Re: [microsound] microsound as pop music

[Andrei <andrei@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 16 Jul 2002, The pHarmanaut wrote:

> > I definitely didn't mean that microsound is pop as in Top 40, but it
> > certainly has more connections to "pop" music than say the music of
> > Xenakis or Stockhausen. I think it's fair to say that a lot of the artists
> > within the "microsound" scene have connections to the pop music world.
> > More direct connections than Xenakis or Stocky every had.
>
> This isn't accurate in regards to Stockhausen. Stockhausen had a very direct
> connection to a number of "pop music" artists in the high point of SF
> psychedelic culture. Stockhausen cited live performances by Jefferson
> Airplane and their little collage snippet, "A Small Package of Value Will
> Come To You, Shortly" from 1967's AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER'S as an influence
> on "Hymnen". Plus, he taught members of the Airplane, the Dead, and the
> Mothers of Invention in his classes at the University of California at
> Davis, in 1967. Certainly, a lot of Stockhausen's writing on the Aquarian
> Age and such is vintage psychedelic mysticism, as well.

Yeah, I was aware of these sort of social connections that Stockhausen
had, but I think they're kind of inconsequential, especially regarding his
music. Sure he went to a Jefferson Airplane concert, but so what ? Did he
start composing pieces with more "commercial appeal" as a result of it ? I
don't think so.

What I meant by direct connections is that a lot of microsound artists
used to be regular techno, house or ambient producers or rock musicians
before becoming serious glitch artists :-).

Btw, DJ Spooky was in charge of the electronics on a recording of a
Xenakis piece a few years ago. Was that of any consequence ?


> Wasn't "Hymen" all about popular music, in that a country's national anthem
> is about as popular/populist/pop as music can get?

How many copies of "Hymen" do you think sold ?
That's how popular an idea it was.


> The point, though, is this: what's the USEFULNESS of keeping Xenakis,
> Stockhausen, Lansky, etc. shielded from popular culture? Are they so badly
> in need of being kept clean?

I don't think people are interested in keeping them shielded from popular
culture. I don't think popular culture is interested in what they have to
give, for whatever reasons. And I don't think Xenakis and Stockhausen
are(/were) concerned with popular culture. They're not the kind of artists
who will compromise their visions in order to have appeal to the least
common denominator.

Andrei