Genres and the smell of baboons??

elektro80 · Last edited by elektro80 on Thu Nov 06, 2003 1:21 am; edited 1 time in total

I found this one over at musicdish.com

Genre Blues: The Mote Around the Indie Music Mystique
Part 2

By: Polar Levine, popCULTmedia.com
2003-10-31

Aside from the very positive response I've gotten from Part 1 of this series, there has been some, as I'd expected, pointed reminders that we have a huge variety of genres to choose from right now. This is true, as has always been the case. But how accessible is that wealth of diversity?

Let's take a look at that. Leading up to the recent FCC ruling oncross-ownership, the media industry argued that consolidation actually provided the public with more diversity than ever. They ran down a long list of arcane names for the numerous genre niches that receive air time on commercial radio. But studies have shown clearly that the playlists for these different niches overlapped to such a degree that the case made for "diversity" was a joke. As goes radio - so goes other aspects of music marketing.

It is true that if you live in a major coastal city or a few cities in between with a large university nearby you can tune to a mainstream post-bebop jazz, a LITE Pop show, LITE Jazz, Classic Rock, Classic R&B, Urban Contemporary (current R&B), Hip Hop, Country, Americana, Metal, Punk and an occasional Worldbeat show. The problem is that all this formatting has balkanized our music culture into parochial subcultures. Every show offers a couple hours or more of music that conforms to the fairly rigid set of conventions that define the featured genre. Most punk fans know little else, as is true of rap fans, country fans, etc. The profusion of genres ultimately results in a narrowing of exposure to diverse voices. As the variety of niche formats increases, exposure to ideas outside the format decreases because each niche has become an all-encompassing lifestyle cocoon.

READ MORE: http://musicdish.com/mag/?id=8888

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2003 5:23 am Post subject:

HEY.. get his first article too:

Genre Blues: The Mote Around the Indie Music Mystique
Part 1

By: Polar Levine, popCULTmedia.com
2003-10-29

The digital revolution brought state-of-the-art music production tools onto every musician's desktop. It allowed musicians to compose, produce and release their own CDs independently of the music industry's corporate show-biz machine. The internet opened up unlimited potential for the distribution of indie music to a vital, but invisible, global audience. This audience hungered for unique new sounds and words to break through the stock conventions that defined the parameters of a cautious, calcified, profit motivated industry. The plumbing for the revolution, chips and broadband internet wiring, was being installed in every dorm room, office cubicle and home in much of the "developed" world and indie music had the whiff of revolution in the grooves.

But the revolution wasn't televised and it didn't add a fourth chord to the boilerplate genre-bound music it was supposed to supercede. Once the smoke from the digital big bang cleared, the indie music scene looked pretty much like the corporate music scene, but with a lower talent quotient.

Go to any indie music website and do a search through the database of thousands upon thousands of artists and you'll notice the same menu of genres that you find anywhere else. The indie bands within each genre follow the same predictable set of conventions as their corporate models.

The most surprising and discouraging development is found in the "Alternative" genre. Now here's a good place to mention that I'm writing this piece as an inquisitive journalist/music fan and also as an indie musician who's banged his head repeatedly on the genre wall. I'll go into my personal experience with the genre wall in a later installment of this series.

MusicDish Network Advertisement

The "Alternative" tag is largely a cruel misnomer. There are those of us who crave music that carves new grooves into our grey matter: discovering a new genre in the making - a strange detour off a too familiar genre or music from a place or time that we've never encountered. But "Alternative," to many people, is a very specific genre of its own - a subdivision of rock that is as formulaic as any other genre. So what's the alternative to "Alternative"? There's plenty - but without an identifying moniker to make it accessible.

THE REST AT: http://musicdish.com/mag/?id=8594

mosc · Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2003 9:34 am Post subject:

seraph · Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2003 10:01 am Post subject:

mosc · Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2003 12:10 pm Post subject:

AgentA · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2003 7:01 pm Post subject:

seraph · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2003 11:55 pm Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 1:32 am Post subject:

Good points. Personally I think Levine makes some good points too.

Carlo.. this one is good :

seraph · Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 3:25 am Post subject:

I do not blame those who stick to a style once they find an audience for it. It's so hard to find a following that I understand this behaviour. I would probably do the same. One could say that something like that is closer to commerce than to art but, as a guy I was playing with, used to say: it's better to play than to work Very Happy

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 4:24 am Post subject:

Sure.. there is room for both being commercial and .. well.. inventive?

The problem with doing music for a living is that a lot of players end up with doing "me too" stuff which causes certain genres to overflow with basically the same material, or of lesser substance. This is not unkool or bad in itself but does create a havoc in the market for all parties involved. It should be allowed for musicians to just play whatever they like and it is an impossible demand that everyone out there should be insanely original.

SayersWeb · Joined: Apr 07, 2003 Posts: 62 Location: Sugar Land, Texas

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 2:30 pm Post subject:

80%!? You lost that many!?

seraph · Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 2:57 pm Post subject:

djfoxyfox · Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 7:12 pm Post subject:

djfoxyfox · Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 7:21 pm Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 7:48 pm Post subject:

BIll, this is probably slightly something else. You are a musician and you feel the urge to play in different styles.. and you do. Great fun! But this is done on your terms. And this is based on how you understand the genres you want to mess with. When you take a look at article 2 in that series by Levine I think he is mainly going for the labels and marketing etc etc. ?
Thin?... hey.. I have done reggae and whatever.

seraph · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 3:59 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 9:06 am Post subject:

It ended well? No broken bones?

seraph · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 9:31 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 9:39 am Post subject:

A pianist and singer are rehearsing "Autumn Leaves" for a concert and the pianist says:
"OK. We will start in G minor and then on the third bar, modulate to B major and go into 5/4. When you get to the bridge, modulate back down to F# minor and alternate a 4/4 bar with a 7/4 bar. On the last A section go into double time and slowly modulate back to G minor."
The singer says:
"Wow, I don't think I can remember all of that."
The pianist says:
"Well, that's what you did last time."

elektro80 · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 9:46 am Post subject:

Eh... nasty clients?

djfoxyfox · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 8:33 pm Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 10:54 pm Post subject:

Hihi!

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 10:15 pm Post subject:

I just come to think of genres in a little different perspective. I tried to explain what Xeroid Entity is about last night, and I happened to call it improvised electronic chamber music. And the response was "Ahhh, chamber music... now I get it". We might be caught in the marketing hype of the major labels and do not see clearly that we can still adopt older terms.

djfoxyfox · Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2003 2:54 am Post subject: