Is There Enough Info About IDM to Write a Paper?

I'd be very interested in reading this paper once it's done, because I can't imagine writing a paper on this subject. Writing about early "electronic music" wouldn't be a problem, but writing anything substantial about IDM (lolz) seems out of this world to me.

Chapter 2.

The flahbulb

i would actually steer clear of associating with "academic" electronic music as I thing they are trying to achieve completely different things and IDM comes from techno and club culture not from classical contemporary composition and academic music study. I find it almost more awesome that basically these normal england youth, with completely average education and musical instruction managed things like saw II and tri rep before 1996. It's fucking mental really, and gives IDM this special otherness than the academic university composers circuit of the 60s-80s.

also 8 pages?? wtf.. what kind of uni is this? I could write an 8 page analytical study of the first swoop in eutow

I believe there was a paper written about Geogaddi for uni, or something having to do with uni.

It was good.

Found it, he wrote it for one of his freshmen english classes.

http://thedecibeltolls.com/brainwashing-misanthropy-and-society-an-analysis-of-boards-of-canadas-geogaddi/

I've always like this angle: If you believe Drexciya and other Detroit techno-ers were true pioneers whose work is fundamental to the "dance" part in IDM, then you should consider the impact of the auto industry, and it's creation of an African American middle class in Detroit, as a key contributor to the foundational works that made Geogaddi, and whatever Deadmau5 does, possible.

Here's a link to an article I haven't read entirely :) http://interamericaonline.org/volume-2-2/schaub/

  On 3/17/2016 at 2:07 PM, Squee said:

I'd be very interested in reading this paper once it's done, because I can't imagine writing a paper on this subject. Writing about early "electronic music" wouldn't be a problem, but writing anything substantial about IDM (lolz) seems out of this world to me.

It's funny you say this because I've seen reddit posts of kids writing about "vaporwave" for uni classes.

  On 3/17/2016 at 2:41 PM, coolandfrank said:

I've always like this angle: If you believe Drexciya and other Detroit techno-ers were true pioneers whose work is fundamental to the "dance" part in IDM, then you should consider the impact of the auto industry, and it's creation of an African American middle class in Detroit, as a key contributor to the foundational works that made Geogaddi, and whatever Deadmau5 does, possible.

 

Here's a link to an article I haven't read entirely :) http://interamericaonline.org/volume-2-2/schaub/

yeah... or make it even more simple... african american culture has started every single popular musical style and innovation of the last 120 years

  On 3/17/2016 at 3:09 PM, dr lopez said:

 

  On 3/17/2016 at 2:41 PM, coolandfrank said:

I've always like this angle: If you believe Drexciya and other Detroit techno-ers were true pioneers whose work is fundamental to the "dance" part in IDM, then you should consider the impact of the auto industry, and it's creation of an African American middle class in Detroit, as a key contributor to the foundational works that made Geogaddi, and whatever Deadmau5 does, possible.

 

Here's a link to an article I haven't read entirely :) http://interamericaonline.org/volume-2-2/schaub/

 

yeah... or make it even more simple... african american culture has started every single popular musical style and innovation of the last 120 years

 

Heh, this is probably an argument for a whole book. also, i subscribe to it and walk around amazed that not everyone subscribes to it.

You're welcome.

  On 3/17/2016 at 2:16 PM, dr lopez said:

I find it almost more awesome that basically these normal england youth, with completely average education and musical instruction managed things like saw II and tri rep before 1996. It's fucking mental really, and gives IDM this special otherness than the academic university composers circuit of the 60s-80s.

Really?

I don't want to sound demeaning towards any of this, but wasn't it just the natural evolution of the electronic scene? The same way with experimental classical music? Everything whether it's art, video games, movies, music etc. will always at one point move into the experimental scene and take it to its limits - the limits of their time. IDM is in no way special. Most of the time, it's the people who listen to it who think they're special. It's the classic teenage syndrom: "you don't like IDM then it's because you don't get it"-mentality.

