Re: [microsound] microsound as pop music

[Andrei <andrei@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 18 Jul 2002, Beni Borja wrote:

> I'm certanly more partial to the populist view ( the majority is right) than
> to the elitist atitude ( "the learned""are right and the populace is always
> wrong) . But I don't think that's the case here.

I think only people who adhere to a populist mentality believe in the
concept of elitism. Easy to ostracize people who don't share your views by
throwing that tag at them.


> When you're talking of pop music , you're  completely ignoring artists like
> Frank Zappa, Pere Ubu, Sonic Youth   and scores of others that were able to
> create music that due to "the non-instant gratification musical content
> their of work" "did not appeal to your sort of average cd buying Joe".

Personally I'd say those artists are quite easy to digest, mainly because
there's a lot of visceral appeal to their music, which to me is a defining
quality of pop music.


> This not mentioning the realm of jazz/improvised music , where
> for sure you would find artists from Cecil Taylor to Anthony Braxton,
> that are anything but "instant gratifying".

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Yes, of course their music
can be very difficult listening, just as much so as Xenakis and his ilk.
Especially Braxton's, in my opinion. With Taylor there's still a lot of
visceral power to it which can give you something to grasp on to, but
Braxton's music can be really impenetrable. There was a time when I was
trying to be a jazz musician and I had fantasies about studying with
Braxton, but I've come to have mixed feelings about his work since then.
God, that "Ghost Trance" stuff....

> As for your claim that there's no way in hell that Xenakis or Stockhausen
> would have a chance of making the pop charts any time soon. You should
> probably take a deeper look at the charts, there's stuff on the rap records
> of the  Billboard top 200 that sonically  would make even the hardcore
> avan-guardist cringe.

Yeah, those Manny Fresh productions make me cringe too. ;-)
But seriously, what are you referring to ? I'm puzzled.


Andrei