Why EDM Sucks (a brief history of Electronic Music and EDM as Commercial Music)

mixmag.com

Let’s start with a brief introduction of electronic music in general: it all began in the end of the raging 80s and the beginning of the 90s, when making music with the help of computers was already all in, synthpop had worn itself out, alternative, grunge and hip-hop was slowly coming in. People were getting tired of the monotonous beats of synthesizers and drum machines and musicians decided that electronic music shouldn’t die out, so DJs and vocalists started creating new bands and groups that mostly relied on sampling and on finding new sounds, not just pleasing the audience.  But this style of electronica sounded nothing like synth, because most of the Djs and bands wanted to use a more rough sound and tense melodies, they never stopped on one simple beat and started layering along with sampling. They incorporated different sounds and noises, genres and styles and the final product was always electric and amazing!  You couldn’t call this music simply electronica, because it was a mix of so many things, which I think makes electronica – a mix of different products. A lot of the bands that are the best examples of 90s electronic music are not alike at all: The Prodigy, Underworld, The Chemical Brothers, Boards of Canada, Bjork, Muslimgauze, Fatboy Slim, Massive Attack, which is actually trip-hop, but I included them anyways, because what the trip-hop musicians play today is total bullshit, it’s just a cheap, “underground” remake of todays’ EDM. (Notice how almost all the bands are from UK! YaY!) These musicians created radically different sounds from everything everyone had ever heard. The reason these musicians were so successful and so diverse is simple: they knew how to play music. At that time, a computer wasn’t enough for all the sounds you needed, so you had to use actual vocals, actual drums and actual guitar. Even if you didn’t have real drums, they used drum machines, and the sound of the drum machine is totally different from the sample drum sounds in the computer. Some might say that electronica has evolved along with technology and that’s the reason people have given up on real instruments and it’s part of growing up. Come on! Just because you have evolved doesn’t mean that you have to forget about the good things the past has. You will never be able to create the same sounds with a computer as you can with many different machines. I mean, if you hate actual instruments like guitars and bass so much and want to rely on machines, why not use real drum machines, ELECTRONIC guitars and so much more! These people don’t even need to have a good voice. Anybody can sing now.

What’s happening now is a disaster. It especially pissed me off that Georgian DJs are just like the foreign ones. The thing is, in other countries, music has a huge, long history of different genres, musical revolutions and so on. And here in Georgia we have a brief history of 90s alternative, then some alternative mixed with folk in 2000s and now we have EDM. We didn’t go through any musical evolution so why the fuck do we try to do the same that others are doing? To play minimalist music, you must first learn to play some fucking noise rock. Georgian Djs don’t want to evolve because they are satisfied with the fact that they have a full audience and Dj Sets almost every night at locals clubs. They don’t want more, and they never try to incorporate any other genres. Just the same beats all over again. It’s even worse than synthpop. Hell, Depeche Mode were the most cheesy, weird, quirky and the synthpopest band of all time, but since the 90s they have used such a huge array of sounds you might get confused as to what you are listening to.  The only good thing in these few years in electronica here in Georgia was when Daddy G came to Tbilisi to play his DJ Set. I thought, maybe if musicians heard Daddy G perform they would become more ambitious and start creating something more diverse, but diverse my ass. Daddy G didn’t wear himself out by improvisations either, but the tracks he had were enough to get you high. Everyone said they had weed and Vodka with them, but didn’t smoke or drink because Daddy G’s music was enough to get them up high and make them ecstatic. The reason behind G’s awesomeness is that he doesn’t just sit at the computer and write tracks on one program, he plays instruments, different machines, sings, performs and Djing is just is hobby out of the band. He knows the value of music and it shows up in his performances. And he just play just for himself, he looks at the crowd from time to time, observes and then decides which track he should switch to. Now that’s playing music for the pleasure of the audience. When you actually look at them!

But the thing is, electronica is dead not only in Georgia (Let’s not talk about the topic of Georgian music shall we?). I hate these disgusting Youtube playlists, you know, the ones in which all of the songs sound exactly the same and each video has a photo of some sexy model. I’m not saying that they sound the same without knowing it. Oh, I know it well. Last week, I was sick, so I sat down and listened to almost every song on these playlists and it was the worst experience I have ever had, regarding music. But I did it for the sake of research and yes, I have nothing else to do. These stupid, totally unworthy songs have the same beats, same moaning vocals. Even if you forget about the playlists and take the example of “underground” Djs and EDM, the result is exactly the same! I don’t even know why it’s called Electronic Dance Music, because I don’t understand how can someone dance to it! The best you can do with it is to turn it on as background noise when you are hanging with friends or something. It has absolutely no value. You can’t even sing along. The only one I like in these musicians is Avicii, who mixes good vocals with badass electronica and bluegrass folk.

