in the studio.

  On 8/13/2009 at 9:22 PM, beatfanatic said:

I believe Simon Reynolds is one of the main dudes involves in The Wire magazine.

he is the main dude, in fact

  On 8/13/2009 at 9:21 PM, Yegg said:

I pretty much agree, but only under the scope of Western musical history.

100% correct

East coast hip-hop strives to create experiences instead of describing them.

replace electronic with abstract/experimental/ambient ?

thats not the definition of electronic music for me. Electronic music has more to do with instrumentation for me than the experience it is trying to create. I think this statement is a generalization.

  On 8/13/2009 at 9:26 PM, playbynumbers said:

  On 8/13/2009 at 7:45 PM, the anonymous forumite said:

Anyway, as sexy as this quote may appear, it is nonetheless valid for any genre of music. I'm not impressed.

 

it really isn't. radiohead's "pyramid song" isn't creating a NEW experience, it's RE-creating thom yorke's experience in the british museum (long story), which he translated into a very specific series of representations. sure, it's new for you, but it's a representation not of some artist's experience in the studio (which even electronic musicians have, obviously) but the experience that LED TO the experience in the studio.

I'm not sure we're debating over the same thing...

My argument is the following one:

1) Music is an experience in itself

This premise is difficult to deny. Music is not like a computer process, even if BOC say so, the result (the song) has this phenomenal quality that is different to each one of us, but it still appeals to our qualia. It's like tasting chocolate or smelling a rose, it's always an experience, even if you had it countless times. Music is like love, dude. An experience.

I'm not sure I understand your point, but I guess your point is the distinction between two kinds of experience: the real life experience that leads to produce music and the experience of what it is to be in a studio, right ? I'm not talking about this. What I am talking about is the emotional/physical and even mental experience music produces in you when you listen to a track you really like, say, for instance, Kid For Today. Listening to music is an experience, just like smelling a rose or eating burgers or seeing a movie.

So yeah, I'm not talking about the story behind a song or what led to it being recorded or any kind of conceptual experience, I'm talking about the experience I am in when I listen to music. That is, mostly an emotional one and in some cases physical or mental, as you may have understood by now.

That's why I'm saying that all genres create an experience, assuming that normal people like at least one genre of music, or at least one song in the world.

Joyrex, what is this error message "EDIT_NO PERM" bullshit ?

How would you explain the following?

I think I speak for at least some significant portion of music listeners by declaring that I do not have a clue what the fuck the average vocalist is yammering on about.

For instance, Beck has gone on record many times to say that he chooses lyrics for phonetic appeal rather than the "random poetry" he's accused of making.

In other words, I find the argument of Reynolds to be built upon a bit of a rigid, structuralist idea about music.

happy 200th post anonymous forumite!