Why is Flying Lotus so popular?

  On 5/2/2012 at 11:53 PM, baph said:

MRS. CHRISTOPHERSON

1ST GRADE MUSIC

June 17 1989

 

The question presented is why is Flying Lotus so poplar.

 

You guys have to realize that he can fly and he's a fucking lotus, which is pretty weird and awesome. I mean, Lotus makes fast cars, but most of them can't fucking fly. Not even the Elise! Therefore Flying Lotus should be popular.

 

In conclusion, I like things that are awesome. Today my cat fell off the bed and he landed on his feet, which is awesome. This is similar to Flying Lotus.

It's a good thesis, but the argument needs work. A-

He is popular because of his aunt, obviously.

j-lo?

  On 5/3/2012 at 12:07 AM, Enter a new display name said:

He is popular because of his aunt, obviously.

alice coltrane wasn't ever popular

is this thread for real? his music is good and people like it, so he's "popular". meaning some nerds on the internet like him. meaning most people have never heard of him and it doesn't matter.

I like his music, and that's all that matters to me.

because it's what's presented as the "hip" and "cutting-edge" stuff that young american college students"in the know" should listen to. (I go to school with these tossers. They all know FlyLo but when I bring up Aphex: "Heard of them...") I simply think it's because he's american and his music comes from the american hip hop tradition (what ever that is) There are a lot more people in America than England (and Europe) and if he's managed to gain more of a presence stateside simply that would probably be reflected in the last.fm play count.

I'll probably make more enemies than friends by saying this, but I'm fairly surprised it's taken THIS long for someone to combine hip hop stylings with a more serious or "IDM" style of electronic music production and have critical and commercial success. Didn't Radiohead and Bjork do that with rock/pop like ten+ years ago? I know it's not as cut and dry as that, but does anyone else feel this way? Or am I just way off? and ftr, Flying Lotus is good. Never been bad, just the zeitgeist that people think he solely represents I find irritating and ultimately not that interesting.

Huh.

When you make good music that spans a few popular genres, you get lots of fans. You are now popular. That's what FlyLo did.

booo boring reply is boring.

It's not boring it's just stupid. You don't criticize the music as usual, you criticize the public. Hey you got alot of people here that listen to all kinds of idm and still like flying lotus. About the music it seems to me its more of either you feel it or not. ABout his relevance, well he's untouchable there, Low end Theory and the whole brainfeeder lot are what they are because of him. About him as a person he seems very humble and laid back, I don't get it why he's such a hate target to some many people.

  On 5/3/2012 at 2:33 AM, dr lopez said:

because it's what's presented as the "hip" and "cutting-edge" stuff that young american college americans "in the know" should listen to. (I go to school with these tossers. They all know FlyLo but when I bring up Aphex: "Heard of them..." I simply think it's because he's american and his music comes from the american hip hop tradition (what ever that is) There are a lot more people in America than England (and Europe) and if he's managed to gain more of a presence stateside simply that would probably be reflected in the last.fm play count.

 

I'll probably make more enemies than friends by saying this, but I'm fairly surprised it's taken THIS long for someone to combine hip hop stylings with a more serious or "IDM" style of electronic music production and have critical and commercial success. Didn't Radiohead and Bjork do that with rock/pop like ten+ years ago? I know it's not as cut and dry as that, but does anyone else feel this way? Or am I just way off? and ftr, Flying Lotus is good. Never been bad, just the zeitgeist that people think he solely represents I find irritating and ultimately not that interesting.

I think a large part of it is who he's related to. He got a lot of publicity by being the nephew of a certain someone, not to mention it probably helped get radio time etc.

I like his music a lot, but like you mentioned there are other people that tried to do a similar thing....

It relates back to the type of people you indicate are enjoying his music... like it's cool to listen to flying lotus because he's the nephew of alice coltrane or something, not solely based on the music... I don't know exactly what I'm getting at.

  On 5/3/2012 at 3:58 AM, StephenG said:

  On 5/3/2012 at 2:33 AM, dr lopez said:

because it's what's presented as the "hip" and "cutting-edge" stuff that young american college americans "in the know" should listen to. (I go to school with these tossers. They all know FlyLo but when I bring up Aphex: "Heard of them..." I simply think it's because he's american and his music comes from the american hip hop tradition (what ever that is) There are a lot more people in America than England (and Europe) and if he's managed to gain more of a presence stateside simply that would probably be reflected in the last.fm play count.

