Kurt Iveson (kiveson@coombs.anu.edu.au)
Sat, 4 Dec 1999 12:07:39 +1100
stephanie wrote:
>so glad someone else tagged onto this new thread...
>
>to summarize this message for the delete-happy: some
>music is tied to a place, some to a groundless state
>of mind. why is that? examples?
I think one of the most blissful musical moments of my life was a couple of
years back, sitting on an island in Sydney Harbour at a Cryogenesis party,
watching the sunset, and hearing someone (Simon Caldwell to be precise) mix
up Air's "Soldissimo" with Kool and the Gang's "Summer Madness" for about
15 minutes. Australian DJ in the 90s + French music from the 90s +
American music from the 70s ... and a jumbo even flew overhead just as the
final high note from Summer Madness trailed off into the atmosphere...
(and reverting to the old thread for a sec ... AIR's first EP rates v.
highly in my list of recent(ish) downtempo classics!)
So, how to reflect on this experience?
There are different reference points that help me to understand and love
particular kinds of music. (Like, if I have access to blues it's a
reference point that helps to understand jazz, which helps to understand
funk, which helps to understand hip hop, etc etc etc.) Growing up in
Sydney doesn't mean that I was born feeling reference points, but it means
that they are available to me if I have the desire (and the resources) to
pick them up and use them. Some are more easily accessible than others ...
and good old global capitalism, as well as immigration etc, plays a big
part. Hence my inner turmoil about hating American cultural imperialism,
but loving it because it has helped put jazz/soul/funk/hip hop in my life.
So for me, in trying to understand how and why I love a particular kind of
music, I can't make a distinction between it being a 'place' thing and a
'head' thing ... it's both at the same time. Those two tracks (and all
music I like) were both tied to the place where they were made, *and* part
of the place where I was at .... physically, socially and mentally.
Metaphorically speaking, maybe this means that I'm perpetually in a
cornfield listening to hip hop .... I'm sure not in a place that's much
like Brooklyn! But I kinda like that feeling... there's nothing I listen
to that doesn't feel rooted in another place (even if it's just up the
road) or another time, but it can still make sense. The music then helps
to have conversations, to *make* a new physical/social/mental reality, as
well as reflect one.... just like it did on the island that day.
Anyway ... I dunno how much sense any of this is making. Sorry it got so
long ... it's just interesting trying to think it all through! nice thread
stephanie...
kboi out.
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