Is There Enough Info About IDM to Write a Paper?

Hello watmm. I'm approaching the end of my time at uni, and I have to write an 8-page, single-spaced paper about something in the music realm. I chose IDM. However, upon doing some initial research, I'm realizing that much of the knowledge about IDM is scattered among forums and message boards; not stuff I can reference in a school paper. Is there enough info out there to write this paper? Am I missing some great resources? Most of the good stuff I've found is more specifically about Warp than about IDM itself.

Intelligent dance music (IDM) is a genre of electronic music that emerged in the early 1990s. Its creation was influenced by developments in underground dance music such as Detroit techno and various breakbeat styles that were emerging in the UK at that time.^[2][3] Stylistically, IDM tended to rely upon individualistic experimentation rather than adhering to musical characteristics associated with specific genres of dance music.^[4] The range of post-techno^[5] styles to emerge in the early 1990s were described variously as "art techno",^[6] "ambient techno", "intelligent techno",^[7] and "electronica".^[8] In the United States, the latter is often used as a catchall term to describe not only downtempo or downbeat/non-dance electronic music but also electronic dance music (EDM).

The term "IDM" is said to have originated in the United States in 1993 with the formation of the "IDM list", an electronic mailing list originally chartered for the discussion of music by a number of prominent English artists, especially those appearing on a 1992 Warp Records compilation called Artificial Intelligence.^[9]

Usage of the term "intelligent dance music" has been criticised by electronic musicians such as Aphex Twin as derogatory towards other styles and is seen by artists such as Mike Paradinas as being particular to the U.S.^[10][11] In 2014, music critic Sasha Frere-Jones observed that the term "is widely reviled but still commonly used". He regards UK acts Aphex Twin and Autechre as central to the evolution of the genre.^[12]

the pinned ask autechre anyting thread is idm

I guess it depends on how broad your definition of IDM is.

Maybe have a flip through Holly Herndon's Masters thesis??? Is she IDM???

http://www.hollyherndon.com/filter/writing/Thesis

edit: I don't know how useful the paper itself will be, but peep some of her sources.

Try to see if you can dig up stuff by Simon Reynolds, I'm sure some of his old blog posts mention it. Dude's a well-versed writer of electronic music, his book Energy Flash is a must read.

This might be a good jumping point for track examples.

This talks about UK techno, which braindance and IDM are a part of due to the watershed release Artificial Intelligence, the story of which is mentioned here a lot. But it's not about IDM unfortunately.

You're right about the pitfalls of IDM being something mostly "documented" by fans via message boards. The era of netlabels and niche releases in the late 90s/early 00s seems to have a far lesser presence than say write-ups of well known early albums or newer music that is influenced by IDM. Hell the genre started online via mailing lists IIRC

moar, maybe these will help

maybe?

https://dj.dancecult.net/index.php/dancecult/article/view/268/225

http://howisya.tripod.com/Travis_Christensen_-_IDM.html >tripod site, mark bell interview, 2003...seems promising

I had to take a short course on business in culinary school back in the early 2000's. I wrote a paper on idm and had to include an excel presentation. I took up a large part of my paper and the presentation on the history of the drum machine, perhaps you can focus on that as well. To keep the attention off of me I passed around some drum machines. But since my laptop was broadcasting excel to multiple tv's and screens in the lab of about 100 students, I also played autechre's gantz graf video. It was great, every eyeball in the place was glued to the screen and I was able to basically sit back and breathe easy.

I'd make it relatively broad if I were you, the 33 1/3 book on Selected Ambient Works was very low on references and it wasn't very good at all.

  On 3/16/2016 at 2:13 AM, gmanyo said:

Hello watmm. I'm approaching the end of my time at uni, and I have to write an 8-page, single-spaced paper about something in the music realm. I chose IDM. However, upon doing some initial research, I'm realizing that much of the knowledge about IDM is scattered among forums and message boards; not stuff I can reference in a school paper. Is there enough info out there to write this paper? Am I missing some great resources? Most of the good stuff I've found is more specifically about Warp than about IDM itself.

Maybe you can lift inspiration from KIim Casone's 'aesthetics of failure' which touches the arty side of glitch; http://www.bussigel.com/systemsforplay/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Cascone_Aesthetics.pdf

Don't do it

I don't know how good/relevant to you this is cause i haven't actually read it yet, but i've had this saved to read later for a while:

http://disis.music.vt.edu/eric/LyonPapers/AphexTwin/

  On 3/16/2016 at 11:57 AM, perunamuussi said:

Don't do it

LOL.

Anyway, I think it's gonna be tough as hell to write a paper about IDM when you're at the University, because you need some reliable sources, don't you? Also, what's your paper about? It can't just be about IDM and what it is.

what are you actually trying to say about IDM? cant just be lip service.. really uninteresting as a thesis.

I would suggest perhaps framing the paper as a "technical advancements fuel creative innovation" arc, possibly even arguing that the sophisticated use of electronic and eventually digital sound production allowed an unprecedented control of timbre and tone creating music where its "feel" was just as important in its composition as more traditional musical elements like rhythm, melody, harmony, structure. Boc creating "nostalgic" music, aphex with SAW II and its haunting reverb, corc on LP5

just copy and paste this thread

  On 3/16/2016 at 7:35 PM, perunamuussi said:

just copy and paste this thread

print all of watmm, compress to 8 pages - hand in

  On 3/16/2016 at 3:49 AM, joshuatx said:

moar, maybe these will help

 

maybe?

 

https://dj.dancecult.net/index.php/dancecult/article/view/268/225

 

http://howisya.tripod.com/Travis_Christensen_-_IDM.html >tripod site, mark bell interview, 2003...seems promising

Was going to suggest Dancecult. Although I tried reading a few of their articles recently and it seemed far too fleshed out pseudo bullshit

  On 3/16/2016 at 7:35 PM, perunamuussi said:

just copy and paste this thread

Just write "WATMM" a million times on a typewriter and hand it in while swigging from a bottle of scotch

tell your teachers to read the rules.

just put in a hyperlink to the BoC subforum.

Ulllillliiioaaaaaaa

seriousface// I don't know of any academic texts about IDM other than a paper another WATMMer wrote about Audegger which was quite good but not in-depth/technical. I think if you want to talk about idemz, talk about experimental electronic music broadly and work idemz in there. might be more MEAT for the picking there.

8 pages?

what uni is this?

I agree do "experimental electronic music"

could do the history bit with BBC phonic workshop and Electrosoniks or something?

^ yeah and talk about Delia and Stockhausen and Alvin Lucier and all dat. be sure to work in the bit from Stockhausen about hearing the piece Aphex Twin by Richard James carefully. and then segue into Aphex and off you go.

  On 3/17/2016 at 10:30 AM, Djeroek said:

tell your teachers to read the rules.

and then hand them in the rules as your paper