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Looper's Delight
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At 08:27 AM 4/6/2006, Warren wrote: >I don't know. Interest in new music events by the general public - in any >urban center - seems to have a lot to do with whether the sponsor has >promotion dollars and/or is well-known, and how theatrically-conceived the >event is. I've seen a fairly sizable auditorium filled for a new music >performances at Stanford, for instance - but the performance also featured >tribal drums and costumes and the posters were colorful and exciting. I'd >also characterize at least some of the Laurie Anderson tours as "new >music", >and she was packing very large venues (by my standards). This is something that I've been thinking about for a while. As musicians we tend to think that only the music is important but I think that it's also important to entertain the audience. We live in a multimedia world and people usually want to get multimodal stimulation. So I think we all need to think about how we can get involved with other artists and how other artists can get involved with us. Look at Jamie Lidell's looping performance: http://www.jamielidell.com/video/rfh.html Video is good. Light shows are good. Professional dancers are good. DJs are also good. Actors in costume are good. Writers are good. Alcohol is also good. If we want a scene we have to give people a reason to leave their houses. I like what the rave scene folks do for this. I knew a guy who organized raves and he never called them raves, he called them parties. "Yeah we had a great party. DJ X, Y and Z and we had a couple of thousand people come.." But I think each of has to make a decision about why were doing what we're doing. If we want to be pure artists then we take one path. If we want to reach a lot of people maybe we take another path. I know which path I'm on. Mozart wrote music for folks who listened to it as background for eating, drinking and socializing. Beautiful music that I'm sure drew silence from people at its best moments. I've seen pictures from the 1700s where folks are listening to music a concert hall that's set up like a nightclub with tables, chairs and waiters serving tall glasses of hock. Mozart also wrote operas as giant multimodal musical extravaganzas that demanded audience attention just from all the excitement. It was Beethoven that insisted that everyone shut up, sit still and listen. Which is the better path? I don't know, but I think I choose Mozart. Cheers, Kevin The Nettles: Progressive and Exciting Celtic Music www.TheNettles.com