Women and the IDMz

  On 5/14/2012 at 1:28 PM, Ifeelspace said:

People seem more upset that I referred to it as IDM than anything else. I still don't know why this name causes people to get their panties in a twist - it's no worse than 'braindance' and it's more descriptive than the genre encompassing 'electronic dance music'. Fact is, I say IDM, and you know exactly what type of music I'm talking about.

I think the genre name braindance is just a way for Rephlex to avoid categorizing their music into actual genres. It's just their marketing term. They label everything they put out as braindance and to me it's a sort of parody of the IDM moniker.

Anyway, the IDM genre seems to be more working with association to known IDM acts than any genre specific features. Can anyone tell me what is it in the actual music that makes it IDM that would encompass all of the better known IDM acts? Like what is the common feature in between the WATMM featured artists Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Autechre, Clark, Squarepusher, Cylob, Luke Vibert, µ-ziq and Plaid besides being released on certain labels (namely Warp and Rephlex)?

And if such feature exists, why does it make the music more "intelligent" than other dance music?

(Bonus points for making up a definition that would not include Skrillex)

By the compilation « Artificial Intelligence Vol.1 », and it so wants of an access less easy than the dance music. According to some, through the creation of this experimental elite, the electronic music reproduces the route of the classical music which, at the end of the first half of the 20th century, had seen being born a learned music created by elites and cut by the general public. It remains nevertheless that most of the compositions of IDM protect stylistic elements uniting the pop music, rhythmic jazz and the inclusion hardly measured by elements with tendency more bruitiste (noisy?).

When Rephlex was created in 1991, people said that the style of the music which they published was called "techno". Some people say that things are never that they seem to be. We can say the same thing of the techno.

Over the years, the media invented more and more terms to describe the sub-kinds(sub-genres) of the music (intelligent happy hardcore, psychedelic handbag, progressive bluntcore, uplifting trance, etc.). To be honest, that dived them into the confusion as for their place in the spectre of the dance. They then decided to invent the braindance, a genre which includes all the styles to simplify things.

The braindance is not a music genre but a lifestyle.

I resumed a little of memory what had said Richard... in this period... with all i knew on it...

  On 5/14/2012 at 1:45 PM, sirch said:

  On 5/14/2012 at 1:28 PM, Ifeelspace said:

it's no worse than 'braindance' and it's more descriptive than the genre encompassing 'electronic dance music'. Fact is, I say IDM, and you know exactly what type of music I'm talking about.

 

but do the girls/women?

I'm not sure there's any easy way to convey this type of music to anyone who doesn't already have a rough idea of it.

Maybe it is related to the phenomena that women are more likely to pass judgement based on their initial feelings versus men who approach things more logically/systematically?

There are a number of studies regarding women being emotive and men being rational, perhaps this impacts the approach to the arts? Where men see a certain logical movement in the music, if women can't relate to the piece emotionally they disregard it initially, and because of the serial positioning effect/primacy effect that first impression inhibits them from ever reaching a full appreciation of the piece?

This is pure speculation and a gross overgeneralization though... Because I know plenty of women into "IDM"...

  On 5/14/2012 at 5:29 PM, StephenG said:

Maybe it is related to the phenomena that women are more likely to pass judgement based on their initial feelings versus men who approach things more logically/systematically?

But I would think that this would lead to a woman to enjoy a piece heavy in atmosphere and emotion. There are a lot of songs in this "idm" umbrella that have that characteristic.

Of course I could be interpreting this wrong

I'm all about emotions in music. That's why I don't listen to a whole lot of Autechre even though I like them. I prefer Actress and P73 and BoC and stuff. But that might actually make sense for some artists, since I bet most of the people that listen to the Autechre side of IDM are thinking types and girls are more frequently feelers (typologically speaking; "thinking" is not better or smarter than "feeling").

  On 5/14/2012 at 5:35 PM, sergeantk said:

  On 5/14/2012 at 5:29 PM, StephenG said:

Maybe it is related to the phenomena that women are more likely to pass judgement based on their initial feelings versus men who approach things more logically/systematically?

 

But I would think that this would lead to a woman to enjoy a piece heavy in atmosphere and emotion. There are a lot of songs in this "idm" umbrella that have that characteristic.

 

Of course I could be interpreting this wrong

I agree, if the woman can get past their initial emotive response of "this is strange/weird/uncool" etc that might cloud their perception?

Again this is just speculation and it's entirely subjective, it is not possible to put all women/men under one umbrella.

Cheers!

there r women who listen IDM... a lot of! But right, less than men... but say it it's a cliché...

  On 5/14/2012 at 5:36 PM, gmanyo said:

I'm all about emotions in music. That's why I don't listen to a whole lot of Autechre even though I like them. I prefer Actress and P73 and BoC and stuff. But that might actually make sense for some artists, since I bet most of the people that listen to the Autechre side of IDM are thinking types and girls are more frequently feelers (typologically speaking; "thinking" is not better or smarter than "feeling").

Oh yes. Of course this gets thrown off a bit by the whole idea that there are male feelers and female thinkers But this is an interesting point, and maybe explains why I prefer the type of things that I do.

