We don’t really have salaries in our dimension.

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Re: We don’t really have salaries in our dimension.

Post by RichardT »

resistorman wrote: Tue Aug 03, 2021 3:36 pm
Arpangel wrote: Tue Aug 03, 2021 11:25 am Now, the ground isn’t so fertile, it’s been done to death, seeds have to work a lot harder to grow, fertile ground is hard to find, every remote corner of every field has a bunch of farmers on it.

I've been thinking about this for awhile, and it seems to me that what's missing is cultural isolation. New forms of music come about when musicians of different cultures meet, dig what the other is doing and combine it with their own. The 20th century is full of examples, particularly the final fusion of the great tectonic plates of European and African musical traditions, which seems to be complete.

An example comes from my own experience. Living in a small town in Pennsylvania, I was never exposed to the Blues, so when I heard Led Zeppelin and Cream I thought that it was cool new English music, not even knowing it was based on music from my own country, that the roots of Rock and Roll are the Blues. That's some serious cultural isolation. Even though there were a lot of recordings of the Black Blues pioneers, I just didn't hear them because of the deep racism in my country.

Most people on the planet are exposed to the same music now, so there are few isolated pockets for new language to develop, if you will. There are plenty of accents, just like English around the world, but nothing genuinely new.

I think that’s very true. But there’s a more positive aspect to the situation in that musicians now have instant access to music of every culture and era - millions of tracks. So it’s possible to select ideas from an absolutely vast palette.
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Re: We don’t really have salaries in our dimension.

Post by Arpangel »

RichardT wrote: Tue Aug 03, 2021 7:55 pm
resistorman wrote: Tue Aug 03, 2021 3:36 pm
Arpangel wrote: Tue Aug 03, 2021 11:25 am Now, the ground isn’t so fertile, it’s been done to death, seeds have to work a lot harder to grow, fertile ground is hard to find, every remote corner of every field has a bunch of farmers on it.

I've been thinking about this for awhile, and it seems to me that what's missing is cultural isolation. New forms of music come about when musicians of different cultures meet, dig what the other is doing and combine it with their own. The 20th century is full of examples, particularly the final fusion of the great tectonic plates of European and African musical traditions, which seems to be complete.

An example comes from my own experience. Living in a small town in Pennsylvania, I was never exposed to the Blues, so when I heard Led Zeppelin and Cream I thought that it was cool new English music, not even knowing it was based on music from my own country, that the roots of Rock and Roll are the Blues. That's some serious cultural isolation. Even though there were a lot of recordings of the Black Blues pioneers, I just didn't hear them because of the deep racism in my country.

Most people on the planet are exposed to the same music now, so there are few isolated pockets for new language to develop, if you will. There are plenty of accents, just like English around the world, but nothing genuinely new.

I think that’s very true. But there’s a more positive aspect to the situation in that musicians now have instant access to music of every culture and era - millions of tracks. So it’s possible to select ideas from an absolutely vast palette.

But that’s just it, it’s familiarity that’s killed it, it was this sudden discovery of black music by Classical musicians, and later on, by white Rock musicians that was so revolutionary, no one had heard that before, and yes, the technology of transport allowed that to happen, otherwise we’d all be completely unaware. And the trade wasn’t good, we took a lot from black culture, but did we give anything in return? I don’t think we did, on a musical level.
Yes, now we have this great big pallet, but none of it is mysterious anymore, it’s all there in front of us all, and it’s too easy to access, no effort involved, which tends to devalue it, like most of the technical things we can do these days "you did that on a computer yeah? anyone can do that, can’t they?"
People say that to me all the time, and TBQH, I really don’t know what to say.
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Re: We don’t really have salaries in our dimension.

Post by SecretSam »

I think it's still possible to be surprised by new music, exactly because of the vast stores of it that we can all access.

There is simply too much out there for any human being to hear in a lifetime. This kind of creates some cultural isolation, because we get dragged down our own rabbit hole. The recommendation algorithms in streaming services reinforce that.

I simplify my own listening syllabus by avoiding any artist who is known by a single name, or whose brand has initials in it :-) There is still too much.

Recent discoveries for me include Simon Turner (thanks, Arpangel), Robin Trower (yes I know he's always been famous - just not anywhere I have been), Stefan Bodzin
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Instant gratification is actually pretty good. It's fast as well.

Re: We don’t really have salaries in our dimension.

Post by Arpangel »

Let’s face it, if no more music was ever made by anyone, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
I’m still making amazing discoveries in classical music, I haven’t even scraped the surface of the last five hundred years, it would take me ten lifetimes to make a vague impression.
I’ve got about three albums worth of material in the computer of my own music that needs mixing and mastering, can I be bothered? no.
I’m pissing about with gear, getting new things, but I’m not really into making any more music, it just sort of happens, I’m far too busy listening to opera, that my partner is educating me in, I’ve got a new record deck and I’m rediscovering all if my old classical record’s I bought when I was a child, plus there’s loads of Jazz I need to checkout, it’s ridiculous, there’s enough to keep me going till the day I die, about two weeks worth :D:D:D
Beethoven’s 5th came on the radio last night, WTF? and I’m listening to Webern right now, I’m in heaven, the envelope doesn’t need pushing, it’s large enough as it is, thank you very much.
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Re: We don’t really have salaries in our dimension.

Post by N i g e l »

Arpangel wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 8:56 am Yes, now we have this great big pallet, but none of it is mysterious anymore, it’s all there in front of us all, and it’s too easy to access, no effort involved, which tends to devalue it, like most of the technical things we can do these days "you did that on a computer yeah? anyone can do that, can’t they?"
People say that to me all the time, and TBQH, I really don’t know what to say.

When that happens I tend to analogize to a word processor. Everybodys got one but not evrybodys written a best seller

"you did that on a computer yeah? anyone can do that"
yep, even a struggling single mum, in a bedsit with a laptop, can knock out half a dozen best selling boy wizard books.
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N i g e l
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Re: We don’t really have salaries in our dimension.

Post by Arpangel »

N i g e l wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 6:52 pm
Arpangel wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 8:56 am Yes, now we have this great big pallet, but none of it is mysterious anymore, it’s all there in front of us all, and it’s too easy to access, no effort involved, which tends to devalue it, like most of the technical things we can do these days "you did that on a computer yeah? anyone can do that, can’t they?"
People say that to me all the time, and TBQH, I really don’t know what to say.

When that happens I tend to analogize to a word processor. Everybodys got one but not evrybodys written a best seller

"you did that on a computer yeah? anyone can do that"
yep, even a struggling single mum, in a bedsit with a laptop, can knock out half a dozen best selling boy wizard books.

Yes, but J K could have done it on a typewriter if necessary.
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