Am I one of the few people.....

[Julius Terrell]

I'm living proof that stereotypes can be wrong.

If the reason you're avoiding "black" music is because you don't want to be part of a stereotype, you're not really disproving the stereotype. You're probably doing yourself a greater disservice in the end, because you're still ruled by the stereotype.

I wish people like you would stop. It's annoying that people like you would assume something like that when all I'm trying to be is my own person with my own music tastes.

I'm sick of people assuming that I like African American culture's music because of my skin color. Nobody's interested in finding out what makes me me. Rather it's easier to make an assumption or just apply the classic stereotype.

I made a thread sometime back about the fact that I sing classical music. You guys have no idea how many people assumed that I wanted to sing R&B or hip hop, or told me I should sing that instead. I'm like What!!!

I'd rather chase my own ideas of electronic music then fulfill everyone else's ideas of music should be.

 

[lacktheknack]

As far as I can tell there was never one [dumb] reason for the term coming into being. It was only 'required' (most likely by unintelligent music journos. wait, is there any other kind?) when electronica began to gain far more mainstream traction, ergo numpties needed another label to distinguish between 'normal' - often mainstream - electronic music, and the stuff Warp was increasingly making waves with.

Not sure how you get that I "overly value intelligence". I despise the term because, by extension, it suggests other music may be 'less' intelligent - what kind of dimwit wishes to divide art based on 'intelligence', even used as a terrible euphemism for 'duh, it's more complex and stuff to what I am used to!'? They could've at least generated a less patronising and more accurate term. There's a lot of dumb electronica in the world, and a lot of a extraordinarily intelligently 'normal' dance music. (EDM's daft as well, and I refuse to use it, but at least it's not directly and profoundly offensive)

Not sure how you get that I "overly value intelligence". I despise the term because, by extension, it suggests other music may be 'less' intelligent

...you first say that you don't overly value intelligence, then in the next sentence, you show why you do.

It's only patronizing and offensive if you think that "less intelligent" is a bad thing.

You only think "less intelligent" is a bad thing if you have an over-inflated view on intelligence (don't worry, most of the internet does). You're also giving yourself away by trying to insult all music journalists, and all you come up with is "they're unintelligent".

There's nothing wrong with using the word "intelligent" to divide by complexity. You could also use the word "complicated", or "overproduced" (at least, using some definitions of the word). Compared to the norm, they're accurate.

As for the reason:

The term "intelligent" was used primarily because of Warp's "Artificial Intelligence" series - it just seemed like a good way to describe a sound while leaving plenty of room open for interpretation and invention.

http://web.archive.org/web/20071118071301/http://elists.resynthesize.com/idm/1993/08/412600/

Also, all IDM is electronica, but not all electronica is IDM, so I'm not sure what your comment at the end was about.

But their fiddling around and experimenting with stuff IS their point. The Mt. St Michel mix, for instance, is divided into a drum breakdown, a melodious setup, a quiet bit, and a "rapid fire" ending, and each part is equally important overall. Each one is a point in and of itself.

...of course, this is why IDM isn't particularly popular.

eh..I guess I'm more into feels than technical proficiency...I actually like like classical music but stuff like this and metal just doesn't do it for me

That's perfectly fair, at least you gave it a shot.

 

[lacktheknack]

I'm living proof that stereotypes can be wrong.

If the reason you're avoiding "black" music is because you don't want to be part of a stereotype, you're not really disproving the stereotype. You're probably doing yourself a greater disservice in the end, because you're still ruled by the stereotype.

I wish people like you would stop. It's annoying that people like you would assume something like that when all I'm trying to be is my own person with my own music tastes.

I'm sick of people assuming that I like African American culture's music because of my skin color. Nobody's interested in finding out what makes me me. Rather it's easier to make an assumption or just apply the classic stereotype.

I made a thread sometime back about the fact that I sing classical music. You guys have no idea how many people assumed that I wanted to sing R&B or hip hop, or told me I should sing that instead. I'm like What!!!

I'd rather chase my own ideas of electronic music then fulfill everyone else's ideas of music should be.

We assume you're being ruled (by exclusion) by the stereotype because you're so active and vocal about avoiding it. That's not healthy either. If your tastes don't include "black music", it's probably best to just say "I don't like it" than be tortured about how much you don't like what it represents.

