the big where is loop music today contest

[Michael Peters <mpeters@csi.com>]

hi all,

two years ago, I wrote a modest little essay about the history of looping 
(called 'The Birth of Loop'), mainly in order to clarify that it wasn't 
Eno 
or Fripp who invented this thing, but that the roots of looping go back a 
little further. The essay can be found on our looper's website under 
'history'.

I closed the essay essentially with some lines about Fripp's kind of 
looping music, and with the question what the future of looping might be.

My essay is clearly outdated now - there is a lot of looping in 
contemporary music which should be mentioned. Also, the definition of 
looping that I used is possibly too narrow: For me, looping meant 
something 
continuous, basically similar to Frippertronics. For many other people, 
loops are essentially samples, like the closed ring tape loops that were 
used since the earliest days of music concrete.

I'd like very much to add these things to the essay, but I need your help. 
While in the seventies or eighties, I felt like an expert on all those 
genres and important musical currents, I don't feel like that any longer, 
so I don't feel like I should write about them myself.

I got this message from rusellc@aol.com today:

> Before hip hop, yes there was looping.  But hip hop was the music that
> made the use of loops in music.  Before hip hop looping was only 
exprimental,
> but now it is used as a basis for music.  Many looping machines such as
> samplers were never used the way they are now until hip hop artists used
> them.  In closing I'd like to say that hip hop music should be credited 
more
> for bringing foward the use of loops creatively.

That's a very interesting thought and an example for what I'd like to hear 
from you all:

a couple of lines about the state of looping in today's music - general 
thoughts, opinions, examples, whatever - not necessarily just about hip 
hop, but about all those kinds of today's music which incorporate loops, 
and also about contemporary loop technologies and maybe philosophies.

I'll collect the results and add them to the history essay (listing all 
authors of course). Looking forward to your entries,

-Michael Peters