Pollyanna
Platinum Member
Bermuda, I accept what you're saying - there will be someone behind the machines with interest in creation. That even includes the ... parasi ... *deep breath* ... people who produced Rebecca B's YouTube (and will no doubt create many other crap tracks of similar ilk).
In techno, there will be someone using a loops program, deciding which sounds and elements to put where - where the breakdowns come etc, just like any creative sequencing job. Sequencing is just the melding of composition, arrangement and performance.
So I agree with you there - I'm sure there is interest and enthusiasm behind most techno creations and it's not all cynical.
What I've wondered about is how there can be passion for music so lacking in depth. I admit to old fartism. That classic distorted brass sound you hear in lots of techno drives me as batty as distorted electric guitars drove my father's generation. The relentless of the doofs, whose low frequencies drive their way though any number of walls ... ugh!
I thought I'd become one of those "cool" old people who'd remain open to the music of the next generation. But I hate doof doof techno, abrasive machine gun metal and most rap. Well done, Gens Y and Z. Ya got me. Touché
More broadly, my guess is that the taste for mechanisation reflects human evolution towards cyborgism. We increasingly want things tidier, cleaner, more in order. One of these days people are going to routinely have implants so that Google and mobile communications will be available via one's thoughts. Our descendants will effectively be psychic cyborgs, increasingly empowered by integrated technology (unless overpopulation and environmental issues get us first).
So yes, it's robot music for robot people. Times change. I expect that there will be retro movements to organic music (which is how Gen AA, or whatever, will most likely piss off their Gen Z parents) but the broader movement will be towards mechanisation in music IMO
I just hate the economic rationalism and the increasing influence of bean counters. I recently did a business analytics course run by an accountant and I kept thinking that the instructor was like some evil genius - a relentless force of nature, designed to ruthlessly seek out and cull every tiny inefficiency, irregardless of morality or ethics (which he seemed to view as outside his brief - leave that to the ethicists).
That typical multinat mentality is why so much music is formulaic. I have no problems with machines (eg. I love Deep Forest) ... as long as it's not painting by numbers according to some formula for success.
// end somewhat incoherent rant //
In techno, there will be someone using a loops program, deciding which sounds and elements to put where - where the breakdowns come etc, just like any creative sequencing job. Sequencing is just the melding of composition, arrangement and performance.
So I agree with you there - I'm sure there is interest and enthusiasm behind most techno creations and it's not all cynical.
What I've wondered about is how there can be passion for music so lacking in depth. I admit to old fartism. That classic distorted brass sound you hear in lots of techno drives me as batty as distorted electric guitars drove my father's generation. The relentless of the doofs, whose low frequencies drive their way though any number of walls ... ugh!
I thought I'd become one of those "cool" old people who'd remain open to the music of the next generation. But I hate doof doof techno, abrasive machine gun metal and most rap. Well done, Gens Y and Z. Ya got me. Touché
More broadly, my guess is that the taste for mechanisation reflects human evolution towards cyborgism. We increasingly want things tidier, cleaner, more in order. One of these days people are going to routinely have implants so that Google and mobile communications will be available via one's thoughts. Our descendants will effectively be psychic cyborgs, increasingly empowered by integrated technology (unless overpopulation and environmental issues get us first).
So yes, it's robot music for robot people. Times change. I expect that there will be retro movements to organic music (which is how Gen AA, or whatever, will most likely piss off their Gen Z parents) but the broader movement will be towards mechanisation in music IMO
I just hate the economic rationalism and the increasing influence of bean counters. I recently did a business analytics course run by an accountant and I kept thinking that the instructor was like some evil genius - a relentless force of nature, designed to ruthlessly seek out and cull every tiny inefficiency, irregardless of morality or ethics (which he seemed to view as outside his brief - leave that to the ethicists).
That typical multinat mentality is why so much music is formulaic. I have no problems with machines (eg. I love Deep Forest) ... as long as it's not painting by numbers according to some formula for success.
// end somewhat incoherent rant //