Re: Asian culture (was: OT DID YOU KNOW?)

[mark francombe <mark@markfrancombe.com>]

Fascinating read Andy... 

but to answer Sjaaks question.. yes they do.. Japan, China and India all have HUGE scenes...(Japan and China in noise, improv and drone, India has a big electronica scene, probably spawned by Goa..)  Israel (not Asian, but eastern) has a big alternative scene, Don't know about Thailand (prob too busy with tourism - seen a few good
Rock bands tho - HELL I played in Thailand once, in a Hotel band for
one night ha ha), or any of Africa, never found any when I was there... you should check out Wire Magazine. Every week they do a one page on a different citys scene... one of my favorite regular bits..

m

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 5:19 PM, andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:

Sjaak asked:
"Let me ask you another question: do Asians create some kind of
experimental music? Ambient, Avant-Garde? Or do we consider these as
strictly "Western" because of the culturale differences?"

I got totally caught up trying to answer that one :-)

here's a flavour,
please disregard if it all seems somewhat nonsensical.
...but seems a shame to just press delete

(although I did edit out the bits about different parts of Asia,
.....there's so many, and it all got out of hand)


I think to answer that you first need to look at the Western notion
of experimental music. The idea of new music that is difficult for
the mainstream enjoy is rather recent, I'd guess it started around
the turn of the previous century.

In Asia, for 1000's of years we often had the situation that music
was funded by people who appreciated the new styles of the time,
with a healthy respect for the local folk musics. The courts employed
musicians to keep them supplied with the latest sounds, and there
was an exchange of ideas between the court musicians and folk musicians.
Although this situation is changed, much of the music seems to be surviving.

Compare the current state in UK, where music funding is by pen pushers who quite likely aren't going to listen to the music that they authorise. We don't have the history of the wealthy
patronising a music related to the local folk music, perhaps
due to the Norman conquest, ( 1066). The imported aristocracy
preferred European music. Listening to what is presented as
folk music here today I don't hear all the delicate tuning
and rhythm subtleties that I hear in Asian music, rather it
sounds like it has been scored out, then interpreted with
trite harmony and the emphasis on the down beat.  
Before Western influence, and still surviving in some places Asian music incorporates innovation in a natural way. There's
no need to react against a tradition that isn't hidebound.

For most of the innovations of the West, I think it's possible to
find examples of Asian music that did it first, and did it better.
Ambient, Minimalism, pure sound, rhythmic complication, microtones,
drone, and just plain "that's not music".

..and plenty of Asian music that Western theory just doesn't understand.


andy butler

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