Is Electronic Music Dying or Growing?

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:18 pm

With all the denial in the mainstream culture and world's governments, a pause to ensure a reality check. Is electronic music on the rise, or in it's decline? Is electronic music this era's 'ragtime', a hugely popular type of music that completely died, irretrievably dated? Or is it a foundation for the future of thoughtful, exciting and daring musical expression, in the face of the utter corruption of popular music otherwise?

Pray tell, state your opinion and the why of it.

brightonalex · Post by **brightonalex** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:22 pm

Which of the world's governments are denying electronic music?

I think that the boundaries between electronic and acoustic music will narrow, as sampling gets better and all the rest of it.

But acoustic will always sound better. Any it's more fun to watch people play instruments anyway.

rachmanoff · Post by **rachmanoff** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:30 pm

i think it all depends on what you mean by 'electronic music'. bleeps and blips and hawtin-style techno beats and stuff? ..i think in time, that music will prove to be tied to this era (or 'sound dated' if you will). but making music with electronic equipment? that's here to stay.

philipbarrett · Post by **philipbarrett** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:31 pm

I think the lines between "electronic" music and "non-electronic" music will continue to blur. Witness the success of The Bodyrockers, a pop/rock album that borrows heavily from the DJ Remix craft. I detect the use of obstentiously electronic music programs like Ableton everywhere now.

I think electronic music is here to stay, the term however may not be.

PB

jeskola · Post by **jeskola** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:03 pm

clubland is still a very shallow , clique and seedy place. numbers at clubs are deifinatly declining, and id say the quality of released music is on the decline too, but thats probably cause theres more people doing it.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:08 pm

Agreed, club music is declining IMO, but I do think there's a lot more of the experimental stuff coming out lately.

I guess it depends on what you call electronic music too, as pretty much all music these days is done with plug ins, DAW's, and audio editors.

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:12 pm

it's wierd because every decade has a sort of era with it's own soundtrack, but i have still to put my finger on what this decade is about musically. I personally feel that the advent of the internet and digital music has had such a destabilizing effect, and all the fear that's raged since the beginning of the decade (911) that there hasn't been "a" soundtrack for this era.

Personally I feel that most of these "soundtracks" were created out of rebellion for the status quo (Jazz, Rock, Blues, Punk, Techno, etc) and since we're living in a time of fear that people haven't come to grips with as a social establishment, we'll have to wait. I kind of see it as akin to the time between the end of the 50's and the later 60's.

To that end, electronic music isn't going anywhere, just like Jazz, Blues, Rock, Punk, Techno haven't gone anywhere.

Praetorius · Post by **Praetorius** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:18 pm

I think electronica will continue to grow. I do synthpop/industrial and finding the older generation is really appreciating synthpop alot more. Taking New Wave and polishing it up. I know electronica as a big umbrella is maintaining speed and growing world-wide, especially in Asia. It's just the United States where it's still very, very niche. "If it ain't on that there MTV...ain't no sense listening to it" sort of mentality. The US population as a whole is pretty consumed with the mainstream, I think. I know alot of bands who make next to nothing on domestic sales, but do quite well in the overseas market, especially in Europe. I think it's because mass consumerism as we know it in the States doesn't exsist. Asia is really latching on to electronica in a big way, especially in Japan and Singapore. People are getting a hold of CDs from Europe and eating it up!

Damned those Europeans and their individualism - you're pissing MTV off!

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:41 pm

A bit like saying "is piano music on the way out?" in 1930 , or "is trumpet music on the way out ?" in 1965.
Or to labour the point ... "is guitar music on the way out?" in 1985

I guess at all points there the answer would have been "yes it is". But we still have trumpets and pianos and guitars. They just aren't as "look at me look at me" as they were in their respective eras.

One issue that hastened the demise of all of these and probably will do more to damage electronic music (or computer music) was the popularisation - the mass marketing. Whether it was a player piano that came with a scott joplin roll , or a cheap Japanese electric guitar. Eventually the world was saturated with product.

I think this will be worse for computer music, because our world is run by computers, every office worker has to deal with a computer, listens to computerised ringtones, call waiting music, etc .. and becomes more familiar and jaded with the subtle nuances of computerdom.

In the 1930s not that many people had to go to work on a player-piano.
not that many people could afford a player piano.
We are innundated with computer this and computer that....
Soon it will reach overload.

Everything in our world has a sheen of 'in-time' robot slickness now, everything has a vague hint of aliasing noise and the whir of cameras.