People, when you sit at the computer and create music, why do you stop on one sound? One beat? I tried doing that and even I was successful at creating what people call electronica today, using some stupid program I found on Linux. If you can’t create a good sound yourself, at least try some sampling for christ’s sake. The Beastie Boys built their whole musical career on sampling before moving on to instruments. THE BEASTIE BOYS! The dudes whose first album includes the songs all of which are sampled, who barely played any real instruments, who are the main inspiration for every hip-hop artists, even they returned to playing music! Guitar, bass, vocals, drums and so on.

Another thing i don’t understand is this: How can these musicians, after listening to Massive Attack, or Sigur Ros, or Bjork, sit down after that and create shitty music? Why don’t they want more than just “being cool” and having sex after the show. And how can people like it so much. Everytime there is a DJ playing in Tbilisi, the venue is always full! Why people? What happened to good old live shows in shady bars? Fuck it.

You know how many people around me listen to this dumb music? A lot. Even the type of people that look like hippies and listen to ethnic music or if they want electronica they turn on Muslimgauze, even these people listen to EDM! Come on!

In short, I fuckin hate EDM and I fuckin hate the fact that it is aimed at young adults who only want to have fun and have sex and it has no artistic value. I hate the fact that EDM Djs don’t try to create something new by incorporating something old. I hate the fact the EDM is so in right now, that they barely even play other music in bars and clubs.

You might think that I have no right to be writing all this, because I have never tried to become a musician and it is easy to criticize and all that shit. But I have the right. Because I’m an artist, and as you know, music is art as well. And as an artists, I am never satisfied with what I do and always try to do more. When I see the paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat I want to shoot myself but it makes me inspired to do my job and get better and better at it and people see the progress I make each year. So I know the feels and I know it’s hard but that’s what an artist should love to do.

The only good that came out of my 1 week of research and raping my ears was the discovery of King Krule. Which was like finding heaven. Now here is a young English dude, not trying to look and sound like a douchebag. If you listen to King Krule’s voice without seeing his face first, trust me, you are gonna have a huge heart attack. Because he looks like a little British redhead, has the style of a typical British skinhead/chav/punk/every style UK has given us. King Krule is nothing like EDM, thank God! I didn’t even expect him to be so good. He was only 16 when his first music video came out! And his voice sounds like a 40 year old’s. It was so good listening to him, a real trip: nice low voice, with a very British accent and some flaws which make it better, a melodic guitar which sometimes sounds like jazz, sometimes like punk, sometimes like post-punk, sometimes like surf-rock. He just plays and sings and doesn’t give a shit. Listen to it(he used to be called Zoo Kid as well):

And another thing I discovered is Eliot Sumner, the daughter of Sting, which actually looks like a son sometimes. But she’s awesome, and androgynous and tomboyish, which I love. And sometimes has the voice of a female Ian Curtis. Well, actually she used to perform under the name I Blame Coco and her songs of that time are really different from what she does now. I like her new style better and you’ll now why.  I like her. Her songs Information is a wonderful mix of New Wave and Post-Punk. And Joy Division.

Why Punk Rock is Important!

I have heard a lot of people say that punk rock is not important, and punk rockers can’t play instruments and can’t sing, that punk rock never last and doesn’t leave anything important in history. I have to strongly disagree on that, though.

Let’s take an example: Bikini Kill. Bikini Kill was a punk rock band formed by Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox and the most important person in the band, the frontwoman, Kathleen Hanna. The band lasted for only a few years, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t important at that time. If you think about it this way, every band leaves a subtle impact on how we see the world around us. But at the peak of the band’s activity, the impact is totally different: people live by it. People see the punk band live and seeing a punk band live is like no other experience. A punk band can never effect you if you listen to it on your ipod as it can effect you when you see it live. Bikini Kill’s live shows were like no other anyone had ever seen, at that time. Now, we are used to seeing women perform live, and go to live shows and stand at the frond and jump around and do all kinds of shit, but it’s still not quite that good. Maybe Bikini Kill hasn’t changed everything and it definitely hasn’t changed the way things are in my country – still the same it was in the 90s, but Bikini Kill has changed a lot of things for the people who have actually interacted with them, who were there when Kathleen declared for the girls to come to the front. Bikini Kill inspired other girls not to just sing and create bands and go to the front of a live show, but to speak out and to do the things they want to do without thinking about what men and society will think about.

To leave a feminist band like Bikini Kill aside, let’s talk about The Clash  – whose politicized lyrics and reggae beats and influences inspired a lot the rock and not only rock bands we see today. The great thing about The Clash was they could actually sing and play, unlike the Pistols, whose were indeed the first real punk band with amazing punk style and Johnny Rotten’s desperate screaming, but The Pistols inspired only the style of punk, which was crucial, while The Clash inspired the music of the bands that would come later on. Joe Strummer sang about politics, police, riots, the law, revolution and basically just everything that punk rock is about – revolution and anarchy.