 

I'll probably make more enemies than friends by saying this, but I'm fairly surprised it's taken THIS long for someone to combine hip hop stylings with a more serious or "IDM" style of electronic music production and have critical and commercial success. Didn't Radiohead and Bjork do that with rock/pop like ten+ years ago? I know it's not as cut and dry as that, but does anyone else feel this way? Or am I just way off? and ftr, Flying Lotus is good. Never been bad, just the zeitgeist that people think he solely represents I find irritating and ultimately not that interesting.

 

I think a large part of it is who he's related to. He got a lot of publicity by being the nephew of a certain someone, not to mention it probably helped get radio time etc.

 

I like his music a lot, but like you mentioned there are other people that tried to do a similar thing.... I don't know, just a thought.

Names. Dr Dre? J-Dilla? Madlib?

  On 5/3/2012 at 3:58 AM, Kanakori said:

  On 5/3/2012 at 3:58 AM, StephenG said:

  On 5/3/2012 at 2:33 AM, dr lopez said:

because it's what's presented as the "hip" and "cutting-edge" stuff that young american college americans "in the know" should listen to. (I go to school with these tossers. They all know FlyLo but when I bring up Aphex: "Heard of them..." I simply think it's because he's american and his music comes from the american hip hop tradition (what ever that is) There are a lot more people in America than England (and Europe) and if he's managed to gain more of a presence stateside simply that would probably be reflected in the last.fm play count.

 

I'll probably make more enemies than friends by saying this, but I'm fairly surprised it's taken THIS long for someone to combine hip hop stylings with a more serious or "IDM" style of electronic music production and have critical and commercial success. Didn't Radiohead and Bjork do that with rock/pop like ten+ years ago? I know it's not as cut and dry as that, but does anyone else feel this way? Or am I just way off? and ftr, Flying Lotus is good. Never been bad, just the zeitgeist that people think he solely represents I find irritating and ultimately not that interesting.

 

I think a large part of it is who he's related to. He got a lot of publicity by being the nephew of a certain someone, not to mention it probably helped get radio time etc.

 

I like his music a lot, but like you mentioned there are other people that tried to do a similar thing.... I don't know, just a thought.

 

Names. Dr Dre? J-Dilla? Madlib?

Prefuse73 was doing it almost 10 years before flylo, for one.

  On 5/3/2012 at 4:00 AM, StephenG said:

  On 5/3/2012 at 3:58 AM, Kanakori said:

  On 5/3/2012 at 3:58 AM, StephenG said:

  On 5/3/2012 at 2:33 AM, dr lopez said:

because it's what's presented as the "hip" and "cutting-edge" stuff that young american college americans "in the know" should listen to. (I go to school with these tossers. They all know FlyLo but when I bring up Aphex: "Heard of them..." I simply think it's because he's american and his music comes from the american hip hop tradition (what ever that is) There are a lot more people in America than England (and Europe) and if he's managed to gain more of a presence stateside simply that would probably be reflected in the last.fm play count.

 

I'll probably make more enemies than friends by saying this, but I'm fairly surprised it's taken THIS long for someone to combine hip hop stylings with a more serious or "IDM" style of electronic music production and have critical and commercial success. Didn't Radiohead and Bjork do that with rock/pop like ten+ years ago? I know it's not as cut and dry as that, but does anyone else feel this way? Or am I just way off? and ftr, Flying Lotus is good. Never been bad, just the zeitgeist that people think he solely represents I find irritating and ultimately not that interesting.

 

I think a large part of it is who he's related to. He got a lot of publicity by being the nephew of a certain someone, not to mention it probably helped get radio time etc.

 

I like his music a lot, but like you mentioned there are other people that tried to do a similar thing.... I don't know, just a thought.

 

Names. Dr Dre? J-Dilla? Madlib?

 

Prefuse73 was doing it almost 10 years before flylo, for one.

Prefuse 73 gets praise, but his stuff isnt as good as his in my opinion ofc.

Because he makes music that non-neckbeards enjoy.

  On 5/3/2012 at 4:04 AM, Dan C said:

Because he makes music that non-neckbeards enjoy.

