On Nov 2, 2005, at 10:23 PM, Cyclone Wehner wrote:
I'm not out of touch! But I have arguments with young Detroit fans
- friends
of mine - who are so purist that I wonder how they really love
music at all.
Their blanket disavowal of all contemporary urban music is strange.
I think
I am much more on the pulse than them, arrogant or not as that
sounds. I
refuse to get to a point where we purely romanticise the music of
the past
as they - some - do. How is it that an old funk record can be
privileged
over something new and edgy?
I think it's a matter of perspective. Once you've educated yourself
on Detroit Techno (or any other genre for that matter), you can apply
that learning to new musics and compare/contrast the two. And we
learn from that.
Newbies usually have not yet mastered any given genre, and may be
overly enthusiastic about "the one sound they have discovered".
At my age, I've developed appreciation for swing, bop, dub, soul,
funk, disco, hard trance, concertos, electro (1st and 2nd Gen), ska
(1.0 - 3.0) blah blah blah. I filter everything though my experience
and a few new things always sneak through.
I was met with raised eyebrows from peers when i said that Christina
Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" had a compelling Aphex Twin production
sound. My fondness for Bowie/Bolan glam helped me latch on to Louis
XIV for a hell of a lot of fun, without me expecting them to be
anything but a passing fancy.
Techno classics have their place, but if we don't keep one ear in the
future, we're betraying the originators.
--
Ian
(P.S. God bless you Mama Parks.)