For years now, everyone assumes I'm a metalhead, because annoyed-looking big white guys apparently fill that stereotype, but I don't care much for metal, so I calmly tell them that I'm more of a Madonna fan and enjoy the baffled double-takes. That's probably a better approach to it than your current approach. It's certainly more fun.

 

[Kricketz]

Like the OP I am also African American and I also live in the US. With that being said. I tend to listen to quite a bit of electronic music. I generally listen to Electro House, sometimes progressive house. I also enjoy listening to Hardstyle, particularly during workouts.

Also, rap/hip hop is not the only genre of music in African American culture. There's Jazz, Funk, and Disco as well. Hell, Reggae and Dub have a major influence in D&B. House has roots in disco/funk, and then house music tends to have roots and influences in almost every genre of electronic. House actually originated in Chicago by Blacks and Latinos before spreading to Europe and Australia

That's what I love about music, especially in today's world. Being able to hear sounds from some of my favorite funk songs sampled over a dope house track. Or hearing a smooth ass bass line on the low end and some crazy riffs from an electric guitar harmonizing with some synths and disco inspired drums. It just blows my mind the possibilities.

Music is too expansive to allow yourself to be defined by a particular genre. Chances are the genre of music you prefer has either been influenced by or has and is currently influencing other genres.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

one of the few people?

few people?

oh lawd....

I was almost thinking the same thing... until OP mentioned America...

OT: Okay... Do you mean the type of electronic music that's NOT mainstream? Otherwise, that's basically ALL I hear on the public radio stations near me...

At least the electronic music I listen to tend to be more independent-esque than the one's you would hear on those radio stations... In the meantime, does anyone listen to Savant?

Spoiler: Savant

I do now! Shit's bumpin'!

I love how OP mentions 'the few people' with respects to liking electronica and techno when things like Avicii regularly top charts. Electronica is probably one of the biggest genres going at present, 'few' is not a word that I would associate with it.

 

[Buckshaft]

Darkcore, Early 90s Drum and bass and UK Garage are all pretty beast. Skanna and Flatliner in particular rule.

 

[purf]

I think you'd like Nils Frahm. He combines instrumental music (mostly piano) with electronic music. Some of his stuff is pretty amazing:
Shit really starts ramping up up into awesomeness at around the 9:30 mark.
Might not be the same kind of stuff you're talking about though.

Ohhh! Nice! Some weeks ago I've thrown Nils Frahm into my Spotify 'Everything' playlist - without paying much attention, more as a bookmark. Got to actually LISTEN to it just a few days ago. Yes. Yes.

On the topic. "Am I one of the few people" had me.. well, confused as well. But then again, I am from the land of Can, Kraftwerk, Mouse on Mars,... ;þ

I've NEVER been interested in Hip-hop. It's not my genre.

No? (It's ancient by today's standards but you'll get the idea)[disclaimer: fucks I give about genre definitions:_]
You know Soma.fm? Check out (from the top of my head) Digitalis, Cliqhop and Drone Zone

______
edit: can I please not read Avicii again? Do you bring up, say... Nickelback in arguments pro guitar music? #ffs

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

OH MY GOD! Stop with the criticism of the phrase "Am I the only one?". When I saw this title I cringed because it seemed like the OP was trying to awkwardly avoid phrasing it like that to avoid the backlash. Everyone knows what it means. The OP always knows they aren't the only one. You aren't enlightening them by informing them of this. It's a figure of speech meaning "I feel like there aren't many people in this category, who else here fits in it?". Even saying "Am I one of the few people" apparently is enough for people to go in a semantic uproar over it. Even when it IS a smaller genre, and in the scale of all population, there is probably a small amount of people who like it.

Stop being deliberately obtuse, everyone knows what is meant by this phrase. This is the equivalent of me going into every thread that says "I hate it when... " and informing people that they don't actually hate it, as that's too strong of a emotion in relation to their moderate dislike.

*cough* anyways

OT: I've never really looked to much into electronic music, largely because I don't tend to look into a lot of music in general because most of it really doesn't hit my tastes. From what I have heard of it, it seems like a varied enough genre that there's bound to be stuff that I like, although it's not something I'd deliberately seek out. Is dubstep electronic music? If so I really don't like that kind of stuff, the stuff that seems like it's just trying to sound trippy.

I can sympathize with your complaints of the saminess of most music that you see. I wish that I'd see more music that uses instruments besides guitar, drums, vocals and electronic sounds. I love the sound of violin, flute, brass and piano, and it seems like those instruments get far less love. When you do hear them in most popular music so often they just put them in a kind of solo context, instead of making them part of the meat of the song.

