I realized I know absolutely nothing about electronic music

Most people that think they know what they're talking about are idiots, WATMM is full of idiots. I-D-I-O-T-S.

  On 7/26/2011 at 10:46 AM, rixxx said:

Most people that think they know what they're talking about are idiots, WATMM is full of idiots. I-D-I-O-T-S.

My cat's breath smells like cat food.

  On 7/26/2011 at 10:46 AM, rixxx said:

Most people that think they know what they're talking about are idiots, WATMM is full of idiots. I-D-I-O-T-S.

the Savant Syndrome has spread strong 'round these parts yeh. leave while yet can, cos i found it to be contagious.

& even when i try to stay away, these idiots draw me back everytime and then the general banter mental ward feels just like home--thank god i cant get onto the secret LTM forums..

i've no interest in knowing everything there is to know about electronic music. i know what i like and i like what i know.

I take it that musical taste is an attribute of the personality.

This means that you have to know your taste in order to know yourself.

Some people like FaltyDL. Some people like Joker. Some people like Hudson Mohawke.

You have to disregard the hype and work to discover what is most meaningful to you.

This can turn into a real process. Rateyourmusic has really helped me to escape from trends and into the history, where I can really discover what means what. Not that my 'favorite albums of all time' are that obscure, but at least I'm clear on what they are.

At a certain point I realized that my taste for 90s trip hop and 'big beat' / rave was never going to be accepted on a wide scale in 2011. People want their future bass. People are going to find that raved up energy to sound cheesy [until a sort of 'Pitchfork revival' during which artists start utilizing the 'famous big beat aesthetic with folk vocals' when I'll be shaking my head in disgust] and they will associate my taste with my personality as being niche.

I will argue that my taste is refined and that they simply can't wrap their heads around the possibilities of 'Prime Audio Soup' as being far more than a '90s rave tune from the Matrix' but instead being something of a noise based pop experimentation, testing the limits of sampling and the hip hop format. Now, FaltyDL is probably my favorite of the 'future bass' artists at this time. Or 2562. But the amount of total shit some of these internet hipsters churn through their 'sentences to one another' [as opposed to their ears, I suspect] is frightening. How much more future bass can you take? I was trying to infiltrate the 'scene' for a while and it continuously depressed me.

In fact, I recall trying to convince them in many situations that Future Sound of London or Mouse on Mars were superior to whatever the 'hip new' thing they were discussing. They always wrote this shit off. I don't think they've ever even listened to these electronic works. They don't know the history that lead up to the dubstep / minimal techno explosion [some do] and I think this is their downfall.

I tend to keep one ear towards the present and one ear towards the past. I browse lots of music distro sites, blogs, whatever. If something catches my attention then I'll investigate further. This is probably the most valuable aspect of WATMM: lots of different people from all over the world discussing music from widely varying perspectives. With that said, I find the constant investigation to be tiring at times so I'll have periods of a few months where I just focus on a handful of artists/albums and I've found this to be less mentally taxing so I'm working on whittling down my music pools to a handful of labels for new stuff and the stuff that has really resonated with me from the past.

I tend to follow artists that I already have albums of that I enjoy. Other than that I look through and listen to new releases on a number of sites/shops and on here. If I like the sound of it I buy it when it comes out (physical if possible). It has to be fucking excellent for me to buy just a WAV/FLAC/MP3. I tend to spend a lot more money on music than I could or should but that has always been me. I've got a spreadsheet file of releases I will get when they come out ordered in date and I add to whenever I find something worth getting. I'll look through sites for jazz which I may like and buy that whenever I fancy some new jazz.

Knowledge wise, I only tend to investigate the artist(s) if I enjoy their music or I think I will. There are so many resources online that you can find anything about anyone. There seems no point in having vast knowledge about people I haven't got a good interest in. There are far too many other things in the world that I want to know about.

I found posting on WATMM a harrowing experience at first lol. Like do I have enough stripes to even say a word on here?

I would say on the whole my music knowledge is excellent of most genres, but I am always humble and always listen to others. There are always a select few who are gonna know more than you.

Take for example the new download section? Like where the fuck am I going to start with that? I have no idea! Someone though can reel off all the best ones, just like that. I don't mind asking and I don't mind listening.

After all thats the main reason why I am here

  On 7/26/2011 at 3:25 PM, keltoi said:

i've no interest in knowing everything there is to know about electronic music. i know what i like and i like what i know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_EYU75uhKk&feature=player_detailpage

I know all the good ones.

