My Shift In Music

the music i did in my first period of producing (1997-2004) and the music i do now (2008 and after) is vastly different. my early music was more experimental with focus on noise and drones and breakdown on rhythm and structure.
some might think, perhaps i've mellowed down. or i found taste in more conventional structures, found merit in that, and that is responsible for my shift.
but this is not the case at all.
with my first period of music, my intent was to do experimental music. to get as far away from any convention in western music and to challenge any "rule" on how music has to be.
but i soon ran to the point where it seemed impossible to go on.
for example, the traditional rhythm in most of current western music, if we look at pop and electronic music, is a 2/4 or 4/4 rhythm. but if you use a rhythm like 7/4 or 3/13, and still using a pop or techno or hardcore set of drums, are you not still following convention? and even if you used different drums, is not using a steady time signature or one that can be expressed in rational numbers still a limit?
schoenberg did some of the most experimental music in his day, yet youngsters could sneer at him for employing the traditional instruments in his compositions.
stockhausen's electronic releases don't have that flaw; but it's still music on a CD that is listened by people at home; a convention that neither traditional nor techno music had and has.
so, how to get rid of this almost infinite amount of rules and conventions in music?
easy: annihilate music altogether. to hell with all rhythms and tonal structures and song schematics.
but how to do this?
to focus on something outside of the music you create. an idea or ideal.
for example love, or anarchism, or truth, or revolution.
the goal of the track is to express an idea. how the track expresses this is meaningless. how the track is produced is meaningless.
love could be expressed by a folk song, or indie rock, or gabber, or black metal. it is no difference.
i just use sonic forms to express ideas, and often the form is techno, but that is just the form, it is of no importance. the idea or ideal is important.
but this is not the whole truth; different forms have different merits (abilities to express ideas) also i love the techno form, or new wave form, and it best, but not necessary if both the sonic form and idea behind it is great.
but the idea or ideal is the most important thing.

No comments:

Post a Comment