---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Dennis DeSantis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sure, I'll agree with that. But my making this claim you must
realize
>that you've also completely negated your original arguments,
which were:
>
>"its like they lose the history of the music altogether,
>what happened in the past is no longer relevant, the only thing
>that matters is what will happen tomorrow."
>
>and
>
>"i guess thats the
>appeal of the whole IDM thing to some people, to constantly
>progress without looking backwards"
>
>If it's all on a single timeline, then you can't really "lose
your
>roots" at all. But after hundreds of years the connections are
>stretched so thin as to be no longer recognizeable - much less
>recognizeable as the connections between current IDM and old IDM,
the
>history of which, for our purposes here spans maybe 20 years. I
think
>you and I would both agree that current IDM sounds quite a bit
more like
>"roots" IDM than 13th Century French chanson. And I think
scholars of
>13th Century French chanson would agree as well (as would
scholars of IDM.)
>
>My point is simply that you can't have it both ways. You can't
argue
>that a particular genre has lost its roots, and then argue that
music is
>all inter-connected and each moment has a causal influence on
each other
>moment.
here's the problem: IDM has gone from being more traditionally
techno/ambient based in the early 90's to being a reaction against
just about anything they feel like going against, mostly melody
and rhythm as far as i can tell. it seems (to me at least) that
its just on this course of making music as
mathematically "complex" as possible while becoming increasingly
unlistenable. the "roots" of IDM were not quite so forceful, for
lack of a better word. the initial IDM artists were certainly
creating an alternative to the "cheesy" dance music popular at the
time. now it has gone on to create an alternative to itself, which
is what is leading it in a downward spiral IMO. if it kept its
roots, it wouldnt be quite so harsh and unlistenable to the
average dance music fan. i mean alot of early aphex twin and
suqrepusher etc records can easily be played alongside
their "unintelligent" counterparts. drum and bass has gone on a
similar path by making any music that is too obviously "jungle"
sounding not fit in with its current "progression" which is to
constantly evolve a sound from itself instead of creating the
futuristic hybrid that it initially was. obviously not ALL drum
and bass or IDM is like this, but for the most part the general
movement of the music has become too far removed from what it
initially was for the older music to still be relevant to a person
becoming a fan of the newer tunes.
tom
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