All due respect, Leslie, I think you're confusing your own taste - totally
valid - with formal arguments about the music. A few cases in point:
>I suppose that it does have a certain value and there HAS been some good
music derived from the formula of what >2 step is but that, to me at any
rate, is really what turns me off to 2 step, the fact that it IS
formulaic...
I would only point out that there are certain genres - drum'n'bass being one
of them - that are entirely dependent upon their formula. House and electro
both play with formulas; certain subgenres moreso (tech-house, for
instance). Genre is about form (blues, rock, whatever); I think people too
easily get off-track by calling something "formulaic" as a perjorative term.
It's supposed to be formulaic, so don't let that be your criterion for
rejecting it.
> I am unable to see this form even become a genre in its own right
Again, it already is a genre, so it's rather a moot point. As for its
lasting power... who knows? In some ways I'm doubtful that it will be
around that long, but who's really to say. I think we (as consumers of pop
music, in the loosest sense) are going to have to get used to shorter and
shorter cycles for genres and subgenres. Rock has lasted, what, 50 years?
Hip hop an astounding 20-something... And we'll see how far techno and house
and drum'n'bass take us; but I think (and this is just my conjecture) that
given the acceleration of both technological development and communication
about cultural products (of which this mailing list is just one example),
genres are going to morph and mutate, arise and disappear more and more
quickly.
> The fact that BT is producing a 2-step piece for Nsync kinda says it all
for me, liquid finds its own level!
But there have always been crappy, mass-market instances of every genre. I
wouldn't let one commercially minded production put you off an entire genre.
Hell, Miguel Migs remixed Britney, and I'm still buying his records (even if
they are, well, a little cheesy to begin with).
Cheers,
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Leslie N. Shill [mailto:icehouse@redshift.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 2:28 PM
To: Dave Haynes
Cc: Erik Boralv
Subject: Re: Will this break 2 step in the US?
Dave,
with regard to the 2 step thing, I suppose that it does have a certain value
and there HAS been some good music derived from the formula of what 2 step
is but that, to me at any rate, is really what turns me off to 2 step, the
fact that it IS formulaic. I just cannot hear an epic saxophone (or any
other instrument for that matter!) solo over these beats. Perhaps it is the
fact of my age creeping up on me but I just cannot see that 2 step will be a
form that stays with us. I really love drum and bass and see it as a far
more complex and interesting form than 2-step but that seems not to have
prevented DnB from winding up in a kind of a dead end. This saddens me but I
still have a lengthy discography of the genre to draw on and some pieces
that are, in my humble opinion, quite timeless and eminently listenable.
Aside from literally a handful of 2 step pieces, none of which really cause
heart flutters for me, I am still waiting and listening for something that
is really and truly memorable out of the 2-step box. The fact that BT is
producing a 2-step piece for Nsync kinda says it all for me, liquid finds
its own level! I would have been far more intrigued to have heard that BT
was re-rubbing the sound of Nsync to some really wild DnB rhythm tracks. BT
obviously did this one for the money. Over the past few months I have read
with interest the comments on 2 step on these very pages but no one has
convinced me that it is anything more than a passing fad.
So Dave, I just can't agree with you about 2-step, there will probably
eventually be a handful of tracks that bear mentioning but I am unable to
see this form even become a genre in its own right and quite frankly, give
me some good downtempo stuff any time of the day if I am just listening and
some good solid beats if I am dancing but, as a DJ who likes to think of
himself as being somewhat eclectic, 2-step is a short-lived phenomenon. Who
will produce or remix the Britney Spears 2-step track? Once a form makes the
crossover to artists like Nsync then, musical snob that I admittedly am, it
goes into my out box faster than you can say 2-step!
leslie/The Power of Sound
----- Original Message -----
From: Dave <mailto:gvcontact@hotmail.com> Haynes
To: Acid Jazz List <mailto:acid-jazz@ucsd.edu> ; Leslie N.
<mailto:icehouse@redshift.com> Shill
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 1:22 PM
Subject: Re: Will this break 2 step in the US?
I like to think of 2-step in 3 different categories (2 of which IMO are
s**te).
There's the poppy, r'n'b crossover stuff - which I reckon most people only
produce for the money. I know loads of producers who have just started
churning it out because they can see a quick buck in it.
Then you've got the cheesy, bassline sample-led stuff - which is either made
by people in their bedroom studios, or people who IMO don't exactly have the
greatest amount of music talent. However there is the odd good dancefloor
cut. (Oh and all the DJ Zinc breakbeat garage crossover stuff which was
fairly exciting till everyone jumped on the bandwagon)
Then there's the new wave of leftfield/jazzy 2-step. Some of which is either
very musical/thoughful (eg. Phuturistix, MJ Cole etc) or is a kinda broken
beat/2-step crossover (Landslide, Zest etc). This is the stuff which should
get mentioned on the list.
I do hate it when you say you like 2-step to someone though and they
immediately think you love the Artful Dodger, frequent Ayia Napa, and say
"Boooo!" all the bloody time.
Let us not forget that 2-step is quite an exciting new platform on which to
put some fresh, new musical ideas... Anyone agree?
----- Original Message -----
From: Leslie <mailto:icehouse@redshift.com> N. Shill
To: Steve Catanzaro <mailto:stevencatanzaro@sprintmail.com>
Cc: Erik Boralv <mailto:acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 5:01 PM
Subject: Re: Will this break 2 step in the US?
Steve,
thank you SO much for this incredible information, let's see now, BT AND
N'sync AND 2 step, sounds like something I would avoid but perhaps you are
right, 2-step at the commercial peak and after that out the door along with
the other novelties. But BT? tsk tsk tsk, they must be paying him very large
large for this job!
leslie/The Power of Sound
----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Catanzaro <mailto:stevencatanzaro@sprintmail.com>
To: acid jazz <mailto:acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 7:35 AM
Subject: Will this break 2 step in the US?
Read it and weep, 2-steppers. Word is that producer BT has finished a 2-step
track for ground-breaking American artists N'Sync. The track will be out in
advance of the summer release of their new album.
As lauded music critic H. Simpson might say, "mmmm, Nsync, 2step..."
Has the 2-step craze officially reached its zenith?
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