  On 5/14/2012 at 5:37 PM, StephenG said:

  On 5/14/2012 at 5:35 PM, sergeantk said:

  On 5/14/2012 at 5:29 PM, StephenG said:

Maybe it is related to the phenomena that women are more likely to pass judgement based on their initial feelings versus men who approach things more logically/systematically?

 

But I would think that this would lead to a woman to enjoy a piece heavy in atmosphere and emotion. There are a lot of songs in this "idm" umbrella that have that characteristic.

 

Of course I could be interpreting this wrong

 

I agree, if the woman can get past their initial emotive response of "this is strange/weird/uncool" etc that might cloud their perception?

 

Again this is just speculation and it's entirely subjective, it is not possible to put all women/men under one umbrella.

 

Cheers!

Indeed, but what fun would it be if we had to play by the semantics of it all!

  On 5/14/2012 at 5:23 PM, sergeantk said:

  On 5/14/2012 at 1:45 PM, sirch said:

  On 5/14/2012 at 1:28 PM, Ifeelspace said:

it's no worse than 'braindance' and it's more descriptive than the genre encompassing 'electronic dance music'. Fact is, I say IDM, and you know exactly what type of music I'm talking about.

but do the girls/women?

I'm not sure there's any easy way to convey this type of music to anyone who doesn't already have a rough idea of it.

I don't think IDM is a real genre because there is no distinct musical features that define it.

OK, maybe if somebody plays me something that sounds like Autechre's Confield or Aphex's Windowlicker I can agree that yes this is IDM. But this is because I associate the music with other artist's that are considered IDM.

But consider if somebody comes to you and says I got this new album from artist Foobar that you've never heard of and you ask what kind of music it is and the answer is gabber, jungle, acid house or hard trance you pretty much know what it will sound like because the genres are defined by the musical features.

Now if the person says it's IDM then at least I have trouble thinking what it will be because it could be anything from to BoC style tune drunk hiphop to full on 180BPM drill'n'bass to some mid-tempo acidic 4-on-the-floor techno.

So back to the question why there is not that much women into IDM: Since there are no clear genre defining features, I don't think that it's the actual the music that's scaring them away but it's more of a cultural thing.

  On 5/14/2012 at 5:41 PM, sergeantk said:

  On 5/14/2012 at 5:36 PM, gmanyo said:

I'm all about emotions in music. That's why I don't listen to a whole lot of Autechre even though I like them. I prefer Actress and P73 and BoC and stuff. But that might actually make sense for some artists, since I bet most of the people that listen to the Autechre side of IDM are thinking types and girls are more frequently feelers (typologically speaking; "thinking" is not better or smarter than "feeling").

Oh yes. Of course this gets thrown off a bit by the whole idea that there are male feelers and female thinkers

Yeah, I think even with official testing the numbers are only like 60% of girls are "feelers" and 60% of guys are "thinkers". Something like that.

  On 5/14/2012 at 5:23 PM, sergeantk said:

  On 5/14/2012 at 1:45 PM, sirch said:

  On 5/14/2012 at 1:28 PM, Ifeelspace said:

it's no worse than 'braindance' and it's more descriptive than the genre encompassing 'electronic dance music'. Fact is, I say IDM, and you know exactly what type of music I'm talking about.

 

but do the girls/women?

I'm not sure there's any easy way to convey this type of music to anyone who doesn't already have a rough idea of it.

just call it electronic, or electronica, and be done with it. maybe name a couple of the more well known examples.. of tracks/groups.

simple really.

and like i said in another thread, if she doesn't like or "get" it, so what anyway??

you're not gonna like everything she likes either!

this topic is retarded.

My girlfriend likes a good bit of Squarepusher and (mostly early) Aphex and Ae and BOC, and she can appreciate the intent of stuff like Draft and Gantz Graf even if she doesn't like listening to it. Most people, regardless of genital configuration, aren't going to love Gantz Graf.

Most of the men I know listen to the worst kind of mainstream pap. Unsurprisingly with mainstream pap, it's marketed in a slightly gendered way (eg, hard rawk vs. dance pop). This, along with gendered cohort listening trends, is going to influence listening decisions for most men and most women.

The odds of anyone breaking out of mainstream Clear Channel marketing to listen to anything "underground" (ie, not played on the radio very often) are probably equal among men and women.

The question isn't why fewer women "like" "IDM." The question is why are there fewer rampant fangirls than there are rampant fanboys. We're talking disturbing, watmm level weird. And there's a pretty straightforward answer for that:

  Quote

Males are diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome at a rate 4-6 times higher than that of females

I've never understood why people need their girlfriends to share in their idm fanboy-tion... that being said, my girlfriend loves aphex, autechre and boc.

I could care less.

As long as a girl likes David Bowie and stuff like that, I don't care if she never wants to listen to Autechre.

  On 5/14/2012 at 7:56 PM, baph said:

 

The question isn't why fewer women "like" "IDM." The question is why are there fewer rampant fangirls than there are rampant fanboys. We're talking disturbing, watmm level weird. And there's a pretty straightforward answer for that:

 

No i think the question is why fewer like IDM, because they dont lol

Nobody listens to techno

WATMM in the bedroom

  Quote

girl I need you to put on this Aphex Twin mask.

