Branding: Live Looping

[Mark Hamburg <mark_hamburg@baymoon.com>]

To Rick and the rest of the "Live Looping" crowd:

I've been assuming that "Live Looping" was an effort to establish a brand
for some set of music. I think branding is useful because it gives an
audience points of reference. If they like some music associated with the
brand, they can have a reasonable expectation to like other music 
associated
with the brand. But what is the brand promise of "Live Looping"? Once 
that's
resolved, then it's a separate issue to decide whether or not "Live 
Looping"
is the best label for that brand promise.

Frippertronics is an example of an overly successful brand. Robert Fripp
would probably have defined it as what you get when you plug Robert Fripp
into a looping system. The overly successful part came from people trying 
to
apply the term to music not involving Robert Fripp. That being said, it
remained descriptive for music sharing the general stylistic elements that
Fripp established. If someone describes something as being Frippertronics, 
I
have a general notion of what it is going to sound like.

A number of record labels have successfully defined brands over the years.
It's reasonably clear what is meant by the ECM sound though ECM's roster is
pretty diverse. Windham Hill had a fairly distinctive sound before William
Ackerman sold out. 4AD has or had a fair degree of consistency as well.

On the other hand, I think Windham Hill first tried to position their music
as "New Acoustic Music" and though descriptive the term never caught on, so
not all efforts at broad branding are successful.

Returning to the "Live Looping" brand, I pose the following questions:

Is anyone who uses a looping device live doing something that would fit
under the term "Live Looping"?

If yes, then how much value does the term have -- outside perhaps of Santa
Cruz -- for audiences? If yes, does this mean that the only real audience
for a live looping event is more or less other people using looopers since
all that you can predict is use of looping devices (and technical
difficulties)?

If no, then we hit on the issue that seems to bother a number of people 
here
which is that they feel they are using a looper live but aren't part of the
"live looping" movement. What is it that distinguishes "live looping" from
music involving the use of looping devices in a live context? Is it
something that an audience can recognize?

Can you do live looping in the studio or is the live experience an 
essential
part and recording CDs is pointless?

Fundamentally, what is it that the "Live Looping" brand represents? Is it
something that is useful to audiences and if so how? If I didn't loop
myself, what is it that would make me want to go to a Live Looping event or
buy music identified as Live Looping? If it isn't useful to audiences why
use it as a brand?

Mark

P.S. This is written as someone who suspects that what he is doing is "Live
Looping".