Re: [microsound] worship the decibel...

[aleks vasic <bvasic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"but mine goes to eleven man, you know, just for the extra kick and 
all, know what I'm sayin?"   Nigel Tufnel Spinal Tap.


aLEKs





On Jul 12, 2006, at 2:04 PM, Graham Miller wrote:

> volume is intrinsic to musical aesthetics.
>
> see: rise of industrialization, electricity, urbanization, machine 
> power, automation, highways and helicopters, Italian Futurism. see: 
> the impact of microphone amplification on the aesthetics of pop 
> singing, crooning and the construction of intimacy and aura.  see: 
> nothing less than the entire history of rock n' roll music and the 
> relationship between authenticity and rebellion.  also see: entire 
> history of jamaican sound system music, dub and the politics of bass.  
> and while we are at it: disco and house - genres named after the 
> venues in which the music is played.  also: the impact of the walkman, 
> Reaganism, and the sequestering and isolating of consumers into 
> private sound spaces.  conversely: the rise of a ghetto blasters as 
> fashion/political statement (public enemy, rap music, spike lee's 'do 
> the right thing,' that bus scene in 'star trek IV,' colourful 
> metaphors, vulcan nerve pinches and middle fingers to the man). also 
> see: everything that is good and great about technological music, 
> brilliant sound systems, the human imagination, dancing, aural 
> immersion and epiphanic sensory experiences. and let's not forget the 
> dark side: the power of anger, hate, pain, self-loathing, disdain and 
> all the other kinds of emotions artists both feel and willingly 
> inflict on their audience, transformed into sound; safety pins, pogo 
> dancing and punk music, sadomasochism, goth culture, nine inch nails, 
> tattoos and body modification, cyberpunk, sound weapons, sonar, and 
> fucked up dolphins, and other forms of aquatic casualties due to the 
> american military industrial complex.  see also: being generally 
> speaking pissed off at yourself and the entire world and the pleasure 
> derived from the involuntary invasion of private space.
>
> these genres do not operate at low volume.  their meaning is tied into 
> the the physical power of amplification and bass.
>
> wear earplugs. and if you still don't like it then the music and the 
> musicians are probably achieving what they set out to do.
>
> go home and complain on microsound and try and find solace in the 
> other squares here who don't 'get it' either.
>
> g.
>
>
>
>>
>>
>> So again: I ask why?  If you play your music at physically damaging 
>> volumes, why?  What do you hope to get out of it?  And what are you 
>> expecting of your audience?
>>
>> I'll also say that I'm 26, I hate being this curmudgeonly, but I want 
>> to be able to hear in the future.
>>
>> nick
>