I'm listening to Bad Religion right now.

i recently discovered nomeansno. they are fucking amazing.

The only thing I listen to anymore is Maft Donk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKiBAqqJHzs

all i listen to these days is weird al polka mashups.

dr Lopez do you make music at all?

also do not let your feelings of inferiority discourage you from asking questions or posting your opinions on music. personally I enjoy all different points of view when reading/discussing music. just because you think someone knows a million times more about how boc made telephasic workshop doesn't mean their opinion is more valuable than yours. what you love is what you love, who cares who knows more about it.

edit: when I first started reading watmm in 04/05 it was because of music. when I joined a few years later, it was because I wanted to learn more about the music I loved so much. I stay here because of how much I've learned about a lot of cool people here though. you are missing out if you don't discuss whatever you want with these maniacs.

Like batcock

  On 7/27/2011 at 1:43 AM, jules said:

dr Lopez do you make music at all?

 

also do not let your feelings of inferiority discourage you from asking questions or posting your opinions on music. personally I enjoy all different points of view when reading/discussing music. just because you think someone knows a million times more about how boc made telephasic workshop doesn't mean their opinion is more valuable than yours. what you love is what you love, who cares who knows more about it.

 

edit: when I first started reading watmm in 04/05 it was because of music. when I joined a few years later, it was because I wanted to learn more about the music I loved so much. I stay here because of how much I've learned about a lot of cool people here though. you are missing out if you don't discuss whatever you want with these maniacs.

yes I was fairly seriously trained male operatic soprano before I became a baritone I also play (played) a lot of jazz trombone. I've been reading music my entire life and have thorough understanding of tonal harmony. I've never really made any electronic music (i really want to start but don't know where) so I'm not a total ignoramus and I can certainly hear rhythms and basic chords in the music i listen to and imagine them on a score in my head, which in some ways is incredibly useful, in other ways not at all lol.

But yes I agree with what you said, but why did you ask if i made music?

  On 7/28/2011 at 1:50 PM, dr lopez said:

But yes I agree with what you said, but why did you ask if i made music?

because i used to get intimidated when people were throwing around different technical things about making electronic music, that's all.

When I was in high school I got really into industrial music, so I studied the history of it, which introduced me to musique concrète and a bunch of composers I wouldn't have known otherwise. I was always really annoyed with the kids that would just walk into a record store and write down all of the band names in the industrial section, then spout off names like they knew something about the music. That shit is pure posturing.

I don't typically download music, either. I like to buy CD's or other physical copies. It makes the work seem more valuable in a way. I don't want to devalue digital releases, by the way, I just feel like I have more at stake in a physical purchase, so I pay attention more to the music.

  On 7/26/2011 at 3:33 PM, vamos scorcho said:

I take it that musical taste is an attribute of the personality.

 

This means that you have to know your taste in order to know yourself.

 

You have to disregard the hype and work to discover what is most meaningful to you.

 

At a certain point I realized that my taste for 90s trip hop and 'big beat' / rave was never going to be accepted on a wide scale in 2011. People want their future bass. People are going to find that raved up energy to sound cheesy [until a sort of 'Pitchfork revival' during which artists start utilizing the 'famous big beat aesthetic with folk vocals' when I'll be shaking my head in disgust] and they will associate my taste with my personality as being niche.

^Good advice. I too am dreading an ironic mid-90s revival of all of the music pitchfork has been making fun for the majority of the 00s (I've noted that their late 90s/early 00s reviews of big beat albums that are no longer available on their site)

Maybe I should make some sample heavy, trip-hopish neo-grunge/pop-punk breakbeat-driven-skacore-illbient and release it when the time is right.

Nonsense follows

feel out of touch with the "current state" of music, instead an attraction to things in the range of acid jazz / trip-hop / downtempo - obviously music that's fallen out of favour these days, with the power-drill glitch wobble and subsubsub bass music. Brian Eno is a good fall back .. Krautrock, and some ambient. I'm stuck in a "cleansing" ritual Stars of the Lid and SAWII. put-off by the idea of a synth as an umbrella all-purpose instrument, used to fill the gaps in song-writing. or if this fails yelp-yelp vocals can also work. There's a lot of quirky shit. (Hypnogogic Pop?). Clark's Totems Flare is a good embodiment of what I find so distressing about a lot of new music. the timbre and palette of records. kitchen sinks.

