Re: All Kinds of Junk
ghurd@mcgraw-hill.com
Fri, 12 Jul 96 14:51:48 edt
Q-Burn was heard saying:
"I caught Orbital 'in concert' last night (for research into this
'live electronica' thing... jeez, the things I do for this list!).
I've come to the conclusion that in this sort of setting, the musician
should be treated as a DJ, whose primary goal is to make the crowd
dance. Of course, humans are conditioned that when someone is on
stage, they should be watched..."
This may be beating a dead topic, but Q-B's last post about the
electronic music concert issue got me thinking. I would agree that
humans are conditioned to approach performances in this way (i.e.,
just watch and listen) but it doesn't seem very 'natural.' It seems
like the interactive approach to performance is really where it all
started, back in the caves and all that. This practice of watching and
doing nothing but clapping at the end seems to me to be a relatively
recent addition to a long, long history of human musical/artistic
expression.
But to tie it all together, back in the days of hot and swing jazz,
concerts were for dancing. That was how you showed your
approval/disapproval to what's happening on the stage. With this in
mind I agree with Q-Burn that an electronic musician should be
considered something of a DJ. He or she is up there creating an
atmosphere in which you can dance, gyrate, whirl, whatever.
And I know I've already gone on the record as saying that I prefer
recorded music to live instrumentation, but in any case, when the
music is good you can't help but dance no matter if the tunes are
coming from a piece of black wax or leaving breathing flesh.
I just got to thinking about the whole big band/swing era where
concerts got people dancing, not gawking, and it seems like with our
music here in our time, we're bringing that culture back. I, for one,
am glad for it.
-- Gordon