Ehhh I don't think so actually- the composers of the mid century contemporary composition like lucier, Wolff, glass etc are all very well educated and received numerous Fulbright grants to do their "research" and composition. Upper middle class, well-educated working within an academic setting that already frames composing music as an intellectual pursuit. Similarly with contemp out jazz, there was always an academic bent to the artists. Art ensemble of Chicago, while comprised of lower middle class African Americans not lucky enough to have the serious educational advantage of most white contemporary composers of the same time, still had a very intellectual artistic thrust to their music. I mean the AACM is literally an educational institution created to further the goals of experimental jazz. George Lewis, with his Yale education, wrote a fucking 1000 pg treatise on the intellectual prowess of the AACM. Jack dejonette, Braxton. These guys are all part of this system.

I guess my point is this: two other major musical attempts at pretty serious experimentation in the second half of the 20th century, contemporary composition and experimental avant jazz, were in part created, maintained and supported by rich, educated musicians and the educational institutions they were a part of. There was always a deep connection to the intellectual artistic community of the time.

British IDM was born out of a completely different environment and people than those other two experimental music movements. While it is patently obvious that booth and brown are musical geniuses, and listening to the 2014 live sets further confirms they are consistently challenging musically at a level of the greatest experimental musicians, they certainly do NOT come from a privileged background, educationally or economically. They never speak about their music with the same critical intellectual thrust of the composers. They usually just say "we like it, innit" which is hilarious given how sophisticated the music is.

To me this makes the existence of IDM like mid-career Autechre, saw ii, parts of go plastic even more incredible, a true grassroots experimental movement that we haven't seen before or since really.

Now whether you think IDM is up there with post-Cage contemp comp or art ensemble of Chicago is another issue, and that should probably be the thesis of your paper

If nobody writes papers about IDM because there are no previous papers about IDM then there will never be papers about IDM

http://www.idmtest.com/en_Paper_30.aspx

  On 3/17/2016 at 10:26 AM, usagi said:

^ 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.

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010/10/15/karlheinz-stockhausens-electronic-music-tips-for-aphex-twin-plastikman-others/

"he should listen to my music" lol

good answers all round

doing (trying) to complete a PhD on certain themes in electronic tonics, House, experimentation etc & zee brain is in complete revolt, if you have owt specific you want some help fleshing out with just shoot us a pm bwlad

1 book thats indispensable & massively recommended is England's Hidden Reverse.....sure a pdf is lurking online somewhere, but the new revised 2nd edition is out for £10 to £17 depending where you shop

read it for the Coil/LSD session anecdotes alone. It makes superb sense of the transitions from Industrial to House, technology & non-musicianship, although the Paleolithic cave art preamble is a complete shambles (note to editor if yer reading):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Englands-Hidden-Reverse-David-Keenan/dp/1907222170

  On 3/16/2016 at 11:14 PM, fletcher said:

 

  On 3/16/2016 at 2:49 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

 

Dancecult averages 1 decent article per approx 20, which are dodgy odds. Props for trying, but elongated papers on psy-trance are enough to make anyone toe-pull a 12-guage to the face especially when you have to review each for possible overlaps

  On 3/17/2016 at 2:07 PM, Squee said:

I'd be very interested in reading this paper once it's done, because I can't imagine writing a paper on this subject. Writing about early "electronic music" wouldn't be a problem, but writing anything substantial about IDM (lolz) seems out of this world to me.

yeah but as Span said if nobody tries, it'll never happen. I think it's well worthy of a serious discussion in a uni paper but how to do it is the problem. I kind of ran into a similar problem years ago when I was trying to develop the Autechre wikipedia article and realised I had no real idea how to talk about their music in a technical sense. no theoretical music knowledge.

also d-lo has a point about academic electronic music vs "it's well good, innit" British IDM, but there are still clear connections between the two. were the Warp vanguard not influenced by the experimental composers who came before them? I've seen B&B drop names.

it depends where & how where you emphasize/structure aspects of experimentation and subversion.

eg: u could tie in LaMonte Young & the Theatre of Eternal Music, Terry Riley, Parmegiani & Stocky, plus there are clear threads/themes to tease out & its kinda where that 60's form gave way to Throbbing Gristle & Cabaret Voltaire.....if u see the parallels/provenance you could build on such foundations.

only discrepancy with more British focused stuff is the issue of class.

you could also do a lot worse than ground yourself in some of the facts Stephen Mallinder's own PhD thesis threw up

scuse the blurb, but it gets to the foundations:

    Quote

 

Movement: Journey of the Beat addresses the trajectory and transition of popular culture through the modality of rhythm. It configures fresh narratives and new histories necessary to understand why auditory cultures have become increasingly significant in the digital age. Atomised and mobile technologies, which utilise sonic media through streaming, on-line radio and podcasts, have become ubiquitous in a post-work environment. These sonic media provide not merely the mechanisms of connection but also the contexts for understanding changing formations of both identity and community.