  On 7/26/2011 at 3:33 PM, vamos scorcho said:

 

In fact, I recall trying to convince them in many situations that Future Sound of London or Mouse on Mars were superior to whatever the 'hip new' thing they were discussing. They always wrote this shit off. I don't think they've ever even listened to these electronic works. They don't know the history that lead up to the dubstep / minimal techno explosion [some do] and I think this is their downfall.

So they won't give it a chance or don't know the history of the music they listen to. Big fucking deal. Continue to like what you like, and let them like what they like.

tbh reading this thread it appears that no one on WATMM knows everything about electronic music either so chill out :sup:

percussionlab

electronic explorations

sleepbot

  On 7/29/2011 at 6:04 PM, soundwave said:

tbh reading this thread it appears that no one on WATMM knows everything about electronic music either so chill out :sup:

 

percussionlab

 

electronic explorations

 

sleepbot

lol cunt of year 2k11

sweet robot avatar dude

This is a great thread topic dr lopez, one that touches on many things I've wondered about myself and my appreciation and knowledge of music. This reminds me of a copy of The Wire I bought in 05' or 06' that I kept revisiting, at first literally knowing only a handful of muscians mentioned, and now being aware/familiar with far more as the years went by. Even now I still don't know (and probably don't care) about half of them.

A couple of thoughts:

- You can't like everything, and if you do, then listening to music doesn't matter. this kind of touches on the torrent discussions. I used to have 40k tracks (hundreds of albums) and lot of it was stuff I never listen to now and would never listen to again, as well pointless bootlegs for a plethora of bands I don't love. That HD crashed and after that another did. Both in retrospect were phoenix scenarios, it made me remember what I really enjoyed and what really mattered to me emotionally. All music you absolutely love should be owned in some form or another.

- Don't try to listen too much. I have a close friend who probably downloads dozens of albums a week (maybe even a dozen a day) and listens to them casually and superficially. Thankfully he has a few favorite artists, but if he puts his ipod of shuffle, he often doesn't know 80% of the tracks he hears. I on the other hand, tend to be better at guessing an artist based on what I've read of them or a chance listen of a different track. Most people don't do that, especially beyond WATMM. It's a lot healthier IMO to listen to steam music or even whole albums before you "aquire" them, because otherwise your wasting HD space.

- If you've never heard of something, don't be afraid to admit so. Especially on WATMM, people will make good recommendations. The best reviews and most interesting writings about music are meaningless if you don't know or care about the subject at hand. If you listen to something hyped or discussed in great lenght, and don't care for it, then just move on.

- No one is an expert of all music. WATMM is a great example. I lurked here awhile and even now I notice the biggest electronic nerds regularly start threads about jazz, rock, hip-hop, even major electronic music genres like house and techno because they know little about it.

- Only investigate what you really have a passion for musically. I like Autechre a lot, but never post in that subforum and rarely read it because I don't love them. On the other hand, I've listened to all of RDJ's output over many years and feel very comfortable (now) discussing his music. Same with sampling sources and determining who used what synths, etc...I only care if it's in a song I really enjoy. Hell, there are pop songs and dance hits that have aesthetics that perplex me to this day, whereas almost every noise on SAW 85-92 has been thoroughly analyzed.

- It's ok to be obsessed about a certain genre or a specific artist. As a person, it speaks volumes to be emotionally connected to few specific things than to "like" a plethora of diverse media and art. Passion over superficialness. You can still be aware of other music...I am out of the loop with a lot of indie bands and rock, and to be honest that's ok with me. I still listen to older albums over and over again rather than freak-out about missing out on some new band. And among my peers, I'm the electronic music nut, naturally.

- Lastly, if you really love a certain artist, album, or song, fuck how popular or well-regarded it is. I'm sure others have experienced a moment in life when you realize a song or album you consider genius isn't that well-regarded or well-known, and never will be. Or when you, despite trying, have absolutely no idea why something championed as "classic," "legendary," and/or "influencial." Listen to what makes you happy above all else. You'll find others you share your view, whether it be one other person or millions. When truly knowledgeable music aficionados come to mind, i.e. well-regarded critics who've literally listened to just about everything, I think of people like John Peel and Simon Reynolds. The former's favorite song was "Teenage Kicks" by the Undertones and the latter was a champion of early rave music. So there you go.

That was mostly written last night in half-asleep rant mode, but whatevs...

I listen to a new album pretty much every day in order to find those 10 albums a year or so that I play a bajillion times. Most stuff I only listen to once or twice to filter the good from the bad and discover the truly great stuff.