Bingo.

I swear, some people here really need to branch out into non-neckbeard territory. It would do a lot of good.

  On 5/3/2012 at 12:55 AM, zaphod said:

is this thread for real? his music is good and people like it, so he's "popular". meaning some nerds on the internet like him. meaning most people have never heard of him and it doesn't matter.

Nah, it's because he produced a song about OBAMA...

...blah blah blah...

secret BLACK handshake shit...

...blah blah blah...

fluoride in the water...

...blah blah blah...

musical affirmative action

  On 5/3/2012 at 4:04 AM, Dan C said:

Because he makes music that non-neckbeards enjoy.

weird because I've experienced almost the EXACT opposite. I'd take super cheesy 80s italo ala laserdance that doesn't take itself to seriously any day of the week over flylo, but whenever I play it for my neckbeard beat-scene fans they sneer in disgust.....

He makes good productions across a range of genres that I enjoy, and seems to get better with each release.

  On 5/3/2012 at 4:28 AM, dr lopez said:

  On 5/3/2012 at 4:04 AM, Dan C said:

Because he makes music that non-neckbeards enjoy.

weird because I've experienced almost the EXACT opposite. I'd take super cheesy 80s italo ala laserdance that doesn't take itself to seriously any day of the week over flylo, but whenever I play it for my neckbeard beat-scene fans they sneer in disgust.....

You're just being too hipster with 'em.

He's just a great artist worthy to be on warp, cosmogramma is just one of the best releases they have.

its to bad for you people who can't get in it or won't take the effort, good albums just take time to sink

it's like the muddlin gear album of Jamie LIdell, first you are like wtf but the reward is great when you stick through

I kinda don't really totally understand why but, I've listen to Flying Lotus more than anything else the last two years. I think there's probably some black magic voodoo shit going on with his stuff or something. It's actually kinda perplexing thinking about how much I listen to his music. Wouldn't have thunk it 5 years ago but, actually, after I got into Glitch Hop stuff like Machine Drum 4 years ago I've craved good instrumental Hip Hop more and more.

  On 5/2/2012 at 11:29 PM, chenGOD said:

Shlohmo > FlyLo

You know, I've been a bit burned out on Flying Lotus lately and instead found myself listening to Shlohmo and many of the other Brainfeeder/Low End Theory artists a lot more (Teebs, Matthewdavid) as well other "beat scene" and "wonky" artists.

  On 5/3/2012 at 12:03 AM, chenGOD said:

  On 5/2/2012 at 11:53 PM, baph said:

MRS. CHRISTOPHERSON

1ST GRADE MUSIC

June 17 1989

 

The question presented is why is Flying Lotus so poplar.

 

You guys have to realize that he can fly and he's a fucking lotus, which is pretty weird and awesome. I mean, Lotus makes fast cars, but most of them can't fucking fly. Not even the Elise! Therefore Flying Lotus should be popular.

 

In conclusion, I like things that are awesome. Today my cat fell off the bed and he landed on his feet, which is awesome. This is similar to Flying Lotus.

It's a good thesis, but the argument needs work. A-

But it fails to acknowledge that Lotus Can Swim Underwater, which is why Flylo is wonky but not aquacrunk. Swimming Lotus must be acknowledged in the argument. Perhaps the whole thesis topic needs to change focus, imo. C+

  On 5/3/2012 at 4:02 AM, Kanakori said:

  On 5/3/2012 at 4:00 AM, StephenG said:

  On 5/3/2012 at 3:58 AM, Kanakori said:

  On 5/3/2012 at 3:58 AM, StephenG said:

  On 5/3/2012 at 2:33 AM, dr lopez said:

because it's what's presented as the "hip" and "cutting-edge" stuff that young american college americans "in the know" should listen to. (I go to school with these tossers. They all know FlyLo but when I bring up Aphex: "Heard of them..." I simply think it's because he's american and his music comes from the american hip hop tradition (what ever that is) There are a lot more people in America than England (and Europe) and if he's managed to gain more of a presence stateside simply that would probably be reflected in the last.fm play count.