I'm sure there's places where I can find it, but without trying to do some digging around the only places I see them in are in soundtracks. Which can be good in their own right, my music collection is absolutely brimming with stuff from Yuki Kajiura

 

[lacktheknack]

edit: can I please not read Avicii again? Do you bring up, say... Nickelback in arguments pro guitar music? #ffs

k, new rule.

People may only compare other artists to Nickelback when they have coherent grounded-in-theory reasons why they're comparable.

Seeing how no one has risen to the previous challenge of "Explain to me in non-opinionated terms what is wrong with Nickelback", I have low hope that anyone will rise to this one.

Also, "Hey Brother" by Avicii is one of the best songs released this year, so pfft.

 

[AnarchistFish]

lots of people listen to the genres you list

just not as many as the more popular ones

 

[purf]

edit: can I please not read Avicii again? Do you bring up, say... Nickelback in arguments pro guitar music? #ffs

k, new rule.

People may only compare other artists to Nickelback when they have coherent grounded-in-theory reasons why they're comparable.

Seeing how no one has risen to the previous challenge of "Explain to me in non-opinionated terms what is wrong with Nickelback", I have low hope that anyone will rise to this one.

Also, "Hey Brother" by Avicii is one of the best songs released this year, so pfft.

I personally don't mind Nickelback. My exposure to that band is way too little for me to have formed an opinion. If I tuned into "How You Remind Me" on the radio, I'd probably turn up the volume. I went all meta here, hoping to make a connection to what I believe is - around here - regarded as Bubblegum Rock, something that aims at hitting the lowest common denominator amongst its potential audience. And yes, thus, I take offense if someone thinks it's appropriate to liken Avicii to what is being discussed here. That's like saying What are you up to, OP, Deafheaven is a mainstream hit because Nickelback is.'. And I'll repeat this bit: ffs

 

[maxben]

Hey Julius, ever listen to VNV Nation? They are quite different from the genres you've entered but they are electronic music, using mixing relatively simple music with deep lyrics/meanings (which is what I appreciate about them). Their music also changes a lot on every album.




Tell me what you think, I honestly don't know anyone who listens to them. I tend to like music with a message, it's why I like these guys and Bad Religion, but generally dislike electronic music or punk rock.

 

[Blow_Pop]

Drum and Bass is obscure? Then either I know of and have met A LOT of people who like it or it's not really that obscure. That said I have also been known to go to music festivals and raves as well so that might account for my taste in music. But I listen to a lot of different types and styles of music so that's not saying much. Also, Californians seem to love most of the different types of music you're specifically referencing. Especially fucking chiptunes. And our radio stations seem to play quite a bit of electronic music. In between the rest of the pop crap that's coming out lately (basically what I'm saying is I don't like MOST new music from past 2003 though some genres I don't like past the 90s so...take that as you will) But suffice it to say, No. You are definitely not.

Anytime you want to ask am I one of the few people? or am I the only person who? just remember the answer is always no. There are plenty of people who share your like/dislike of whatever it is that you're going to ask with either of those. ALWAYS. They might be harder to find but they exist.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

...you first say that you don't overly value intelligence, then in the next sentence, you show why you do.

It's only patronizing and offensive if you think that "less intelligent" is a bad thing.

I'm arguing that the terms 'intelligent' and 'un-' or 'less intelligent' are preposterous terms - I'm not making any value judgments on Aphex or whatever the hell un-intelligent dance music may be.

You offered up 'complexity' and 'complicated', but those aren't accurate representations of how The Acronym That Shall Not Be Named is commonly perceived. 'Intelligent' implies value judgments, whereas terms alluding to genre complexity do not. For me that's a massive difference.

Electronica sufficed for most people in the '90's, and was understood to cover a wide range of subgenres (or, better still, fans didn't give a toss about what genre their favourite artists may or may not have fitted into. people found their labeled niche within it). It could lead to no perceived value based elitism, either.

You're also giving yourself away by trying to insult all music journalists, and all you come up with is "they're unintelligent".

(I didn't try to insult music journos, I believe I simply went right ahead and did so)

As for the reason

That archive and the DJZ 'history' link at the top only prove my point - that it's been a contentious and unproductive catch-all term since the first time people sadly started throwing it around.

If the term has survived, it's only through interpretive ignorance and/or laziness.

