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I did not have time to read through all the recent posts, but since I
may have thought more about this than anyone, I just type my actual
state of opinion about it anyway:
The last big discussion in October 02, LD convinced me to give up to
really define those things. There are many words that are understood
by their spirit rather by a definition, and thats just fine.
Genders are like styles, but not quite. A Loop tool is somehow like
an instrument, but not quite.
We have to face the fact that looping music started to exist when
people started to use the expression, many years ago on this list and
probably many more years before elsewhere.
Rick established the Live Looping expression and it has been in the
press and its on my new CD, so it does exist, there is no point in
fighting against it.
I see Rick as a natural leader in this movement, and since he never
told me what I should do, but only offers help to everyone, I can
easily follow him :-)
But you are free to decide whether you want to participate and to
call your music the way you want. Maybe the listener will end up
calling it differently anyway, but with time, there will be some
consent.
We are also free to care for the names we choose and fill them with
meaning, with music, with associated text and maybe by trying to find
some definition.
There is no way we can exclude someone, but maybe some will not feel
part of it - no problem, they can be part of something else or all on
their own, whatever.
Forget about the paranoya to be put into some drawer!
A style is not limiting in any way, its just a way to explain a
tendance in some music. No one is going to accuse you of crossing
boarders, much less in this globalizing times, where most music is a
mixture of many influences.
I see most of the points against calling Live Looping a style or a
category, but what else would you call it, once it came to exist?
I agree that most styles are defined by a rhythm, where as Live
Looping music (LL) has no specific rhythm. But is it a suficient
definition? Look at the many kinds of Reggae, for example, and thats
one of the most simple to define styles.
Is New Age a style or a category? There is no rhythm to it. Its
easier to define it by the covers have a picture of nature in a white
frame :-) Or better define it by the belief behind it. Anyway, it
became abused and washed out, maybe because there was no suficiant
definition?
Is Chamber music a style or a category? It gives a fairly good idea
of what sound you get, but it can still range from Barock to
Avantgarde.
>Guitar Music? Wouldn't that be anything with a guitar in it :)
no, its understood as music which is based on guitar, probably
composed on the guitar, so it has the characteristics of the
instrument and you mainly hear guitar.
Similarly, not everyone that uses a looping tool plays Live Looping music.
It can aid any category of music. Or maybe some new category can
arise from the use of looping tools for which we may still find
names... (I believe Andre is on such a track)
But most musicians that build the music live on looping tools share
some boundaries. The so far existing looping technologies imply some
musical form and help some ways to express more than others.
For example: no Live Looping piece starts full blast, since we have
to build it up. It hardly changes tonality wildly or contains complex
breaks...
Some smart users will transcend those boundaries with tricks and
studio editing, but a general tendency which the public can recognize
helps them to find a name for what they like and look for.
I see your point, Kim, you want to welcome everyone and not split the
LD comuntiy into categories. A nice wish, but probably unrealistic on
a long run. But I dont see a problem: Nobody ever claimed that
looping music is a name for anyone using a loop tool, nor should we
be afraid that musicians turn away from the tool, thinking that it
only serves for certain styles. The richness of what has been shown
to the public so far grants for that. (What we do here in Sweden is
not ambient at all :-).
Creative minds will always hear their way of using a tool and not
care whether its within some boundaries or not.
The wave that may arise from a common effort to make the spirit of
Live Looping Music known to public will bring the knowledge and basic
possibilities with those tools also to musicians that dont want to
play Live Looping music.
We also observe that sometimes a musician buys a looping tool in
order to create some music he has in mind, or simply to economize
another player in the band, but once he goes into playing, he feels
the magic and breaks his boundaries of what he thought to be
necessary for good music.
Thats what I call: "the spirit has reached him..." :-)
I really hope not to cause another wave of disagreement with this...
Matthias
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---> http://Matthias.Grob.org