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Dan - I agree with the spirit of what you are
getting at. So if what you're pointing us towards is correct then every
rule needs an exception, and perhaps the Jimi Hendrix' interaction with his
wah-wah would be an example of an exception. Or maybe most wah-wah players
are not very good at using the device. :-)
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 1:25
AM
Subject: 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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