Re: names names names - was "how to announce performances"

[Per Boysen <per@boysen.se>]

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Matthias Grob" <matthias@grob.org>

>> Due to Per/Rick/me Live Looping Festival tour in Sweden, there was a
>> documentary about Live Looping on national TV.
>> Was there a concrete result for you, Per?


Not as anything near "a common definition of live looping as a musical
style" - if that's what you mean(?) But as a technique for creating music I
think the word "looping" has kind of caught on here in Sweden. My personal
benefit from doing a lot of local announced "live looping gigs" (the first
in this row taking place three years ago) is that I have made contact with
lots of interesting musicians. I'm not sure if the TV documentary had much
impact there, probably it would take a lot more to break "live looping" ;-)

I really don't know about television in general. Sometimes I'm getting the
impression that television and all kind of media is just destroying
everything that is good in art. The problem seems to be media has to look
for some lowest common denominator, and we all know that in art there is
also a strong individual element (which usually brings over the good 
stuff).
When "the personal touch" is dropped in favour of "the lowest common
denominator" television and media plainly sucks IMHO. I would really hate 
to
see "live looping" being turned into that kind of "average  journalists
all-round categorization".

Speaking about that particular documentary on Live Looping I think the TV
producers missed the point badly. They tried to make "a funny program about
some unusual but interesting music" and it just came out wrong. They never
mentioned the tape looping roots, just to pick one of their mistakes. I've
been in similar situations before, when doing more commercial music on 
major
label deals, but this time it happened to the music I care for the most. 
Why
is it so extremely difficult to keep media from getting things the wrong
way? One way for musicians to stay clear from the-usual-media-fuck-up is to
CONSTANTLY show a strong Manifesto on what they are doing. The shorter and
stronger, the better chances that journalists will not mistreat the
information. You also have to learn to speak like a politician, making 
short
and strong statements that can not be misunderstood. The media hype is 
about
the music but music has nothing to do with how the media works. A sad fact
of life, but you have to play by their rules, or stay out ;-)

Best wishes

Per Boysen
-- 
www.boysen.se
www.looproom.com