Philip,
You got me on my use of some terms in what I wrote! this is a question of taste as you suggest.
Leslie/The Power of Sound
----- Original Message -----
From: Philip Sherburne
To: 'Leslie N. Shill' ; Dave Haynes
Cc: Erik Boralv
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 3:21 PM
Subject: RE: Will this break 2 step in the US?
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 Haynes
To: Acid Jazz List ; Leslie N. 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 N. Shill
To: Steve Catanzaro
Cc: Erik Boralv
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
To: acid jazz
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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