This is why punk rock is important to this day, but for some reason, it has lost it’s effect. We do have punk bands, but they have no impact on society any more. The reason is, the way I look at it, the creation of so many social networking sites, like Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, where you don’t need to sing or play or scream to get your thought ahead to the people: you just write a hashtag #heforshe to define your feminism, or put up a picture of yourself holding the #jesuicharlie sign and that’s it – the job is done. Have you heard any active and popular singer or band actually sing about police, law, politics and society without sounding like a thug, or a hipster? No, I haven’t. At least no major bands do it. We had some bands like Green Day, The Offspring and Rage Against The Machine who have tried to refuse today’s standarts and create a new era of music, but they failed. I mean, what is Green Day? They are nothing today, nobody listens to their songs, except somebody occasionally linking Wake Me Up When September Ends of their Timeline. The reason is that these bands were too soft. I’m not talking about Rage Against The Machine, since I think that they have a lot more to say than any other today’s “punk bands”. But there is  a sad fact: they are not effective. They don’t redefine the way people think, their words don’t reach those who need to be reached, and that’s sad. It’s sad that we live in a society where punk rock has become a style and not a way of life, where nobody addressed actual issues through music, and those who do, do it for fame. Another thing I hate about the way musicians are perceived today is the fact that they are too easy to follow. There is no wall between musicians and the audience. Meeting your favorite singer is not that much of a shock as it was before. You see your favorite band’s faces everyday on the internet, you can read everything about them, you can see everything! Which kind of leaves behind the amazing feeling you can have when seeing the band live: thinking of them as something more than just people who play instruments and sing.

I want to go to a live concert and see the vocalist throw beer bottles and dive into the crowd, I wanna see the guitarist break his fingers and play with a bloody hand, I wanna hear swearing and screaming and aggression and fighting, I wanna see people interact with the members of the band.

Punk is dead, and we killed it, the musicians killed it. Nobody wants to defy the system any more. They only do so when something bad actually happens, something you know exists, but when they actually see it, then people start protesting. The protests last only a few days, then, everybody just forgets.

The new band – Savages

 

I discovered Savages at the Berlin Music Festival and I can’t really say I was thrilled right from the start. There were a lot more interesting acts to see like Blur, Bjork, lots of DJs and all that. There were a lot of stages and while the main stage was getting ready for the Bjorkness, my friends and I were jerking around to pass time. We saw lots of interesting graffiti art and some very cute people were selling home made stuff in one of the little rooms. And next, we came to one of the small stages, with a small group of people carefully listening to the band, which I later discovered was Savages. I had nothing else to do, so I stood a little far from the stage and listened. Actually, it was hard to listen because there was all the noise/post-punk thing going on, and I wasn’t really into it at that time (after I discovered Swans, though, it made it easier for me to understand almost any kinds of music). So I was kind of bothered by the noise, but people loved it really much. What caught my interest though, was the vocalist – Jehnny Beth – with short, boyish black hair, black shirt, black trousers and red shoes with small heels. She immediately made me think – She is so cool! And the movements she made and her noisy voice and her French accent. Another thing I thought – She is the female Ian Curtis! But then Bjork came on and we pretty much forgot about Savages.

It was a few months later, when I found the Berlin Festival brochure in my bag, that I really got into them. I was simply reviewing the bands we had seen and Savages was on the list and I remembered the Joy Divisionness of the band so I checked it out and let me tell you – This time I WAS thrilled! Especially after watching the Shut Up video, which was one of the songs they performed at the festival. The video got to me just as the song did. The bass, the voice, THE VOICE! The monologue at the beginning. How can you not love it? I’m not really good at explaining why I love certain things, so you can just watch the video. But don’t listen to the song once! Never listen to a new song once! Listen to it a few times before it really gets you.

I guess what happened to me, concerning the whole fact of hating Savages at first and then falling in love, was something unexplainable that happens to me very often. Sometimes I decide there is a certain band I have to listen to, and at first I really hate them. But after a little time passes, they resurface into my mind and at that point I just become obsessed. I just can’t help it! This always happens to me. I hate on the band, then I fall in love with it so much I never stop listening. So here is my advice – never trust the first impression. (well, except for the times when you are writing or painting or just generally making art. At this moments, it like this – first thought, best thought)

If you want some mood for art like Basquiat

I am a fan of Tamra Davis’ documentary “Basquiat: The Radian Child”. This film made me fall more in love with some many things: Tamra Davis (she’s fuckin married to Mike D! The best couple after Kathleen and Adam), Basquiat (even though I was always a fan, I never really knew how he created and why he created his amazing art), documentary films, jazz, Andy Warhol, old-school hip-hop, the band Gray and so much more.

