roachboy

just to piggyback on what vanblah said above:

pop forms--ESPECIALLY in the states--work within a very tight straightjacket in terms of--well--pretty much everything. but what you hear on the wasteland that is commercial radio (and the even more narrowly construed multiplex of wastelands that is netradio more often than not) is not representative of the genres, of the often huge range of people who make stuff, most of whom are very dedicated to what they are doing because they love it, and who work and perform for that reason.


most straighter forms are not difficult to do--but they can be very difficult indeed to do well.

i don't play these forms because they dont move me as a player, but i respect the musicianship and dedication of those who do work in them.
even those folk who work in forms i dont like.

for example: my brother is a bluegrass player. generally, i would rather drive tacks into my forehead than listen to bluegrass on record--but i enjoy the energy and pleasure of hanging around picking sessions, even if i have no interest at all in participating in them (i cant imagine anything cheesier than piano in that context---its a string player's music and is just fine that way)---i appreciate the care with which good players approach the form.

another note on bluegrass (one that curiously enough links to hiphop)--i find the form irritating to *hear* but not irritating to *listen to*. when all you are doing is hearing it, you can focus on the 1-4--5 progressions and the fact that bass players will only play root fifth root fifth passing tone...but if you listen to it, you can figure out pretty quick that the center of the music is getting the band to work as a seamless machine in terms of rhythm and that the players who take breaks work within severe constraints in terms of pitch selection and placement--and are often very skilled and do interesting things within these constraints. but you have to focus to notice.

it might be that folk who do not like hip hop only hear it.
what i've seen in this thread from those who dont like the form is really superficial stuff, the result of hearing at best.

most soundwork requires focus.
there is no reason why it should be otherwise.

1a.

it makes no sense to disparage the craft of musicians who work in areas that you do not personally enjoy consuming.

to do it is like telling someone that they love the wrong way.



2.

"complexity" is in many ways easier than simple. if you play an instrument with a certain degree of technical skill, "complexity" can mean "play alot of notes"--it's more difficult--and requires alot more attention--to generate clarity of structure. you often hear younger cats who are technically quite accomplished who will not shut up, like they are afraid that if they lay out they will disappear altogether. if they keep going and working, you might hear them a few years later and they do more with less. past a certain point, placement is as important as the fact you can generate a flurry of sound.

if you want to traffic in development and not in riffs, you are also trafficking in clarity of structure, in logic. this doesn't change because of what's around you--the problem is that same for someone playing off changes as it is for someone playing a solo piece in a post-serial context, nor does it matter whether you are playing a cover or doing free improvisation. clarity of line, no extra notes...not easy. not easy at all.


3.

on electronic music: there's *so* many folk out there working under this very general rubric that it makes little sense to lump it together.
it is far far far from a single form.
for example, people working with granular synthesis are not typically generating dance music. they aren't performing for the same audiences, arent working in the same contexts.
that you know more about dance-oriented electronic music speaks mostly to the preferences of those who do radio or club programming--what demands less sells more drinks--you dont sell alot of drinks to a crowd who is there to listen seriously.
go to a performance of technically advanced electronic music in a loft or small club and look around at what people are doing during the set, if you dont believe me.
you'll discover a simple fact of retail life.

so you have to dig a bit to find more demanding recordings, more demanding players.
but they're out there.
trust me on this one.

an epilogue, which arrived by email as i was writing this post:

I offer you no proper names
either from great cities
on the other side of civilization
which have only to be visited
to be got the hell out of, by bus
or motorcycle, simply because place
as a force is a lie,
or at most a small truth,
now that man has no oar to screw down into the earth, and say
here i'll plant, does not know
why he should cease
staying on the prowl


Charles Olson
from "To Gerhardt, There, Among Europe's
Things of Which He Has Written Us
in His 'Brief an Creeley und Olson'"

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite