PART TWO: The shelf life

by | Mar 7, 2002 | Imported Entry

PART TWO: The shelf life of tracks

Tracks, singles, anthems, or anything else you feel like calling them, are the bread and butter along with the bane of the music industry. We’re not talking exclusively electronic music here. Have you listened to the radio at any point in the past few years? The repetitive nature of music has gotten to the point where you can turn on the radio for 15 minutes today, and then 15 minutes tomorrow and you could probably hear the same song playing. Here’s how it all comes to be in the world of techno. A DJ, on a regular day if he’s good, will get tons of records in the mail. Records (vinyl) that only have one or two tracks on them, I’m not talking about free CDs here. These records come from record companies, promoters, agents, fans, or anyone else that’s made a cool sounding song and thinks it would be good to play. So, let’s say the DJ is going through his pile of records and pulls out a new one for his gig that night. We’ll call it Record A. That night the DJ puts Record A on the turntable and the crowd loves it. The DJ then keeps record A in his permanent record bag and uses it whenever he feels the need. Eventually someone asks him what that record is, or he does an interview and mentions the songs he’s been recently playing, or he informs the record company of how much he likes it, something like that. To put it another way, “the word is out” about Record A. Other DJs find copies and start playing it, other DJs remix it and start playing those copies. Eventually Record A is recognizable to club goers and fans alike. At this point, most records are replaced by a newer track and the cycle repeats itself. This keeps the club scene fresh and new. Sometimes, just sometimes, the media gets a hold of a record and its popularity explodes. Despite what you may think, this is a very very bad thing. I point your attention to anything made by Fat Boy Slim. How long did it take for you to get sick of hearing those songs on the radio? Now, think about how long those tracks had actually been being used. Yup, those of you who hear “Praise You” two years before the CD hit are cursing the radio to this day. A more recent example is Iio’s “Rapture.” A great track, lots of emotion, it was really fun to listen to… a year ago when I heard it in Avalon in Boston. Now it all over the radio and my roommate is listening to it non-stop. I suppose because it’s played at the club he goes to. That in itself is kind of sad. That the DJ of that club either just found it, or that they’re still playing it, take your pick.

You see, the whole idea behind music like this is that it’s supposed to change. It changes with the season, it changes with the ebbs and tides of tastes, it changes depending on what club you’re at and what DJ is spinning. DJs very rarely have a set, written down, to the minute, planned out, before the hit the decks. It doesn’t work that way. 10 minutes before they start playing, the DJ usually has no idea what he’s going to play an hour from then. They may have tracks that they want to include, and probably a “last track” of the night, but that’s about it.

Just remember, if you hear a techno-ish, dance-ish track on the radio, it’s probably been remixed, retouched, reedited and replayed for at least a year. And while its not a bad thing to listen to those tracks, since most of the time it’s has to be a good track in order to have the longevity to make it that far, they do get old fast. Especially to people that have hear them before. For those of you who are just finding techno and all you know of it are the things you’ve heard on the radio or once of twice at a club, cheer up, all is not lost. I would suggest that they check out magazines and websites that do nothing but inform people about new, good tracks. Especially British import magazines and websites for record shops in Europe. They know what’s hot and what’s already old and tired months before it reaches US soil. They’re not dictating what hot or not, they’re just informing people of what’s selling. Chances are, if you hear someone from a record store say that they can’t keep copies of the new Coast to Coast single on their shelves, it might be a good one.

Lastly, remember that it’s a much bigger thrill to find a song no one’s heard of and be listening to it when it gets popular than to be the “last one into the pool.” So, go find your own damn music and avoid the radio at all costs.

