june contest ... GOSSIP

[Wopelka]

Well, sounds to me like you're still not getting the piece. If you put on an MP3 of silence and all you hear is empty silence, then you still haven't opened your ears to what's going on around you. There is always sound to be heard, and Cage defined music as "sound heard."

true. there's always sounds to hear, like Ixox told us, too. however, i would stress the point that it is particularly uneasy (i mean: impossible) to have the same "relationnal energy" (by lack of a better word) with a pianist on stage than with your everyday mp3 player.

i think the performance goes beyond the mere hearing the noises idea. it's also about feeling the presence through the absence and vice versa, and some other almost metaphysical experiences.

[Beardedone]

With all this talk about John Cage and art such as "The Urinal" who'd have thought this month's theme was to submit the track to land you a Major Label record deal? :p

Many of us here are far from mainstream. As for me signing a contract with say ECM would constitute a major record deal. Besides I don't think I could produce a convincing Pop song even for 10 million dollars. I ain't in me. Horses for courses.

Best,
Gordon

[You™]

It speaks volumes how many feel the way to success is by "selling out" or emulating whatever was fashionable last week. Cynics and copycats are rarely trendsetters. But what do I know? - I'm just John Q. Public.

[WoJ]

I rekon we should have a "copy this" theme, where we all have to copy a piece EXACTLY, down to the mix, the instrumentation, everythin....of course someone would just end up posting the original ...in fact never mind.

Cheers for the reviews people, yea i would have added vocals, but i cant sing v.well, so thats a no! I should have added a melody or something to the track but oh well, too late.

You, i dunno what u did to create that silence cover but v.good indeed. Thats better than most of the stuff i make!

WoJ

[emdot_ambient]

Cool, but the fact that something is cool for an instant, a while, or even decades doesn't rule out that it might be conceptual bullshit.

Cool or not; bullshit or not; art or not . . . the whole point is that these qualities exist wholely in the eye/ear/mind of the beholder. They are not intrinsic qualities in the object/music themselves. When I was able to force myself to hear screeching violins as music for an instant, something had changed in the way I mentally processed that sound. It was noise, then it became music, then it went back to noise. Nothing had changed in the sound, it was my own head that changed.

Recently the urinal by Duchamp

It's actually called Fountain

...was named the most influential piece of art from the 20th century.
It's still a urinal, and it still needs you to take a full semester of art history to grasp the atmosphere in which it could have such an impact...

Yes, it's still a urinal but it doesn't take a whole semester of art history to grasp what that was about. The very first time I saw it I had no idea what Dada was about, but I cracked up. I didn't need anyone to tell me it was intended as a slap in the face of Art. To me that piece is exactly the same thing as the music of the Sex Pistols. They're both art aimed at attacking the very institutions within which they existed (art and music), while simultaneously attacking the society and stagnant ways of thinking that had preceeded them: anti-art and anti-music.

Hey, was May Ride a work of conceptual bullshit? (I really don't mean anything bad by that.)

[emdot_ambient]

With all this talk about John Cage and art such as "The Urinal" who'd have thought this month's theme was to submit the track to land you a Major Label record deal? :p

You didn't really expect us to discourse on the merits of [insert name of latest hip-hop sensation] did you?

[Lady J]

It speaks volumes how many feel the way to success is by "selling out" or emulating whatever was fashionable last week. Cynics and copycats are rarely trendsetters. But what do I know? - I'm just John Q. Public.

Rarely trendsteters but always record sellers...


The trend setter is not the artist anymore.. It is the A&R department head that signs the artist, the marketting department that markets the artist to radio and music tv, the stylist who refines the artist's look, etc...

it's all too corporate if you ask me but that's what music became long before i was even born so who am i to argue with it? whinging does not change the reality.

[Lady J]

With all this talk about John Cage and art such as "The Urinal" who'd have thought this month's theme was to submit the track to land you a Major Label record deal? :p

You didn't really expect us to discourse on the merits of [insert name of latest hip-hop sensation] did you?

No that would be too funky wouldnt it?

[Hovmod]

it's all too corporate if you ask me but that's what music became long before i was even born so who am i to argue with it? whinging does not change the reality.

Hm. Just saw Nelson Mandela on TV as I read this...

[AndreasE]

Please not again: Lady J´s gossip -> someone´s answer -> Lady J´s gossip -> someone´s answer -> Lady J´s gossip -> someone´s answer -> Lady J´s gossip -> someone´s answer -> Lady J´s gossip -> someone´s answer -> Lady J´s gossip -> someone´s answer -> Lady J´s gossip -> someone´s answer -> Lady J´s gossip -> someone´s answer -> ...

... and then we have 20 more pages in this thread within 10 hours...

[Hovmod]

OK

[You™]

it's all too corporate if you ask me but that's what music became long before i was even born so who am i to argue with it? whinging does not change the reality.

You gotta play the game if you want to win. But at least play to your strengths. I don't know. You've had some measure of success. (Or so I gather from your previous posts.) I've got a few acquaintances and friends in the music industry: (musicians and label people) and they're pretty blasé about it. They can walk down the street without being recognized, that's for sure. But they make a decent living doing what they love. That's all I need from a job while in my spare time I make the world a better place. I've never considered music to be a professional path for me to follow.

I wonder if the bemoaning of amateurs about the recording industry (me included) is like single people warning about the dangers of marriage.

[Sepheritoh]

Somewhere in my silent loneliness I am just wondering why people seem to like bashing record companies and pretend to look down on being signed by a label.

I am just trying to remember ho many times Fripp was hailed as the hero, or Jean Michel Jarre or maybe Pink Floyd????

I'll stop the name dropping now, but why are they suddenly heros while it is such a shamefull thing being signed by a label. Are you seriously thinking that all music produced by signed musicians are that bad.

If this kind of talk lasted for the first 5 pages of gossip I would have ignored it, but seriously everybody - get over it now.

[Hovmod]

Now see what yo've done Emdot - I've painted myself into a corner.
I'm withdrawing from further music/art/bullshit-philosophical musings in this thread for at least 24 hours, or until any evidence of self-contradiction is good and buried among reviews and the other endless discussions of this gossip thread.


And thanks, ...xander, for the review. I'm glad you liked the mix. The harp was only there to give you false expectations, though

[Wopelka]

who's up for a tic tac toe?