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Looper's Delight
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On 7/22/64 11:59 AM, Mark Hamburg wrote:
P.S. We noticed at Y2KX (I think) that the posters said nothing about "music". Did that have an effect on being able to pull in a broader audience? I don't know.
This is , of course, contextual, Mark.I've so overpromoted the notion of what 'live looping' is in this county that the local music newspapers
now refer to live looping artists without any explanation whatsoever.We've been on the front page of every single major newspaper multiple times in the past ten years, had the Mayor of Santa Cruz come out and declare International Live Looping Day in the city and
even learn to loop for the first time in front of the audience.It's gotten so that it's pretty rare for me to talk about what I do with the festivals with anyone
who hasn't heard of it yet.This, of course, is completely anomalous outside of this area but it's pretty de rigeur here.
Also, and especially in the last two years, we are seeing an increase in live looping visual artists who don't necessarily play music. I feel confidant that this is going to increase and we are even working pretty hard right now to create some software that allows for the simulataneous creation of synchronized
audio and visual elements. We could of course, be really accurate and call it theY2K12 INTERNATIONAL LIVE LOOPING (but not pre-canned loops) MUSIC and VIDEO FESTIVAL
but that's pretty tough to put on a poster, I think.Seriously, I've been involved with the start of a few musical movements in my own area and I've noticed that there is always confusion at the beginning of those movements with name recognition and appeal to larger crowds. There always is a tipping point, however, if something really has resonance.
Another thing is that not all important musical and art movements are popular ones. You don't see Picasso's cubist paintings in multiple households, but still, that movement had a huge impact on everything
from painting to design.This Live Looping thing we've all been involved in, whether we call it that or not, has already had a really big impact on the culture. Increasingly, I'm hearing live looping techniques in Soundtracks, Commercials.........Increasingly, I"m seeing pop music artists with live loopers in their pedal boards (and I'm not talking about people in our own community).
In the so called 'World Beat' movement that came out of Northern California originally, there was a tipping point where suddenly, a large percentage of pop groups were liberally incorporating various world music ethnic traditions into their own stew; where movie soundtracks and car commercials had a liberal dose of that influence. And yet, that musical scene never became very large outside of the West Coast.........it was huge in Santa Cruz but after about 6 or 7 years, all the world music clubs closed; the big 'world beat' bands quit selling out the big venues and even, in recent years, it's been tough to book some of the largest acts in the world in a big venue in our area.
Still that scene had a huge impact on the culture of this particular area that extended outwards to our whole country.
Because of all of this stuff, I just don't worry about being super popular with what we are doing.
Doing it, alone, is it's greatest reward in my heart. Rick Walker