Looper's Delight Archive Top (Search)
Date Index
Thread Index
Author Index
Looper's Delight Home
Mailing List Info

[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Date Index][Thread Index][Author Index]

Re: Performance Gestures [was: Re: Laptops]



   Well, as someone had so colorfully mentioned, DJs can be amazingly 
popular, and I personally totally dig BT.  But while his stage show is 
more 
animated than other DJ's I know of, I also like their music as well and 
would go see them...

Part of it is the type of music I think.  I mean, sexy and hoppin is 
cool!  :)  I mean you just can't argue with that!  lol!

   It's got a pulse, a jammin' beat and you can move to it!!!  :)

   There's also the idea of the crowd itself.  If the event isn't a chill 
event, then people are moving and also paying attention to each other...

If it's a chill thing, then while peeps aren't dancing as before, they're 
still paying attention to each other in different ways, and the music in 
that case, is also conducive to it.

I don't know of two many people who really sit and stare at a DJ unless 
they're doing something physically interesting to watch.  So my point is 
that the music itself tends to be getting people moving and having fun, 
and 
is appropriate for the situation...  If I were to hear a noise piece at a 
rave, with no decent beat, It wouldn't, for the most part, go over very 
well...  There also can be more than one room, with more than one style of 
music for just this reason...  If you don't like the style where you are, 
you can go somewhere else and find one that you do like, and others there 
to mingle with...

They're usually not watching the DJ in that particular room, I mean, not 
the way an audience at a show would generally watch a performer, as 
there's 
plenty going on otherwise, and the music is good...

   If the music changes though, the DJ will definitely get some attention, 
and also if someone wants to see if they have a particular mix of 
something.  (Or if the DJ is just an incredible hottie!!!  lol!)

So it tends to generally be the music itself that people are interested 
in, 
and a particular   DJ may have a good feel for the crowd to gage what they 
want and be able to be creative and work with the mix of that to really 
get 
a crowd into it...

Smiles,

CQ

At 02:13 PM 6/15/2007 -0400, you wrote:
>
>Travis Hartnett wrote:
>>As an audience member, I prefer that I be able to easily tell the
>>difference between the performing musician and someone checking their
>>email while the output of their iTunes is pumped through the PA.
>>
>>All the laptop performances I've seen have featured a musician who
>>stares at the computer most of the time.  I know there's exceptions,
>>but this has been my experience.
>Mine, too.  There are others who use computers, but if they're not 
>running 
>Live or some other thing that requires attention, then they can actually 
>look up from the screen.
>
>I use softwynths on my laptop.  I look at the screen in between songs to 
>set up a system and then ignore it during the song.  When I'm playing, 
>it's on a keyboard.  Perhaps one day a guitar or bass-to-MIDI converter 
>will allow me to use my primary instrumental skills.  (Saving up the 
>dough...)
>
>The crux of the issue is that we've been conditioned to *see* 
>performances 
>on music instruments.  A concert pianist's performace gestures are the 
>same wether practicing scales or playing concert.  Yet, even if he never 
>looks at the audience, he isn't saddled with the stigma of "He may as 
>well 
>just be practicing his scales."  This is true even though we've been 
>conditioned to allow/expect all manner of antics from the way Rock 
>musicians have been putting on shows since the '50s.
>Thanks to Michael Jackson, a pop performer is expected to dance!
>
>In the beginning, a laptop wasn't a musical instrument.  Now it is... 
>sonically speaking.  But the performance gestures are all wrong compared 
>to our expectations.  Well, there are kids growing up today who will 
>never 
>play a CD or vinyl, only play files, and see laptop performances as just 
>another way of performing.  We may have to get over it.  We're dinosaurs!
>
>Cheers,
>
>Bill
>
>
>
>
>
>--
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 269.8.13/844 - Release Date: 6/11/2007 
>5:10 PM

---
   View my on-line portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn

   "The only things I really think are important, are love, and each 
other.  -Then, anything is possible..."

http://home.earthlink.net/~cara-quinn


-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 269.8.13/844 - Release Date: 6/11/2007 
5:10 PM