On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 7:20 AM, Aidan O'Doherty <[email protected]> wrote: > i simply loathe the term 'IDM' - pompous.
This is rather a widely held attitude, going back basically to the beginning of the IDM list. Honestly, there might be a better thing to call music fitting that description, but it has persisted, and has life as a genre tag that will likely outlive the relevance of the e-mail list, if it hasn't already. Besides, it isn't strictly true that the 'intelligence' implies idiocy on the part of the rest of dance music. Historically, the 'Intelligent' followed from the mailing lists' formation in response to the Warp "Artificial Intelligence" compilations and release series. In that context the 'intelligence' has more to do with the interplay between the human act of musical creation and the machines that enable it. The artistic manifesto implicit and overt in every e-mail posted to the list in the early days was not a rejection out of hand of existing dance music styles. It was more a matter of encouraging and promoting the music and musicians who had the talent and took the time to push beyond the merely functional in creating their music. In fact, Detroit techno artists and their fellow travelers were frequent topics of discussion on the IDM list in the early days. Arguably, the Detroit producers were and still are pioneers in making durable art in the context of dance music, in stark contrast to the frankly disposable nature of most of the dance tracks that come out. And yet, Detroit Techno is very able to deliver on dance music's grounding purpose -- to make people want to dance. The IDM list as it stands now is very low traffic, and most posts comprise announcements of music releases, musical events, and radio shows. I think a lot of this can be attributed to the rise of web forums and social media -- the conversations have moved there, as younger computer users are much less focused on E-Mail as a central on-line activity. The 313 list has become a lot quieter for the same reasons. But I think the decline of the IDM list is a consequence of a refinement of focus onto deliberately difficult music that is intricate for its own sake. Instead of being what it was early on -- a bunch of people casting about without regard for genre for music that excited them -- it became insular. Music was being produced that would appeal only to IDM listers, often made by IDM listers themselves. At a certain point it became like a tailored virus, particular to a limited audience, and many of them aged out of passionate involvement in any musical scene, as families and jobs and mortgages took more and more of their time. Or they (re)discovered Thelonius Monk and Marvin Gaye, and found that spoke better to their condition. There isn't a sense of currency and immediacy that would attract new people to refresh the subscriber pool. Which is a shame because the original intent of the list was expansive and inclusive, not elitist and exclusive. I'd like to see that original spirit come back in new forms.
