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Looper's Delight
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I don't think there's any single concrete element one can add to any type of music to make people accept it more. By concrete elements, I'm talking about things like video, audience participation, unusual instruments, cowbell, synth washes, drum machines, etc. Video in particular is often a distraction from the music, except in cases where the two were purposefully created together as a single work. My theory for musical success in any genre (myself being a relatively unsuccessful musician) goes something like this: --Develop a unique and clear musical persona. --Think about which elements of your performance highlight your musical persona, and which elements detract from it. --Consider that you have an audience, or at least a potential audience. When you play in public or create an album, it should be for your audience, rather than for yourself. --The audience wants to hear you, as you can best represent yourself. They don't necessarily want you to play things they've heard before or would expect from other musicians. --Lastly, dumb luck. The people who have the most success in any kind of music not only follow the above 3 steps, but their musical personas happen to be something that a lot of people want to listen to. And if you make "challenging" music, never describe it to people that way. Telling people, "Hey, let's listen to some challenging music" is like saying "Hey, let's do some calculus for fun!" You may get some takers, but they'll be the musical equivalent of math nerds. (And about as common as math nerds.) There are lots of people who liked Frank Zappa, Philip Glass, John Cage, John Zorn, Einsturzende Neubauten, The Residents, Nurse With Wound, etc long before they found out the music was supposed to be "challenging". -- Matt Davignon www.ribosomemusic.com Rigs! www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt