Re: Guitar good, DJ's bad, etc (was LOOPING PHILOSOPHY)

[Dave Stagner <dstagner@icarus.net>]

On Tue, 12 Aug 1997, T.W. Hartnett wrote:

> >> Will say, Art of Noise records be referred back to in twenty years in 
>the 
> >> same way that Cream records are?  
> >
> >Only if there's any justice left.
> 
> Don't bet on it.  Influential as Art of Noise has been on people who own 
> and/or operatate synthesizers, I think they may end up in the category 
>of 
> "Historical Significance Only".  I mean, I think that the third Peter 
> Gabriel album (with the melting face cover, includes "Games Without 
> Frontiers" and "Biko") is ENORMOUSLY influential, enjoyable and worthy 
>of 
> praise, but I'm astounded at the number of people, even musicians with a 
> stated interest in unusual, electronic pop music, who are unaware of or 
> indifferent to it.  If nothing else, this is the album that 
> singlehandedly introduced the gated reverb drum sound to the world, but 
> it doesn't really matter in the end.  Civilians hear it and say 
> "Nice...but I prefer 'So'."

Try applying this logic to Cream.  How many "civilians" have ever
really listened to Robert Johnson?  All Cream did was electrify
someone else's music.  It was enormously successful and popular, and
for good reason.  That just shows that success is no measure of
creativity or innovation, much less musical power. 

-dave

By "beauty," I mean that which seems complete.
Obversely, that the incomplete, or the mutilated, is the ugly. 
Venus De Milo.
To a child she is ugly.       /* dstagner@icarus.net */
   -Charles Fort