Re: Why does mainstream seem more like , downstream these days?

[Matt Davignon <mattdavignon@gmail.com>]

There's a tenet of experimental music that I don't agree with so much
these days, and it's the idea that everything must be new.

The term "new" then leads to the question - what is "new" right now?
Is it using the newest technology (Iphones, Multi-axis midi
controllers, etc)? Is it adding more frosting to existing genres of
music? (Such as dubstep, which while nice, is pretty much
industrial/IDM with echoes.) My concern is that the push for "newness"
often leads away from uniqueness.

Another phrase I've come to dislike is "pushing the envelope" - as if
it implies that one's music is a rocket exploring the furthest reaches
of space. The problem is that the rockets all seem to be pointed in
the same direction - towards more noisiness, dissonance, sonic chaos
and extreme volume. That's already been explored and charted years
ago. I don't have a problem with those elements - just that we need to
stop calling them new.

Meanwhile, there's plenty of uncharted space in between the points of
what's already been charted. I think finding that space is the whole
idea of "personal music" I talked about earlier. Rather than doing a
great "pushing the envelope" album, work on a great album where you
imagine your name as a tiny microgenre of music. Just don't put that
anywhere on the album title or liner notes. :)


-- 
Matt Davignon
mattdavignon@gmail.com
www.ribosomemusic.com
Rigs! www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt