Re: MisK.

[Michael P. Metlay <psuvax1!mpmst1@cisunx.cs.psu.edu>]

> From: IED0DXM@OAC.UCLA.EDU (Andrew Marvick)

> Mike Metlay writes (with Doug's reply):

>> ...by the way, Kate is, for all her songwriting and singing talent,
>> still little more than an amateur when it comes to using the
>> fairlight....

>>> I don't think anyone has ever claimed that Kate herself is a
>>> technical wiz with the Fairlight.  On the other hand, the members
>>> of Tangerine Dream, for instance, have answered when asked who
>>> they think is doing the most interesting things with synthesizers
>>> today, "Kate Bush". -- Doug

>> if you want to hear what it can do in the hands of a pro, check out
>> "Zoolook" by Jean-Michel Jarre....play it loud, and with
>> headphones,

> No wish on IED's part to deny Jarre's achievements, which he
> genuinely appreciates, esp. some of the things on _Zoolook_ and
> _Chants(/Champs) Magnetiques_, but Mike's comment comes perilously
> close to being a judgment of music in terms of its technical
> presentation rather than in terms of its quality _as_music_.

Fair enough. I concede the point, without altering my opinion. I am a
technician as much as a music lover; this comes from ten years of
immersion in electronic music as player and listener. I would never
dream of denigrating Kate's music, with or without the CMI; LIONHEART
does quite well without it, for example. I merely take issue with the
implication (perhaps falsely inferred my me) that Kate's work with the
CMI represents the cutting edge of what is being done with the
instrument.

      [	I don't think anyone would say that.  I *do* think, however,
	that her use of the recording studio as an artistic instrument
	in itself is on the cutting edge.  -- |>oug ]

> primarily an expedient way for her to create her music. It's
> probably very likely that if the Fairlight never existed, Kate would
> simply have developed some of its sounds herself, through more
> time-consuming methods.

I rest my case. |->

>      More significant than this, though, is the mistake which Mike
> makes in considering Jarre's "professional" use of the Fairlight a
> sign of some (any) kind of superiority over Kate's "amateur" use of
> the instrument.  In a contemporary, literal sense, this is true
> enough.  Prior to the twentieth century, however, the term "amateur"
> was used as a high compliment in order to describe an artist who did
> not create in order to make money. The term "professional" carried a
> correspondingly negative connotation, because it implied that the
> artist's work was affected -- usually adversely -- by his/her
> intention of making money from it. In this sense of the two terms,
> then, Kate Bush, despite her worldly status as a professional, lives
> and makes music like a true "amateur," creating art which frequently
> defies the narrow limitations of popular music genres, and which
> invariably stems from a deeply personal inner voice.
>      Jean-Michel Jarre, by contrast, is an artist hopelessly doomed to
> "professionalism," whose music, for all its technical flash and facile
> sonic gloss, remains grossly commercial, patently superficial and
> hopelessly mired in conventions of the pop genre.

This is a somewhat messier bit of misinterpretation to unravel. First
off, as an amateur (your definition, Andrew, not the one you falsely
ascribe to me) electronic musician with a fairly enthusiastic, if
small, following, I enjoy the freedom of not relying upon my music for
my livelihood, and believe that it allows me to express myself in a
truer and more enjoyable way. I derive as much enjoyment from creating
single pieces by commission (an art form not often seen today, and
revived, I might add, by Jarre, who created and sold at auction a
single copy of an album and then, to his record company's horror,
allowed it to be played only once (and bootlegged) on French radio
before he burned the master tapes and disks, because he was sick of
his music being treated as a throwaway consumer product rather than
art...but I digress....) as I do from preparing albums for general
release, simply because my bread and butter don't depend on them.
Kate, for all of the time she takes between her albums, is still a
professional musician by your definition, and the fact that she
doesn't allow this to adversely affect her work is to her credit.

Second, the distinction I drew between Kate's and Jarre's work was
that of facility in a technical sense, and was merely intended as a
means of piquing the interest of those who might be interested in
hearing the CMI stretched to its limits by an artist trained for years
in all forms of musique concrete, from tape loops to the CMI. It was
perhaps an unfortunate choice of words to imply Kate's "inferiority"
in this case; I'm grateful that Doug manages to maintain enough
objectivity to take my comparison in the spirit in which it was meant,
rather than to assume immediately that I was attempting to drag her
considerable track record through the proverbial mud. From your
description of your opinion of Jarre's music, I think it safe to say
that you're not a Jarre fan|->. I'm sorry for that; you're missing out
on some excellent music, and for all the wrong reasons to boot. But
I'm not here to defend Jean-Michel Jarre to the world; his music
speaks for itself. I'm just trying to keep my attempt to compare the
technical details of two wildly different artists' styles from being
twisted into a Kate-bashing orgy. If I offended your sensibilities by
my admittedly unfortunate choice of the words "amateur" and
"professional", then I'm truly sorry. (For what it's worth, I was
misinterpreted by the fellow who wrote the original posting as well.
He Emailed me a fairly stiff letter, to which I replied as best I
could, and was quite friendly subsequently.  Ruffled feathers on both
sides of the issue have since been, er, plucked.)

Kate ain't bad but I've found better,

-- 
Mike Metlay	nuclear physicist, electronic musician, Xpander Users' Group
METLAY@PITTVMS.BITNET		founder, MegaTraveller coauthor, indie comic
metlay@vms.cis.pittsburgh.edu		collector, Illuminati/Erisian. Fnord!
PO Box 81175, Pittsburgh, PA 15217-0675   DISCLAIMER: These MY opinions bro'.