Resources you might like to check out:
Digitally Imported Radio – a great streaming web radio site with news and always fresh tracks
DJ Mixes 2k – a random little site with whole DJ sets to download… and more importantly, the track lists.
TranceAddict – kinda sketchy, but always full of the freshest stuff. great site.
Radio 1 – you can’t get more direct than this. The official site for the UKs BBC Radio 1.
BedRock and Vandit – two record companies from two of my favorite DJs. See what new tracks the companies are putting out this month.
MixMag and Mixer – two nifty magazines with a bunch of info.
KISS online – a club, a festival, a promotional tool… and music info too.

That sound be enough to hold you over. Tomorrow, Part Three: Fucking Candy Ravers and the 15-year-old Oakenfold Fans. Till then.

Well, the word has come

by | Mar 6, 2002 | Imported Entry

Well, the word has come down from the mountain that my loan did indeed get approved for next semester. I might even have a little extra. The best plan I had for that extra was the essential computer upgrade. I’m torn between just starting a whole new system or just upgrading basic components in this one. Lemme give you a list and you can tell me what you think:

Current System:
AMD K63 – 450mhz
Asus P5A Mobo
392Mb of PC133 Ram
Creative Labs GeForce 2 GTS
Maxtor 10G HD
Maxtor 20G HD
Soundblaster PCI 128
Plextor 32x SCSI CD-Rom drive
Yamaha 6x6x16 SCSI CD burner
+the usually extras (network card, floppy drive etc)

So, that’s what I go. Pretty sad huh?

I want to get something fairly new so I won’t have to upgrade for another 3 years (like I did with this one). I think 3 years is a good shelf life for a PC. Plus I won’t just throw this away, I have every intention of slapping a few network cards into it and making it my little server/router bitch.

I’d like to get something along these lines:

New case w/300w+ power
motherboard: either the Soyo SY-K7V or the Gigabyte GA-7VTXE
Athlon 1800+ or faster
PC2100 DDR memory
GeForce3 Ti 500 (LeadTek WinFast maybe?)
DVD Drive

So, now the question is… sound I keep all the stuff I have that’s useful (HD’s, soundcard, CD drives, etc) or should I go full boat and pick up something like one of the new WD1200 hard drives and a SoundBlaster Audigy X-gamer. Should I go back to IDE or stick with SCSI? See, these are the decisions I can’t make. I also realize that SCSI items would be twice the price of IDE stuff. So there’s cost to consider. I don’t know. What do you guys think?

Also, PART 2 of the music essay is on its way tonight. Later.

PART ONE: American “Dance” vs.

by | Mar 5, 2002 | Imported Entry

PART ONE:

American “Dance” vs. European “Electronic Music”:

I’m going to stick to traditional analogies and say that if these are like “apples and oranges” then the entire electronic music category is one big fucking fruit salad. Not to sound “anti-American” but we’re cocky when it comes to music and this is yet again another example of the uninformed thinking we invented techno. We did not. The British invented electronic music as we know it, so get over it. American “Dance” music should, in my opinion, be wiped from the face of the earth entirely. American “Dance”, and I am making a distinction between American and English, has primarily evolved from hip-hop and disco with some minor European influences. It’s the kind of thing that C&C Music Factory was doing in the 80’s, the kind of thing that Linda Ronstat was doing in the 80’s. It was our first baby step away from disco. It took disco lyrics, hip-hop beats, made it all steady and played it. American “Dance” today can be exemplified in tunes like Madonna’s “Music” and Pink’s “I’m coming up.” They have a steady beat, repetitive vocals and a general “club” feel. American clubs that is. This is another music attribute that American’s seem to think they’ve invented.

