I want to talk abou the de-personalization of homemade experimental music
August 1, 2013
Revised August 18, 2013
I want to talk about the de-personalization of homemade experimental music, audio art, and noise.
I recently published a short vid on YouTube which neatly sums up my feelings about how to deal with the glut of music on the Internet
Here's the short text of the video:
"A complaint I hear and read about a lot these days is that there is too much music, too much noise, too many recordings. My own personal answer or response is to make my music, my noise, my audio art as personal as possible. I generally do not have an interest in any music or noise which obliterates or effaces personality."
That short essay actually also addresses my feelings and reactions to the de-personalization evident in various genres and sub-genres and sub-sub-genres of DIY Music - harsh noise, HNW, shitnoise, Power Electronics, electroacoustic improvisation (EAI), lower case improv, and ambient. This bit of playing at genres is kid stuff or for stuffy academic types or people who take themselves too seriously or for people who are trying to be "noise stars".
I think that one of the most important things about the DIY music scene - and it's been this way since the beginnings of the hometaper movement in the 1980s - "The Golden Era Of Cassettes" - is that what sets us apart from the mainstream music scene is that what we do is personal, is "real", it is US. It is not just a mere consumer product meant to push the right buttons to persuade the buyer to part with his/her cash.
I want to stress something: cassettes never really went away. It may seem like they did, but the truth is different. I think it is a mistake to view cassettes from a retro-chic nostalgia angle. I think it is better to view it as a continuum.
Back in the late 1990s I was sure that cassettes and cassette labels were dying, so, as a kind of final tribute, I produced the Tape Heads Cassette Compilation project, which consisted of eight 90-minute volumes - a pretty healthy response for a medium that was supposedly dying.
You will recall my Dictaphonia Microcassette Compilation Project in 2009 and 2010 - which consisted of 10 60-minute volumes.
And then there was my recent Connection Cassette Compilation Project in 2012 - again eight volumes.
Tape still appeals to people in ways that compact discs and vinyl records never did, and in ways that mp3s haven't either. One of the big reasons of course is that tape seems organic and real and you can interact with it. That was its original appeal. CDs and records are closed, read-only. They are essentially consumer products. Tape is for artists. It's a canvas. And if art is for all, not just a few, then tape makes sense.
Of course the difference is that a cassette is an instrument of creation and the recording medium at the same time. The same can't be said for records and CDs. If someone is using a vinyl record recorder to make field recordings or using a portable CD-R recorder to make recordings in the street I'd like to know who they are so that I can investigate further. Tape is the medium of creation and distribution. I am NOT saying, however, that people can't use discs in live performance in a very personal, intimate way - Andrew Chadwick (Ironing), for example, has proven that that can be done, and quite successfully.
Having said all of that, I think it's also important that we stress that the beginnings of the Golden Age of Cassettes was where the whole homemade music phenomenon started, and it was definitely an outgrowth of the Mail Art and Small Press movements. Internet music is a logical extension in many ways of what we were doing back then. Access is a key word. Today's digital creative tools make creativity and getting one's stuff out to the world easier than ever, it certainly goes without saying.
The problem of course is that in many ways it's even harder to get one's work heard in the DELUGE of music on the Internet. It all seems so impersonal and cold sometimes. Now there are a million zillion music Groups on Facebook with ENDLESS streams of posts about "my new track". And there ARE lots of people trying to make it work, creating online collaborative projects and compilations and such. But I sometimes wonder if anybody other than the participants ever actually listen to these projects... Someone recently said that in the Internet Age Andy Warhol's maxim that "some day everybody will be famous for 15 minutes" has turned into "everybody will be famous to 15 people".
That is one of the great things about cassettes - that they are so personal! So intimate.
There are numerous cassette labels today, but to me MOST (not all) of them seem to be lacking something. They're all into the whole colored cassette shell and pro-printed covers and pro-dubbed tape in limited edition cultish preciousness that seems to me to miss the whole point. What makes cassettes special is that they are personal and intimate!
Now, I understand that for many people cassettes are hopelessly retro and nostalgic. I have stressed the importance of TAPE as a creative tool. But to me what is most important, regardless of the tools that you use, is that you reveal something about yourself in your music. I understand that music and art and noise can have many reasons and purposes - it goes without saying! BUT FOR ME, TO ME, if it is not personal, it is not for me!
I COULD bring out my out whole series of thoughts about how homemade experimental music is folk music, but that is another can of worms that does not really need to be addressed at this time ;)
One final thought, and I have said it before:
We write the history of us.