This research addresses, through rhythm, how popular music culture, central to changing perceptions of ‘self’ and ‘others’ through patterns of production and consumption, must also be viewed as instrumental in shaping new platforms of communication that have resonance not only through the emergence of new social networks and cultural economies but also in the development of media literacies and pedagogic strategies. The shift to online technologies for cultural production and global consumption, although immersed in leisure practices, more significantly alludes to changing dynamics of power and knowledge. An online ecology represents a significant shift in the role of place and time in creative production and its subsequent access. Popular music invariably provides an entry point and subsequent platform for such shifts and this thesis looks to the rhythms within this popular culture in as much as they encode these transformations.

This doctoral research builds on the candidate’s established career as music producer, broadcaster, journalist and teacher to construct an appropriate theoretical framework to indicate how the construction, transmission and consumption of popular music rhythms give an understanding of changing social contexts. The thesis maps the movement of commonly recognised popular rhythms from their places of construction to the spaces of reception within broader political, socio-economic and cultural frameworks. The thesis probes the contribution of place and time in transforming global cultures, via social geography and memory, positioning such changes within readings of mobility, stasis, modernity and technology. By consciously addressing multiple disciplines, from populist to academic, Movement provides evidence of how wider structural changes have become reified within the beat and how in turn rhythm provides an appropriate modality through which change can be negotiated and understood.

despite this form writing style its actually a really good read:

http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/4866/

  On 3/17/2016 at 9:30 AM, Djeroek said:

tell your teachers to read the rules.

nobody cares. make your paper on a easy subject. no matter how good your paper will be, your passion for idm wont be transmitted.

get a easier subject lol

  On 3/17/2016 at 6:37 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

If nobody writes papers about IDM because there are no previous papers about IDM then there will never be papers about IDM

  On 3/17/2016 at 2:51 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 3/17/2016 at 2:07 PM, Squee said:

I'd be very interested in reading this paper once it's done, because I can't imagine writing a paper on this subject. Writing about early "electronic music" wouldn't be a problem, but writing anything substantial about IDM (lolz) seems out of this world to me.

 

It's funny you say this because I've seen reddit posts of kids writing about "vaporwave" for uni classes.

 

 

I was thinking about writing about several electronic genres with the main similarity between them being that I like them, and vaporwave would probably be one of them. I'd likely pair it in with Witch House and Sea Punk and PC Music and maybe even whatever genre Night Slugs and Fade to Mind count as.

  On 3/21/2016 at 5:49 AM, Ayya Khema said:

nobody cares. make your paper on a easy subject. no matter how good your paper will be, your passion for idm wont be transmitted.

get a easier subject lol

Fair point.

I'm not too interested on doing "experimental electronic" music because my teacher knows 1000x more about that than I do (his favorite genre is musique concrete) so any mistakes I make will be immediately clear.

Maybe I'll just do house music instead. There's plenty of info on that genre.

have a gander @ Ewan Pearson's "Discographies"....bit out-dated already (think it was '99), but lots of good blends of theory & practice

imagine Simon Reynolds, but with a few Bourdieu detours

I know that someone has written his uni thesis or sth on breakcore: https://myanaloguelife.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/breakcore.pdf

Here's another one, a bit more coherent tbh because the first one doesn't always make a lot of sense. Careful now, it's a download link: https://www.google.be/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0ahUKEwij6c2X_ebLAhXC_g4KHZuTAAQQFggiMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fis.cuni.cz%2Fwebapps%2Fzzp%2Fdownload%2F120002153%2F%3Flang%3Den&usg=AFQjCNFygDboDcOFVIufQ-KFJQMOF6bMlg&sig2=OhyH0ZZpi7m1a2YIe8KCdg&bvm=bv.117868183,d.ZWU&cad=rja