Re: [microsound] (ot) (Slightly) Politics + electronic Music

[Bill Jarboe <billjarboe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

on 7/1/02 9:10 AM, kranning@xxxxxxxxxxxxx at kranning@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> 
> 
>> I have been arguing of
>> late that the desktop musician is the closest thing to true democracy in
>> music.  I posit that anyone with a small amount of money can create, record,
>> distribute and promote from the very same box for far cheaper than doing
>> things in a non-digital way, with better results.
> 
> you're describing the creation and distribution of musical product.
> but seperately, the qualities of the actual music itself - the musical
> organizational principles used to make it - can be an analogy for some type
> of political structure.
> 
> recently i realized the political content inherent in [laugh if you must]
> Sly + the Family Stone's "Stand!". the 'vibe' of the music is communal,
> egalitarian, inclusive, engaged, and fueled with May '68-style righteous
> anger. but more important: the actual musical structures and arrangements -
> the way ensemble plays together - reflects the same attitudes: an
> indefinably large group of individuals work together in a way that furthers
> their common goal, within a loose framework that supports each member's free
> impulses and best efforts. "from each according to ability, to each
> according to need." the utopian socialist ideal, boom-lacka-lacka-lacka.
> 
> in comparison, lone microsound auteurs seem disengaged/uncommitted/elitist.
> staring at laptops == very much like staring at navels.
> 
> 
>
Except it's hard to keep one's chin up while staring at one's navel.

 I don't know. . Sly programmed drum machines and sat in front of a keyboard
too , you know? I think there's something to be said for not having to play
loud , talk loud and take massive amounts of cocaine in order to feel human
and numb the pain.