Re: [microsound] white geeks on jazz

[ndk <ndkent@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> >It's hopefully clear with the folk music analogy that someone is trying
> >to be toungue in cheek.
> 
> I never do this, and advise against it for fear of biting it off. the 
> laptop can be a folk instrument. the folk distinction is in fact a 
> class distinction, but perhaps not accurately so. "folk" as "people" 
> is a bit broad too... since people make all sorts of music and it 
> gets called all sorts of things depending on where you are standing. 
> some kids in a small village in africa jamming on gourds and 
> stretched skins... what are they playing? "world music"? i doubt 
> that's what they'd call it... in fact a few hours from this village, 
> a well-educated man at the university studying music might call it 
> something more akin to "folk".

> "folk art" was/is generally considered "outsider art" where ( among 
> other distinctions) the practitioner has no formal training in what 
> is considered the accepted avenues of cultural production and works 
> with whatever materials are on hand. these artists may be physically 
> outside of the culture which has deemed their work "outsider" (which 
> was the case with Art Brut and the "art of the savages") or only 
> mentally so as in the case of psychotic individuals (which was the 
> original inspiration for the Art Brut distinction by Dubuffet). folk 
> art fights against what art brut artist Roger Cardinal describes 
> as..."that force which feeds on blind obedience, fidelity to 
> stereotypes, the denial of spontaneity, the repression of 
> individualism and experimentation." The "enemy" in question here is 
> academy art, and gallery- controlled avant garde.
> 
> just as many artists used the "primitive arts" as inspiration for 
> their more culturally and academically acceptable productions, so too 
> does the academic music world feed on the output of laptop folk 
> musicians... although some would be remiss to admit it... likewise 
> the distinction of the folk artist as "uninformed" with regards to 
> the current practice within the ivory towers of academia is somewhat 
> inaccurate as well, since many of the tools and technologies used in 
> their own practice have been "liberated" from the confines of these 
> institutions... albeit sans the baggage of rigid adherence to any 
> formal approaches to cultural production.

Though you've stated your belief that "laptop can be a folk instrument"
and reservations against the term "folk music", my comment was clearly
that the first people I encountered saying it "is", and not saying it
"can be" were interpreted by me as intending to be, what shall we say,
wry? witty?, its the context of whats being said and the known
personality of who's saying it, be it someone like Kraftwerk or Momus
that makes the intent of the statement clear. But of course there are
always some  who take things completely literally and I guess others who
go to some length to validate how that can be so.

then I mentioned-

> >Finally, out of the context of toungue in cheek statements, I might add
> >that over the years I've often seen and heard a thread of desire to link
> >some "new" art with something well accepted. What can elevate it to
> >concern is so often it seems to reflect a worry that the medium or
> >context that one has chosen to work in can't fully function
> >freestanding, it needs some kind of stated reinforcement refering to
> >other art that is already perceived in a good light, a sort of standing
> >on the coat tails effect. Saying that sort of thing tends to really
> >trumpet a deficiency if it comes across with hubris.
> 
> to me it is more of an attempt to grant a point of entry to 
> individuals who may not have any points of reference. for instance, i 
> gave a co-worker  a CD of some of my stuff. a couple of days later 
> she came tome looking very confused. she told she really liked some 
> of it, but could not place it, had no vocabulary for even discussing 
> it, and asked if this was what people called "ambient"... i just said 
> "sure". my intent was not to enhance my own works impact by 
> associating it with the lineage of "ambient" music, but to merely 
> give this person a place to begin their own thread of investigation. 
> i also told her i thought of it as "folk music", and she laughed 
> (being a singer-songwriter kind of gal herself).

I think a point of entry, refrences,  something familiar, etc. are
possibly essential and very likely appreciated.

It's the the need to (over) state a genre's importance that is
troubling, perhaps use of phrases that even imply replacement or
superiority, "the new [fill in the blank]". 

It's a slightly subtle point, I just see a big distinction between
making some kind of refrence as a jumping off point and searching around
for a needed refrence to act as some kind of legitimizing device.

nicholas d. kent

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