When electronic music first came out .. the world wasn't like this - electronic music was a straight line next to a wobbly world. Now the world is straight and tight - so there's no tension between the two. So E-music isn't saying anything anymore.

I do forsee a 'naturalist' movement at some point in the future where people get so sick of damn computers everywhere they go toward junk instruments. I guess the current boom in acoustic guitar strummers (neo-folk) is something like this.

I have started making real instruments and it is very satisfying. My favourite instrument - the one I play most right now out of all my VSTs and modular things - is something I carved out of wood myself, it looks like a pile of crap.
It's just so novel to be able to play on something that is so 'un-commercial' and idiosyncratic.

ikke · Post by **ikke** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:10 pm

"When electronic music first came out .. the world wasn't like this - electronic music was a straight line next to a wobbly world. Now the world is straight and tight - so there's no tension between the two. So E-music isn't saying anything anymore. "

The world is straight and tight? Youve got to be kidding .... Thats some comparisation you made there lol. It was a joke right?

djadonis206 · Post by **djadonis206** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:18 pm

Electronic music is growing - it's a part of most people's lives today

The Sampler and sampling are creeping into every form of music

Better Living through electricity!

onyxashanti · Post by **onyxashanti** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:22 pm

brightonalex wrote:Which of the world's governments are denying electronic music?

I think that the boundaries between electronic and acoustic music will narrow, as sampling gets better and all the rest of it.

But acoustic will always sound better. Any it's more fun to watch people play instruments anyway.

i personally dont think so. i love watching and being part of this primordial phase of elctronic musical expression and the various ways people go about creating and presenting the art form. the rules of acoustic music are already set, but electronic music is just just JUST starting. last week, at backlit, watching jaswho? knocking out nasty beat after nasty beat, by hand, whilst singing and and playing riffs with the other hand, was more exciting than any acoustic performance i've ever seen, but at the same time, i am biased. i feel that electronics in the hands of an engaging artist, are more exciting than anything acoustically produced.

onyx

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:26 pm

ikke wrote:"When electronic music first came out .. the world wasn't like this - electronic music was a straight line next to a wobbly world. Now the world is straight and tight - so there's no tension between the two. So E-music isn't saying anything anymore. "

The world is straight and tight? Youve got to be kidding .... Thats some comparisation you made there lol. It was a joke right?

nope - I think that more people working more hours on compurters with tighter controls and tighter scrutiny makes for a tighter world.

in the 1980s I managed to sign onto the dole here in the UK when I was still at school!
how ?
because the system was so shit that there was room to breathe, it was all done on peices of paper and brown folders. It was so slow you could feel freedom in the slackness.
Right now if you fill a form in wrong they know at head office before you even finish your deviant thought and you get shipped to guantanamo bay with a CCTV camera up your arse.
Modern life is straight and tight, computers mean that all the databases are cross correlated so you haven't got room to slack off.

how do I know?

it's my job to write the software that cross-correlates unrelated shit like Car-Tax and Television License ownership against Underground Oyster Card usage.
all that info used to be held by separate agencies - now it all lives on one system, cross-correlated and data-mined to fuck, just waiting for you to make a wrong move.

straight and tight.

M. Bréqs · Post by **M. Bréqs** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:22 pm

"I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your computer out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.

I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables.
I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought guitars.

I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know."

...LCD Soundsystem

I voted dying.

M. Bréqs · Post by **M. Bréqs** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:26 pm

Angstrom wrote:One issue that hastened the demise of all of these and probably will do more to damage electronic music (or computer music) was the popularisation - the mass marketing. Whether it was a player piano that came with a scott joplin roll , or a cheap Japanese electric guitar. Eventually the world was saturated with product.

I think this will be worse for computer music, because our world is run by computers, every office worker has to deal with a computer, listens to computerised ringtones, call waiting music, etc .. and becomes more familiar and jaded with the subtle nuances of computerdom.

In the 1930s not that many people had to go to work on a player-piano.
not that many people could afford a player piano.
We are innundated with computer this and computer that....
Soon it will reach overload.

Everything in our world has a sheen of 'in-time' robot slickness now, everything has a vague hint of aliasing noise and the whir of cameras.

When electronic music first came out .. the world wasn't like this - electronic music was a straight line next to a wobbly world. Now the world is straight and tight - so there's no tension between the two. So E-music isn't saying anything anymore.

I do forsee a 'naturalist' movement at some point in the future where people get so sick of damn computers everywhere they go toward junk instruments. I guess the current boom in acoustic guitar strummers (neo-folk) is something like this.

Agree 100%.