Why does modern electronic dance music sound like...

[Sampleconstruct]

To cut it short: If you can remember and whistle a tune, it's music. If not, it's simply (electronic) noise.

Epic fail!

[Kriminal]

You got me... haha.

But seriously, there's multiple drummers on this forum. No reason why we can't be open to more than heavy rock music. Learning to appreciate all the aspects of music.

Ive seen Taiko drummers a few times, awesome stuff

[Gamma-UT]

(I said this before somewhere else, but I remember a study done in Germany in the early 90s that revealed the average number of times a CD gets listened to: 2 point something. Yes madam and sir, that's TWICE.

Because two is how the number comes out when you compute the average of albums that only ever get played once in their entirety and the much smaller list of things that people play to destruction.

[MFXxx]

(I said this before somewhere else, but I remember a study done in Germany in the early 90s that revealed the average number of times a CD gets listened to: 2 point something. Yes madam and sir, that's TWICE.

Because two is how the number comes out when you compute the average of albums that only ever get played once in their entirety and the much smaller list of things that people play to destruction.

One day I'll get round to removing the only cd in the cars multi changer - Best of RHC, more than 2.x times I am sure, along with numerous other albums.

But there's always a salient point with music in how individuals are served by it. Functional, stimuli, drugs, alcohol, materialistic, background, emotional, nostalgia, educational, physical, dance...





Just in case someone stumbles upon this forum from a non musical background this may prove helpful and may even help some relate to EMD http://www.wikihow.com/Listen-to-Music

[Arglebargle]

because they're not really meant to be listened to for enjoyment, separate from a club. they're good in very short bursts, after that I feel like my ears are being numbed.

[Tricky-Loops]

I don't really get why this is so important.

Because I'm about to start a new dance music project, and I want it to be extraordinary but commercial at the same time - but I don't like these annoying, ear-piercing plastic kicks. And I want people to ask me how I got these funny ideas, not how many kicks I layered and which synth I used for the sub kick...

[ZenPunkHippy]

I don't really get why this is so important.

Because I'm about to start a new dance music project, and I want it to be extraordinary but commercial at the same time - but I don't like these annoying, ear-piercing plastic kicks. And I want people to ask me how I got these funny ideas, not how many kicks I layered and which synth I used for the sub kick...

Whether you like it or not, it's the kick that drives dance music forward ... you could almost say that whole genres are defined by the shape / tone / size of the kick drum - well, the kick + the bass line.

[jancivil]

As always in these debates, the tracks are being taken out of context, criticised for something they are not and never were meant to be

So if someone criticizes it as music, that's clearly wrong-headed because it was never meant to be that. The context lies elsewhere. People with no natchrul rhythm found a great way to conform. HUP TWO THREE FOUR.

You seem kind of ready to get out front and guard something that you say is of no particular moment in your life.

[Sendy]

@ Sendy

This one sounds like straight from the 90ies...everything but modern...

Right, but it IS modern, it was made in the last few years. This is a really interesting point right here, "modern" as a word meaning "created recently" and "modern" as a fashion statement to wear on your sleeve... "oh, I make modern electronic music, you know, modern, like where we all copy Skrillex and that one Bigroom House tune... yeah, modern! You know!".

The music press's version of "modern" "bleeding edge" can go take a hike. Because in a few months time the music that was screaming "MODERN!" is going to instantly be dated to that time, you know, when everyone was copying Skrillex and that one Bigroom House tune.

This is the problem with the modern mindset, there is no sense of scale, no sense or awareness of time or history, it's just a load of inbred crap and a race to the bottom to see who can come up with the loudest kick drum and the most obnoxious 1-bar looping synth.

Most of the music I listen to takes it's sensibilities from the 90's (or even 80's or 70's), and uses those sounds and methods in new ways, combining them with the latest developments in technology (or not, it's not really essential). It's like an alternate dimension where the 00'ies never happened and the 90's got stretched out and kept going. You know that path that electronic music was on in the 90's. It was awesome, it was going places. There was infinite potential. If sounding "modern" means turning your back on that and following the herd, modern can go to hell

Somewhere along the line, electronic music stopped being creativity and started becoming fashion. So I reject that reality and substitute my own superior one

[jancivil]

I like some of the things in Skrillex, I like triplets and that. It's kind of ostentatious and overcooked but some of it's kinda fun.

[Sendy]

I don't like Skrillex' music, but I respect him as a creative individual who followed his own path, and is down-to-earth and has his head screwed on. It's just a shame his sounds have been copied by everyone else to the point that I'm sick of them.

[mellotronaut]

i assimilate everything ppfffffttttt.

[ZenPunkHippy]

So if someone criticizes it as music, that's clearly wrong-headed because it was never meant to be that. The context lies elsewhere. People with no natchrul rhythm found a great way to conform. HUP TWO THREE FOUR.

Analogy time: would you judge e.g. Wagner's Ring by a 2 minute snippet? "Well that was crap, it didn't go anywhere".

We don't do that, because the 2 minute snippet is not really representative of the full composition.

You seem kind of ready to get out front and guard something that you say is of no particular moment in your life.

I'm just trying to get a point across about dance music, not defending "EDM" specifically:

These individual tracks are always judged out of context by people who are more comfortable listening to self-contained (pop) songs that have a clear start, middle, and end. Dance music isn't like that.

DJs buy the music (hence it charts on Beatport), and mix it together with other tracks to extend the track for an almost unlimited amount of time.

The longest single DJ set I've witnessed went for around 28 hours.

[jancivil]

So if someone criticizes it as music, that's clearly wrong-headed because it was never meant to be that. The context lies elsewhere. People with no natchrul rhythm found a great way to conform. HUP TWO THREE FOUR.

Analogy time: would you judge e.g. Wagner's Ring by a 2 minute snippet? "Well that was crap, it didn't go anywhere".

That's such complete sophistry, isn't it? I can tell what's happening in Wagner inside of two minutes. Please. One or two bar loops for how much of the "DJs buy the music (hence it charts on Beatport), and mix it together with other tracks to extend the track for an almost unlimited amount of time", you're going to try an analogy with THE RING CYCLE? Because it takes how long of that time to suss the 'composition'? And now you destroyed your prior argument, we're in the realm of criticizing as music.
What is the actual context of DJs bought the tracks on Beatport? Listening to music? Do you actually think this is persuasive like at all?


Besides, when I picked up the score for John Adams' Nixon In China in the library I said to myself 'This is some boring shit, Jim'.

[ZenPunkHippy]

That's such complete sophistry, isn't it? I can tell what's happening in Wagner inside of two minutes. Please.

It was a simple example intended to illustrate a point.

I think most people would understand what I meant