 

I'll probably make more enemies than friends by saying this, but I'm fairly surprised it's taken THIS long for someone to combine hip hop stylings with a more serious or "IDM" style of electronic music production and have critical and commercial success. Didn't Radiohead and Bjork do that with rock/pop like ten+ years ago? I know it's not as cut and dry as that, but does anyone else feel this way? Or am I just way off? and ftr, Flying Lotus is good. Never been bad, just the zeitgeist that people think he solely represents I find irritating and ultimately not that interesting.

 

I think a large part of it is who he's related to. He got a lot of publicity by being the nephew of a certain someone, not to mention it probably helped get radio time etc.

 

I like his music a lot, but like you mentioned there are other people that tried to do a similar thing.... I don't know, just a thought.

 

Names. Dr Dre? J-Dilla? Madlib?

 

Prefuse73 was doing it almost 10 years before flylo, for one.

 

Prefuse 73 gets praise, but his stuff isnt as good as his in my opinion ofc.

Where to start... I both agree and disagree strongly with parts of this discussion.

Agreed: Prefuse 73 was doing this already. So was Kid606, Alec Empire, various artists at Mille Plateaux, "Illbient" artists like DJ Spooky and DJ Olive, the more experimental trip-hop producers, folks at Anticon and Ninja Tune, industrial-tinged hip-hop projects like Dalek and Techno Animal, Gescom, etc. Bjork and Radiohead are linked to IDM more in retrospect than anything else, but that's a fair point too. It's often that novel genres or scenes are strongly tied to artists who neither originated nor developed said movements. Instead they are linked to those who combine what's been done already in a way that is cohesive and appealing. That's why MIA blew up and DJ /rupture and Muslimguaze didn't. That's why "dubstep" was never going to gain mainstream with early Tempa and Rinse FM artists at the forefront. That's why Madonna has been able to ape a variety of dance genres. And to some degree it's fate - before Nirvana became nationally known bands like Mudhoney and Melvis were far more respected in the grunge scene.

So in other words dr lopez - I too am skeptical of this idea regarding this idea that Flying Lotus is at the forefront of some kind of watershed shift in electronic music and in genre hybridization because of his music. He is in the position because he's running a great label, he's charismatic, and he's put out some great albums. As unique and distict his style and production methods are, they are built upon the work of countless others. I remember in 2006 when he was just a beat maker with a great EP on Plug Research and was stoked on his myspace page that AS bumps were using his tracks. Anyone familiar with his personal life knows before that he was trying to be a filmmaker. He just came in at the right time and with a lot of enthusiasm. What he brought to electronic music wasn't new, just well made.

Disagreed: The idea that his aunt and uncle helped him in regards to his hype, connections, popularity, commercial success, etc. is bullshit. She was a huge motivator for him, in fact he credits her for pushing him to pursue music early on. That's part of why he references her so much in his output. But honestly, even as someone who followed him early on I will strongly contest that she got him signed anywhere or favorly praised in reviews. She passed away in 2007. All the reviews of Los Angeles were focused very much on his production methods and other influences. I didn't even hear anything about her or his other relatives on the Coltrane side of the family until Cosmogramma was being promoted - well after his Warp singing, well after hype and praise from various outlets and this forum. An NPR story in 2010 was the first interview I personally heard him speak of his Aunt, because the album is emotionally tied to her, right down to the name itself. The Coltrane connection is highlighted because it's important to him, not because it's some kind of red flag of nepotism in the music industry.

  On 5/3/2012 at 2:33 AM, dr lopez said:

because it's what's presented as the "hip" and "cutting-edge" stuff that young american college americans "in the know" should listen to. (I go to school with these tossers. They all know FlyLo but when I bring up Aphex: "Heard of them..."

this is what made me start liking Flying Lotus less.

I like the music a lot I'm kind of an elitist though and when the hype gets too high from people who don't know the history or care about music enough to dig into the past (past the fashion statement) I start to get kind of crotchy.

allow me to roll around in my own shit a little bit: if you can't listen to "54 Cymru Beats" with a smile then you dont understand nor are you worthy of Aphx twin. i'd say the same thing about "greenways trajector

When you say you change your opinion on something just because it gets hyped, you lose any credibility you have.

  On 5/3/2012 at 7:25 AM, Kanakori said:

When you say you change your opinion on something just because it gets hyped, you lose any credibility you have.

think of hype in terms of overexposure, or overplayed. when something gets played too much you don't want to hear it anymore.