Revised August 18, 2013
I want to talk about the de-personalization of homemade experimental music, audio art, and noise.
I recently published a short vid on YouTube which neatly sums up my feelings about how to deal with the glut of music on the Internet
Here's the short text of the video:
"A complaint I hear and read about a lot these days is that there is too much music, too much noise, too many recordings. My own personal answer or response is to make my music, my noise, my audio art as personal as possible. I generally do not have an interest in any music or noise which obliterates or effaces personality."
That short essay actually also addresses my feelings and reactions to the de-personalization evident in various genres and sub-genres and sub-sub-genres of DIY Music - harsh noise, HNW, shitnoise, Power Electronics, electroacoustic improvisation (EAI), lower case improv, and ambient. This bit of playing at genres is kid stuff or for stuffy academic types or people who take themselves too seriously or for people who are trying to be "noise stars".
I think that one of the most important things about the DIY music scene - and it's been this way since the beginnings of the hometaper movement in the 1980s - "The Golden Era Of Cassettes" - is that what sets us apart from the mainstream music scene is that what we do is personal, is "real", it is US. It is not just a mere consumer product meant to push the right buttons to persuade the buyer to part with his/her cash.
I want to stress something: cassettes never really went away. It may seem like they did, but the truth is different. I think it is a mistake to view cassettes from a retro-chic nostalgia angle. I think it is better to view it as a continuum.
Back in the late 1990s I was sure that cassettes and cassette labels were dying, so, as a kind of final tribute, I produced the Tape Heads Cassette Compilation project, which consisted of eight 90-minute volumes - a pretty healthy response for a medium that was supposedly dying.
You will recall my Dictaphonia Microcassette Compilation Project in 2009 and 2010 - which consisted of 10 60-minute volumes.
And then there was my recent Connection Cassette Compilation Project in 2012 - again eight volumes.
Tape still appeals to people in ways that compact discs and vinyl records never did, and in ways that mp3s haven't either. One of the big reasons of course is that tape seems organic and real and you can interact with it. That was its original appeal. CDs and records are closed, read-only. They are essentially consumer products. Tape is for artists. It's a canvas. And if art is for all, not just a few, then tape makes sense.
Of course the difference is that a cassette is an instrument of creation and the recording medium at the same time. The same can't be said for records and CDs. If someone is using a vinyl record recorder to make field recordings or using a portable CD-R recorder to make recordings in the street I'd like to know who they are so that I can investigate further. Tape is the medium of creation and distribution. I am NOT saying, however, that people can't use discs in live performance in a very personal, intimate way - Andrew Chadwick (Ironing), for example, has proven that that can be done, and quite successfully.
Having said all of that, I think it's also important that we stress that the beginnings of the Golden Age of Cassettes was where the whole homemade music phenomenon started, and it was definitely an outgrowth of the Mail Art and Small Press movements. Internet music is a logical extension in many ways of what we were doing back then. Access is a key word. Today's digital creative tools make creativity and getting one's stuff out to the world easier than ever, it certainly goes without saying.
The problem of course is that in many ways it's even harder to get one's work heard in the DELUGE of music on the Internet. It all seems so impersonal and cold sometimes. Now there are a million zillion music Groups on Facebook with ENDLESS streams of posts about "my new track". And there ARE lots of people trying to make it work, creating online collaborative projects and compilations and such. But I sometimes wonder if anybody other than the participants ever actually listen to these projects... Someone recently said that in the Internet Age Andy Warhol's maxim that "some day everybody will be famous for 15 minutes" has turned into "everybody will be famous to 15 people".
That is one of the great things about cassettes - that they are so personal! So intimate.
There are numerous cassette labels today, but to me MOST (not all) of them seem to be lacking something. They're all into the whole colored cassette shell and pro-printed covers and pro-dubbed tape in limited edition cultish preciousness that seems to me to miss the whole point. What makes cassettes special is that they are personal and intimate!
Now, I understand that for many people cassettes are hopelessly retro and nostalgic. I have stressed the importance of TAPE as a creative tool. But to me what is most important, regardless of the tools that you use, is that you reveal something about yourself in your music. I understand that music and art and noise can have many reasons and purposes - it goes without saying! BUT FOR ME, TO ME, if it is not personal, it is not for me!
I COULD bring out my out whole series of thoughts about how homemade experimental music is folk music, but that is another can of worms that does not really need to be addressed at this time ;)
One final thought, and I have said it before:
We write the history of us.