beauty, meaning, and other things out of fashion...

[Jon Drukman <jdrukman@us.oracle.com>]

>I'm certainly willing to admit that there are exceptions, but I just 
>think the general trend has gone too far the other way.  Synths and
>drum boxes just make it too easy to produce a sound that makes good
>dance floor "hits" and it seems to me that too many people take that
>easy way out rather than take the time to learn and master instruments.

i'm sorry but this just smacks of laziness.  i spend a large chunk of
my life crafting tracks on electronic gear in a studio, and i spend an
even larger chunk tracking down other records made by similarly minded
individuals.  there are many of us out there - we are well underground
and you probably would not have heard of any of us, but we are there,
we are working, and we get annoyed when people like you tar us with
the same brush you'd apply to any generic top 40 crew.  the point is
that instruments are tools - drum machines don't make it any easier to
make shit records than guitars do.  you just THINK that's the case
because you have a predisposition to cut someone with a guitar some
slack.  well i'm sorry to bring the roof down on your prejudice but
the truth is that making a bad record with a guitar is no easier or
harder than making a bad record with a drum machine.  but, i hear you
cry, it takes at least some minimal amount of talent to play a guitar
- even on a bad 3 chord rock song.  well, i submit that the amount of
talent required to play a bad 3 chord song is EXACTLY EQUAL to the
amount of talent required to program a lame dance track.

>A real drummer may be able to come up with a lot of good musical ideas
>that a person programming a box won't because that person hasn't spent
>their career devoting themselves to finding out what good percussion
>can add to a piece of music.  But it's so easy to program a boring
>drum box part, why take the trouble to hire someone who knows what
>they are doing?                                                      

it's so easy to have a live drummer play a boring part as well... what
is your point?

>Well, maybe I will sometime.  As I said, I'm willing to believe there
>are exceptions out there, I just don't like how overwhelming the trend
>seems to be.

what you are saying is that most of the music you hear through casual
attention is crap.  that's fine, but you abstract your particular
observations into universal truths.  they just don't hold.  there is
SO much good music out there - no matter what your particular
persuasion may be... you just have to find it.  i guess i'm spoiled in
that i have the time and money to spend looking for it.  tell you what
i'll do - send me a blank tape and i'll send you a tape filled with
creative and innovative sounds - and some of it might even be produced
by some bloke programming a computer.

>>where would jamaican dub reggae be without the advent of the
>>modern recording studio?

>Course I guess it depends on how much one likes jamaican dub reggae.

i was using that as an example of a form of music that wouldn't exist
without multitrack and years of studio technique.  once the musicians
have turned in their performances, the mixologist must turn in
THEIRS... it's a three-stage process (writing, performing, dubbing).
quite unique and occasionally wonderful.

>I just think the trend to composed works is too large.

for you.

>Hardly anyone records live in a live setting anymore.

plenty of people do.

>Live albums are usually over-dubbed.

so buy bootlegs.

>When a studio album is recorded live it is considered a major
>exception to the industry rule.  So a certain form of art is dying.
>It will always be around to some degree, but I lament it being pushed
>aside by the more cookie-cutter kind of music one hears on the radio
>today.

turn off your radio.  i NEVER listen to the radio anymore.  last time
i did was when someone called to tell me my record was being played on
the modern mix show...

Jon Drukman                                         jdrukman%dlsun87@oracle.com
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This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence.