Why does modern electronic dance music sound like...

[jancivil]

It was a simple example intended to illustrate a point.

It didn't illustrate anything to me.

I think you're bullshitting, "most people" notwithstanding.

[Gamma-UT]

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

That's some shrine to yourself you're building online. Is your middle name Ozymandias by any chance?

[jancivil]

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.

Which tracks? So you're not defending something which for all intents and purposes is the same thing as what you are defending.
I know perfectly well it's not supposed to have beginning-middle-end like a three minute pop tune.
Wagner however has beginning-middle-end all the time.

I think people are not listening, I think there is other behavior driving it. You don't like people to be bothered by it which I was bored enough to engage.
The sound of it bugs people. The sound is what it is out of being kind of amusical. I said 'conformist behavior' and you want to talk about my lack of understanding of its point. Why bother? Why are you bothered by my views in order to try this out on me?

[ZenPunkHippy]

You're reading way to much in my simplified example.

[jancivil]

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

That's some shrine to yourself you're building online. Is your middle name Ozymandias by any chance?

What is bothering you about these actual statements? I would have to look that up. I guess you're more educated than I am, I really should know who I'm dealing with, isn't it. I could tell you something about Wagner's advancement of harmonic vocabulary through a couple of bars, 'the Tristan chord', if that's worse for you.

In essence, I said that I can notice repetition I don't really go for in things that aren't 'dance music' by that assessment of Nixon in China. There is in essence one and two bar loops repeated 256 times, if you're not familiar.

The "inside of two minutes" actually referred to ZPH's 'two minutes', it isn't really that much a statement about my prowess.

Analogy time: would you judge e.g. Wagner's Ring by a 2 minute snippet? We don't do that, because the 2 minute snippet is not really representative of the full composition.

...a clear start, middle, and end. Dance music isn't like that.

Wagner is, though:
"I can tell what's happening in Wagner inside of two minutes". "2 minutes is not really representative of the full composition" for me was fatuous and a poor analogy.

So here's you skimming and cherry-picking the thread driven to produce something just to diss me? I guess I don't like you either but I can't feature why I'd be very interested before you began this campaign.

I shared an office with John Adams for a time. He's a nice guy and an excellent composer (and from what I have from other people then, a good teacher). My view of his minimalism comports somewhat with my views on disco. (They would be nuanced.)

See if you can buy a sense of proportion, and a sense of humor and maybe project less.

[Axis1~SL61]

... a construction site?

[rant]

It's all about the kick and bass nowadays, as loud as possible. I always see threads here like "How can I make my kick louder and bigger and phatter?" Does anyone still know what a snare is at all? I've rarely seen any threads with "How do I make a good sounding clap, guiro, shaker, rain stick or conga etc.?"

The only important elements seem to be the bass and the kick...

Whenever I listen to more than 10 modern EDM songs, I even get headache from these permanent kicks. I want to make modern dance music, too, but I cannot stand these 4-to-the-floor speaker-shaking, knocking plastic kicks...

[/rant]

HAHAHA
Actually, some years ago , one morning I was in bed and just in the last minutes of my dream, I heard a totally unrelated sound that was going tss-Boom, tsss-Boom, tsss-Boom and came into my dream, changing the story and suddenly, "pop!" I woke up but to my surprise, the "tss-Boom, tss-Boom" continued -- It was the workers at the house next door tearing down a wall that by coincidence were doing it in sync with the noise of a broom that the front neighbor was using to sweep her patio! I jumped out of bed to grab a microphone , turn the sampler on to record it, but then they went out of sync and before I could try to sample it they stopped .

[osiris]

a CT scan that's just gone bad and the alarms go off...

[Axis1~SL61]

If I remember well I was dreaming that I was walking down a street and suddenly I found myself walking in sync with the "tss-Boom, tss-Boom" and thinking "damn, this disco-beat is following me everywhere I go" -- then I woke up -- but no alarms went off (though it could well have happened, yeah)

[trimph1]

I want to say to jancivil that her Satie pieces have caused me some bad influences.

Namely it caused me to get my Satie records out and do some black metal versions of them...

[ZenPunkHippy]

The sound of it bugs people. The sound is what it is out of being kind of amusical. I said 'conformist behavior' and you want to talk about my lack of understanding of its point. Why bother? Why are you bothered by my views in order to try this out on me?

Here you go ... if you can stand to check out this video for a few minutes (turn the sound down if it's annoying) you'll see something that is the polar opposite of the video you posted earlier (Amanda Shankar - which is great music, btw).

The distinguishing feature this video has over your example of "dance music" is that people are actually dancing. Dancing being a key feature of "dance music".

The people in this video are actually out there, living life and interacting with others. That's the point. It's far better for "our" community than sitting in the rarified atmosphere of an exclusive wine cellar, stroking beards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q-ZQH5GZ6o

[jancivil]

caused me to get my Satie records out and do some black metal versions

My Gnossiennes 1 def has suitable SUBS for da clubs, too

[jancivil]

The people in this video are actually out there, living life and interacting with others. That's the point. It's far better for "our" community than sitting in the rarified atmosphere of an exclusive win cellar, stroking beards, and telling people off for breathing too loud!

Nice straw man bashing.

It's ANOUSHKA Shankar.

people are actually dancing
YEAH?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydc1pWz2E_4

[trimph1]

My Gnossiennes 1 def has suitable SUBS for da clubs, too

Just you wait until my black stoner metal version comes out...8 string bass to your face!!!

[jancivil]

oh dear

[xiphiuz]

This is what I call dance music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbRJHighMN8

See, it's not clobbering me over the head with a sign that says "epic" until I bleed, it's like a vast rhythmic ocean, inviting your body to swim and dive into it's depths. It's repetetive, but it's repetition becomes hypnotic and shifting, rather than tedious and annoying.

That, to me, is what defines good dance music. But then I tend to (a) dance to music that people say is too hard to dance to (how can it be too hard when there's no faliure condition? it's not a game!) and (b) not really care if I look silly when I dance. What can I say, I was brought up a raver

Great record!
You will like this as well then I guess: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUVYIcCd0fA