 

[lacktheknack]

edit: can I please not read Avicii again? Do you bring up, say... Nickelback in arguments pro guitar music? #ffs

k, new rule.

People may only compare other artists to Nickelback when they have coherent grounded-in-theory reasons why they're comparable.

Seeing how no one has risen to the previous challenge of "Explain to me in non-opinionated terms what is wrong with Nickelback", I have low hope that anyone will rise to this one.

Also, "Hey Brother" by Avicii is one of the best songs released this year, so pfft.

I personally don't mind Nickelback. My exposure to that band is way too little for me to have formed an opinion. If I tuned into "How You Remind Me" on the radio, I'd probably turn up the volume. I went all meta here, hoping to make a connection to what I believe is - around here - regarded as Bubblegum Rock, something that aims at hitting the lowest common denominator amongst its potential audience. And yes, thus, I take offense if someone thinks it's appropriate to liken Avicii to what is being discussed here. That's like saying What are you up to, OP, Deafheaven is a mainstream hit because Nickelback is.'. And I'll repeat this bit: ffs

The quote in question:

I love how OP mentions 'the few people' with respects to liking electronica and techno when things like Avicii regularly top charts.

...Avicii is EDM. In America, EDM = Electronica. Outside of America, the genres are seen as separate. Is it really necessary to be so annoyed about an obscure rookie mistake, especially considering that Avicii is pretty damn good?

...you first say that you don't overly value intelligence, then in the next sentence, you show why you do.

It's only patronizing and offensive if you think that "less intelligent" is a bad thing.

I'm arguing that the terms 'intelligent' and 'un-' or 'less intelligent' are preposterous terms - I'm not making any value judgments on Aphex or whatever the hell un-intelligent dance music may be.

You offered up 'complexity' and 'complicated', but those aren't accurate representations of how The Acronym That Shall Not Be Named is commonly perceived. 'Intelligent' implies value judgments, whereas terms alluding to genre complexity do not. For me that's a massive difference.

...for you. Not for others (such as myself). "Intelligent" doesn't imply value judgement to me, end of.

Electronica sufficed for most people in the '90's, and was understood to cover a wide range of subgenres (or, better still, fans didn't give a toss about what genre their favourite artists may or may not have fitted into. people found their labeled niche within it). It could lead to no perceived value based elitism, either.

...but electronica is not interchangeable with IDM. IDM is a subgenre of electronica. Now, if you're saying "screw subgenres", then that's something we can probably mostly agree on.

As for the reason

That archive and the DJZ 'history' link at the top only prove my point - that it's been a contentious and unproductive catch-all term since the first time people sadly started throwing it around.

The what? I can't find what you're referring to.

If the term has survived, it's only through interpretive ignorance and/or laziness.

...or people like me perpetrate it because it's not a big freaking deal.

 

[Weaver]

I don't really think most of those are that obscure. As someone who has listened to electronic music for essentially my entire life (since around 91' or 92') and has been raving for a very long time; Trance and D&B are not at all obscure. "Experimental Braindance" is obscure.

IDM... I mean, compared to house? Sure. But with Squarepusher getting 900k views on his songs on youtube, is it really fair to call it obscure? Of course he's so famous now that some IDM diehards are claiming he's not IDM because the only thing IDM seemed to give a shit about was being obscure and inaccessible.

I'm relatively certain every other raver I associate with knows what speedcore is and hates it. If you like it, power to you, but I cannot stand it. And this is coming from an HHC kid who likes dancing to 180BPM tracks for 9 hours.

Trance has always been huge in Europe, and coming from the Toronto area we have had an amazingly dedicated D&B and Hardcore scene for as long as I can remember. Toronto certainly lost the Jungle crown some time ago, but in 1999 a Jungle party at the CNE outsold an Alanis Morissette concert on the same night (10,000 to 8000). Of course, Bill 73 (the Raves act of 2000), which lead to the famous iDance rally, basically lent itself to the collapse of the rave scene here.

Maybe this is just the fact I've been involved in a city so integral to the NA rave scene that my perception is like this. Almost all my friends were into electronic music as well, so it just seems like my life has been entirely saturated with people who were all about it, you know?

Anyways, long story short: is the current "EDM" popularity explosion irritating, corporate, and terrible? Pretty much, yeah. I mean it's not like every bigroom track is literally the same song or anything. But trust me, the underground is still alive and well. You just have to know where to look

Finally, the whole thing makes me feel really bad for Eric Prydz.