Re: Why does mainstream seem more like , downstream these days?

["Erdem Helvacioglu" <erdemhel@tnn.net>]

dear matt,

very well written text. thanks.

as an electroacoustic music and contemporary music composer for many 
years, 
i can say that the avantgard is losing its charm for sure. i just can not 
listen to any music that is trying to push the boundaries. nearly all of 
those records sound pretentious. it seems like everybody is trying to play 
the same exact licks.

i have been to france lately and eveyone is talking about the huge cuts in 
cultural organizations. the whole europe and usa is going through similar 
tunnel. it seems to me that the future of avantgard - experimental - 
contemporary musics not lie in the same old commission - grant scheme but 
something more based on the general audience and fan base.

we are going through a major change politically and culturally. hope this 
will be for the better.

best.

www.erdemhelvacioglu.com

New duo album with Per Boysen out now.
http://erdemhelvaciogluandperboysen.bandcamp.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt Davignon" <mattdavignon@gmail.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 8:28 PM
Subject: Re: Why does mainstream seem more like , downstream these days?


> There's a tenet of experimental music that I don't agree with so much
> these days, and it's the idea that everything must be new.
>
> The term "new" then leads to the question - what is "new" right now?
> Is it using the newest technology (Iphones, Multi-axis midi
> controllers, etc)? Is it adding more frosting to existing genres of
> music? (Such as dubstep, which while nice, is pretty much
> industrial/IDM with echoes.) My concern is that the push for "newness"
> often leads away from uniqueness.
>
> Another phrase I've come to dislike is "pushing the envelope" - as if
> it implies that one's music is a rocket exploring the furthest reaches
> of space. The problem is that the rockets all seem to be pointed in
> the same direction - towards more noisiness, dissonance, sonic chaos
> and extreme volume. That's already been explored and charted years
> ago. I don't have a problem with those elements - just that we need to
> stop calling them new.
>
> Meanwhile, there's plenty of uncharted space in between the points of
> what's already been charted. I think finding that space is the whole
> idea of "personal music" I talked about earlier. Rather than doing a
> great "pushing the envelope" album, work on a great album where you
> imagine your name as a tiny microgenre of music. Just don't put that
> anywhere on the album title or liner notes. :)
>
>
> -- 
> Matt Davignon
> mattdavignon@gmail.com
> www.ribosomemusic.com
> Rigs! www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt
>