Don't ask me why just do this for me

IDM fans don't even know what IDM is

but they think women don't get it

no it basically just boils down to this

name an artist = Squarepusher.

Less women like squarepusher than men. That's it. That's literally it. The fact that it's such a struggle to even establish this is what irritates the shit out of me tbh.

  On 5/14/2012 at 7:56 PM, baph said:

The question isn't why fewer women "like" "IDM." The question is why are there fewer rampant fangirls than there are rampant fanboys. We're talking disturbing, watmm level weird. And there's a pretty straightforward answer for that:

  On 5/14/2012 at 8:04 PM, Velazquez said:

I've never understood why people need their girlfriends to share in their idm fanboy-tion... that being said, my girlfriend loves aphex, autechre and boc.

I could care less.

I don't think the original question was about whether your girlfriend likes the same music as you, or whether they're trainspotting fanbois. It was initially talking about basic music liking things, like proportion present at gigs, or downloading the music. A pure dataset that would close this argument, would be if we knew the male versus female download stats.

  On 5/14/2012 at 9:16 PM, Rambo said:

no it basically just boils down to this

 

name an artist = Squarepusher.

 

Less women like squarepusher than men. That's it. That's literally it. The fact that it's such a struggle to even establish this is what irritates the shit out of me tbh.

Basically. It's like you've got a bunch of handbag toting man pussies, trying to out do each other in how Equal Equality they all are.

  On 5/14/2012 at 9:17 PM, delet... said:

  On 5/14/2012 at 7:56 PM, baph said:

The question isn't why fewer women "like" "IDM." The question is why are there fewer rampant fangirls than there are rampant fanboys. We're talking disturbing, watmm level weird. And there's a pretty straightforward answer for that:

  On 5/14/2012 at 8:04 PM, Velazquez said:

I've never understood why people need their girlfriends to share in their idm fanboy-tion... that being said, my girlfriend loves aphex, autechre and boc.

I could care less.

 

I don't think the original question was about whether your girlfriend likes the same music as you, or whether they're trainspotting fanbois. It was initially talking about basic music liking things, like proportion present at gigs, or downloading the music. A pure dataset that would close this argument, would be if we knew the male versus female download stats.

problem is, male downloads to female girlfriend/friend/sister/wife/mom/granny etc

so stats might not be that relevant

  On 5/14/2012 at 9:19 PM, ruiagnelo said:

  On 5/14/2012 at 9:17 PM, delet... said:

  On 5/14/2012 at 7:56 PM, baph said:

The question isn't why fewer women "like" "IDM." The question is why are there fewer rampant fangirls than there are rampant fanboys. We're talking disturbing, watmm level weird. And there's a pretty straightforward answer for that:

  On 5/14/2012 at 8:04 PM, Velazquez said:

I've never understood why people need their girlfriends to share in their idm fanboy-tion... that being said, my girlfriend loves aphex, autechre and boc.

I could care less.

 

I don't think the original question was about whether your girlfriend likes the same music as you, or whether they're trainspotting fanbois. It was initially talking about basic music liking things, like proportion present at gigs, or downloading the music. A pure dataset that would close this argument, would be if we knew the male versus female download stats.

 

problem is, male downloads to female girlfriend/friend/sister/wife/mom/granny etc

so stats might not be that relevant

Well then you can just open your eyes at gigs.

Of course then you could argue that they should be playing this music in a setting more conducive to female tastes. Like i don't know, an arts and crafts festival. But then you can counter that by saying that women aren't playing the stuff there. Because they're not interested in it.!!

What's the big deal, i'm not interested in romance teledrama, or asinine crooners. But i've gotten old enough to realise that just because i don't like, that doesn't mean that i should find others interest in it distasteful. Well as long as they aren't shoving it into my face, (ala like you guys with girlfriends, who've spent their time in this thread tip-toeing around this issue, have to no doubt face on a regular basis).

hehe, i'm outta here before i get a clobberin' by an hoard of PC, turtleneck wearing, limp wristed, hipster girly men.

;-]]

  On 5/12/2012 at 12:37 AM, Ifeelspace said:

Firstly, I have absolutely zero stats to back up this, but my feeling is that most women simply don't 'get' idm, or electronic music in general. And it's not just on the listening side, but the production side too. 99% of producers and listeners seem to be male.

 

Have any of you found it ever so slightly frustrating that the lady in your life does not appreciate the music you cherish in the same way that you do?

 

I realise there are female posters here who love the idmz, I'm not having a dig in general, just curious as to why it's so male-oriented.

i am a woman ( looks down)...ya so, most guys that I meet dont understand...mostly they just ask me to change the song..so i change it to another artist..then they repeat the question..yadadyaydadd.. and please do not use the word IDM...thats just so IDM of you

  On 5/14/2012 at 9:36 PM, delet... said:

Well then you can just open your eyes at gigs.

unfortunately i rarely go to gigs, because there are simply no good ones around here :(