Now for the other side of the pond. European “electronic music” has so many sub categories that I unfortunately have to lump them together under the banner of “Techno.” There’s just as many types of Techno as there are types of Jazz, but rest assured that I do fully realize the importance of the different genres but for the sake of this argument, we really don’t need to pick them apart. “Techno” as a whole in Europe is taken as more of an art form. There seems to be perfection in the spinning of a record on a turntable. It’s music to not only be danced to, but also listened to and enjoyed. The “experience” is different. To often American’s see Techno music as Dance music and think that it should be automatically associated with “clubbing” or drinking or taking drugs. It’s almost as if we only got half the gossip. Use this metaphor: A young British kid is calling his American friend one day and trying to explain about this cool new music he’s heard. “It’s all played on records and it’s all made electronically,” he says. The American is intrigued. He’s heard things sort of like this coming out of clubs in his near by city. The British kid then proceeds to tell him about all the weird things that he saw at the club. “There’s people dressed up in weird costumes, drinking and whatnot,” he says. The British kid then runs out of time on his phone card and is disconnected. So, now the only view the American has of “Dance” music is that it has a beat and people get trashed in order to listen to it. The British kid never had time to tell him about the DJ who was playing, that not everyone was under the influence of something, about all the different songs the DJ played, that the music had a crescendo and that it was almost like listening to a classical composer. All of this is lost on the American audience.

American “Dance” music is based on an entirely different ideal, and I’ll mention this more in the “Fucking Oakenfold Fans” section of the essay.

To continue with the European music description, we’ll need to understand that this isn’t just music to our friends across the pond. The culture has so ingrained their way of life that it IS almost like classical music. Almost as if they’re in a renaissance and this is just the music of the times. There are DJs who play music with no catchy vocals, no bouncing bass beats and yet everyone still enjoys it and dances to it. The difference is that American “Dance” music has been created, marketed and sold to the MTV generation solely for profit. European music is created to be played, in a club, for the enjoyment of the listeners. 9 out of 10 times, the record that’s being played doesn’t have a label on it, the person who made that record isn’t getting boat loads of cash, or even famous. They made the record to be played, not to be sold to the highest bidder.

I’ve delicately decided not to go into a deep explanation of what European music sounds like. This is on purpose. The field is so diverse that I wouldn’t do it all justice and my descriptions would be solely based on what I enjoy listening to and why. And that wouldn’t be a fair explanation of the genres. For example, I’d probably elaborately describe Trance and Progressive music for it’s beautiful uplifting qualities but then I’d describe Drum & Base as “simple and full of beats” which it is, but isn’t really a fair assessment.

I should also mention that I’m lumping all of the MTV generation, 15 year old, Brittany Spear wannabe’s into one giant mass. The term “American public” doesn’t include American techno pioneers like Frankie Bones, Moby, Tony Devit and others. Nor does it include people who understand and more importantly accept that the “club scene” IS NOT about being drunk and “partying.” It does not include college age techno coinsures such as Chris and myself. If you enjoy techno music, and can understand the basics of it and can appreciate it’s subtleties, then congratulations, you’re not in the “idiot” category anymore. If you just finished watching TRL and are going to put on your Oakenfold CD’s, then fuck you.

Tomorrow I’ll rant a little more about specific music tracks, CD’s, they’re “staying power” and why the American radio feels the need to take the worst remixes of a particular song and play them over and over and over again on the radio until they’re no longer able to be listened to and enjoyed.

Electronic Music Essay: Part One:

by | Mar 3, 2002 | Imported Entry

Electronic Music Essay:

Part One: American “Dance” verses European “Electronic Music”
Part Two: The Shelf Life of Tracks
Part Three: Fucking Candy Ravers and the 15-year-old Oakenfold Fans
Part Four: What Techno Should Be
Part Five: The Point of All This

The inspiration for this extremely long rant came from the radio strangely enough. Driving home one evening I was interested to hear both Darude’s “Sandstorm” and Iio’s “Rapture” on a local radio station. This started me thinking about the American attitude towards electronic music as a whole. Or at the very least my opinions about electronic music.

I should also mention at this point that this entire series of posts is purely based on my opinions and in no way should be taken as “expert” or as offensive towards any group, style of music or country I may mention. So, starting tomorrow? look for an entire week or ranting and raving about raving and ranting.

Sorry for the bad pun.

Carry on.