Oh Melody where have you gone...?

[advaya]

whyterabbyt - A fantastic and well balanced response. Nothing more to add, you said it all

Agreed...

[Hellbilly]

whyterabbyt said it all, nothing more to add.

[tony Smyth]

You know Tranel. I'm really glad you brought this up, Ive been thinking the same thing for quite a while. While most electronic ambient and esp dance stuff is very focused on timbre and rhythm, it mostly ignores anything but primitive melody and totally ignores harmony.

I think you can only go so far with just these two elements - its too limiting, esp when its done to loops that go on and on with almost no variation. At one time I could put up with this when E-ing off my face but no more.

anyway, just my opinion. Others will disagree, Does it matter? probably not.

[topaz]

bottom line is there is a ton of stuff out there.

take what you want and ignore the rest.

[soulata]

To me, music is rhythm - melody - harmony (not always in that order though).

One part I could miss (not rhythm probably) some time, but not all of the time.

But then again, I've nothing against using drum loops.

k

[clueless]

Où es-tu Melody...



Ah! Melody

[FaX]

Maybe you're listening to the wrong stuff.

But, do note, the two don't exclude each other - kraftwerk came up with some nice melodies (radioaktivität), as did depeche mode and many many others. Why, because they composed their music from scratch.

No; because they wanted to produce a particular kind of music which relies on melodies; pop.
It is an absolute nonsense to claim that this was because they worked from scratch.

Ummm I wouldn't be auccusing people of circular arguements when you're implying that music with melody and hook is "pop" .

You totally lost me with that one statement I'm afraid the rest of your comments where definately valid but that was really as ridiculous some of the originators assumptions on "loops" .

[Shamanix]

Yes a sad thing realy
I realy like goa/psy, but sadly the last few years are a big disapontment for me
While what we can call oldchool goatrance nowadays had plenty of melodies, the new stuff is pretty much the same overcompressed kickdrum and the same 1/16th bass note thumpin for 6-8 minutes
And the whole track is drowned in effects and pretty much nothing else
No wonder we have so many psytrance artists nowadays, when it degdreded to such a level that I think its easier to make then a TOP 40 hit

[Caleb]

I'm a melody and harmony person myself, but even so I have to say - what a crock!

But Mr Rabbyt said it all in his unique manner much better than I would.

Now can we move this to "Everything Else" as I can't see how this discussion belongs here?

Caleb

[Panda]

Maybe this is trivial, but i've been thinking that the last few years (and if you want, decades), we've taken the noise-culture a long way, and we've seen how far we can go with it. More and more records were focused on breaking the rules of traditional music, and sometimes when i listen to new tracks there even seems to be no point in it but to break rules.

So firstly: how free from rules are you if you only try to break them?
And secondly: what's the point? It's getting a bit old-fashioned to deliberately denie the existence of rules- isn't it time to take it somewhere, to have a message or whatever in your piece accept for 'i don't accept rules'?

Not that i think that everybody should do this and nothing else, but for me, to be truly good and original, a piece needs other things than non-conformity, and that might include melody, and it might not... Point is, it's not really about the melody for me, but about giving your listeners a new experience- and nowadays, noise ain't gonna do it any more than old-fashoined housegrooves or pop or whatever conventional genre there is...

regards,

p

[snooky]

damnit, why is this fixiation with melody so great...think about it, the birth of music is nothing more than percussive elements and repetitive chanting ( almost any kind of african folkmusic? )

really, some kinds of "modern" styles have no need for melody or other "essential" composition...

Techhouse and "nuschool" techno are great examples...pounding tribal rythms and noises that forms into melodies in a listeners head...far more advanced than any composition by Bach or Mozart...doesn't take much listening to understand classical music, but you can spend a whole lifetime trying to get to grips with EDM...it's pure music snobbery this "melody" thing...sure, if you're gonna use melody, harmony must follow (no point to it otherwise) but pure percussive instrumentation is totally melodic in it's own right.

[griels]

Nope. Composition first, 'traditional' standards of music last.

Now you're speaking for all of KVR
I personally place some value on traditional standards of music such as structure, tension, arrangement, harmony and dissonance (not necessarily 20th Century western forms either) and expressiveness. Embracing the new doesn't necessarily mean spurning the old. On the other hand I love sonic experimentation, and often I absolutely adore it when it goes hand in hand with more traditional musical attributes.

But, do note, the two don't exclude each other

Absolutely. This is something that appears to be an axiom of modern experimental music, as well as a belief of many more 'traditional' musicians. And it's complete codswallop IMO.

Why, because they composed their music from scratch.

No, I don't think that is either necessary or sufficient for making 'nice melodies'.

It is an absolute nonsense to claim that this was because they worked from scratch.

Indeed.

Plenty of music which eschews melody, chordal arranagements and all your other 'traditional' trappings was created from scratch.

Yes, some of which is excellent, and a load of which is pretentious guff.

[whyterabbyt]

FaX quoth

Ummm I wouldn't be auccusing people of circular arguements when you're implying that music with melody and hook is "pop"

I made no such implication.

The original poster claimed that the artists mentioned kraftwerk 'came up with some nice melodies' because 'they composed their music from scratch'. I said that those specific artists came up with 'nice melodies' because they were making what is generally describable as pop music. Please state exactly where I stated anything which made any parallel between 'melody and hook' and their causal relationship with any specific genre of music.

You totally lost me with that one statement I'm afraid the rest of your comments where definately valid but that was really as ridiculous some of the originators assumptions on "loops" .

Of course it is ridiculous. You made it up spuriously. It has no reasonable derivation from anything I actually said.

[whyterabbyt]

griels quoth
Now you're speaking for all of KVR

Actually I wasnt, I was speaking from a strictly personal viewpoint. My apologies if that wasnt made clear.

[Breakpete]

While I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with anybody on this at the moment (I just think making music should be a fun activity), it was pretty clear to me that the opinions expressed by the original poster were his own, and not meant to speak on the behalf of everyone else.

He asked questions based on his opinions to start a discussion. Nothing wrong with that. I certainly didn't feel he was expressing himself on behalf of me.