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
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.microsound.org