The name game

[Dan Soltzberg <d.ans@rcn.com>]

Title: The name game

Chiming in a bit late on this genre/naming/branding thread, but have been very busy with work, etc. (The Chris Cutler show on Saturday was a trip— severe PA troubles put Chris in a black space, but we still had some interesting moments. Anyone who’s curious about the full story can write me offline.) 

Not to beat a dead horse, but as a copywriter I find this branding discussion very interesting.

I was thinking about other existing genre names: Electroclash, hardcore, UK Garage, drum & bass, trance, acid rock, hard bop, straight ahead, hip hop, trip hop, IDM, downtempo, grunge, country, Appalaichan folk, blues, garage rock, heavy metal, classical, modern classical, improvised, experimental, music concrete, etc. etc. . . . 

The commonality is they’re all either descriptive, onomatopaieic (sp?), poetic, or fanciful. None of them specify how the music is made. 

The thing I’m taking away from reading everyone’s posts on the naming/branding topic is that there is a desire/attempt to genre-ize what are really many disparate styles of music that share only the similarity of being made using looping devices. I know other people have said this as well-- isn’t trying to group all loop-based music together kind of like trying to say all music recorded using overdubs is X style, or all music performced on laptops is Y style?


Yet, there is perhaps a commonality in spirit among people using loopers to explore what they can do on their instruments. The looping devices I think are more than a fuzz box or wah, because they almost interact with us when we play. Using a looper is almost like having extra hands, or an extra body and mind— it lets you widen yourself sonically. 

So perhaps the link being sought is not one of musical style, and not one of gear box, but one of spirit.
What is it we are really doing? Why does this matter to us? 


Anyway, I have to go to sleep (going on holiday tomorrow for a few days), and my goal is not to come up with an answer right now but just to further the discussion.


love,

ghost 7


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