I discovered a lot of amazing bands and songs just by digging into this film more and more. I watched Schnabel’s film “Basquiat”. Even thought I don’t think it has a lot in common with reality of Jean-Michel’s life, I did like the film as a film, not as a biopic. And Wright is the perfect Basquiat! I was amazed to see him catch Basquiat’s manners so spot on. So from that movie I discovered the song “While Lines” by Grandmaster Melle Mel and from this song I really got into old school rap and hip-hop and joining the two Basquiat films together I fell even more in love with music. There is just so much I have gained from watching these two films and listening to the songs and interviews that I just can’ explain it with words.

So here’s my advice you should at least try following.

Listen to jazz, and especially Dizzy Gillespie’s “Salt Peanuts”. This song is feature at the beginning of The Radiant Child, where we see, in black and white, Basquiat just fooling around and playing with a puppy.

Listen to Basquiat’s band Gray. I was expecting it to be something like a total noise/screaming/screeching sound like Swans’ album “Filth”, but I was so wrong. Gray is chill and has awesome beats. The lyrics are just flowing into your mind and stay there for quite some time. I have never been in NY, and I haven’t lived in the 80s, but I’m sure that’s how it would have sounded in the morning, afternoon and evening.

NY subway in the 80s!!!!!

Old school hip-hop is awesome and in case you are a former rock-freak like me, who didn’t want to admit to any other genre of music, I tell you that listening to old-school hip-hop does open your eyes. Just like jazz does. Generally speaking, listening to a diverse genre of songs doesn’t make you tasteless, it make you fucking awesome. It broadens your horizons. I, personally, hate people who stick to one genre, mostly around me there are people like this and they listen to either electronica or 70s progressive rock and don’t want to listen to anything else. And to these people, I have no idea about music just because I can listen to The Beastie Boys after listening to Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Fuck you! I am a lot more awesome and I can talk and debate and argue a lot more about music than you will ever be able to.

The last advice is this: See Basquiat. Both of the films. See anything you can see about Basquiat. Listen to everything, starting from Beat Bop, you can. Listen to everything that has anything, even the least, to do with Basquiat. Look at his paintings everyday. He helped me understand what art is, and what I want from it and myself. He also helped me understand how tightly music and painting are related and to me – these two cannot live without each other. And I have been struggling to understand it for years!

 

In defense of Warpaint

disco/very music video. photo from pitchfork.com

 

I am not a huge fan of indie rock (both English and American), but when it comes to indie rock mixed with awesome technicolor-haired feminist girls dressed in sneakers and skirts on jeans jumping around in music videos, playing a little bit psychedelia, I’m totally in. When I first heard of Warpaint, I thought it would be some stupid girl-band with a fat, money-counting male manager behind them, telling them how to dress, play, sing and dance. But after watching their live shows, and their music videos, I have to say they got me.

These girls are fucking awesome. Warpaint is one of those bands that exist today to tell us that music is not dead and we still have hope. They may not play real psychedelia and progressive rock, but they CAN play and they CAN sing and they do it like it is the most natural thing to do. And it is.

After a whole month of obsessing over Kathleen Hanna and Bikini Kill, getting upset about the absence of feminist spirit and having Beyonce and Rihanna as feminist icons, it feels really good to finally have these girls as an example of what females can do without showing their ass and tits and building their fame on their sexuality. Yes, they are sexy sometimes, but they don’t use it to promote their music, and being sexy isn’t a bad thing, as long as you don’t exploit others by your sexuality.

Warpaint is also one of those bands that doesn’t give a shit about what sounds and what music is famous and stylish today. They just play what they feel like playing and dress in what they feel like dressing because that’s the kind of thing every person should be doing.

The reason I decided to write about this band is the negative reception they have been getting from people. I will say again that I am not a fan, but I like their music and respect them and they don’t deserve the reception they are getting. I was reading comments on their songs on Youtube, and was shocked, actually, to see that so many people hate on them. Some say they are outdated and dress weird and don’t follow fashion. Like that is the most important thing a musician and a band should be doing. I mean, come on! Kanye West looks like he just escaped from the Zoo all the time, and he is fashionable? I like Warpaint’s style because they put on whatever they want and look like grunge musicians from the 90s.

Some say that their music is outdated. Have to totally disagree on that again. What does “outdated music” mean anyway? Is Bruno Mars’ new song “Uptown Funk” outdated? No it’s not. Any person or band that actually plays instruments and enjoys doing it and doesn’t give a shit about getting millions of dollars by doing it is thought of as “outdated”. It’s no wonder Dead Sara are not on the pedestal of fame now, since their sound is a mix of classic hardrock and grunge. It’s sad, actually.

Some say their music video suck. Especially Disco/Very – Keep It Healthy. Why? Because it’s not a fuckin short film and it doesn’t feature them dancing and doing some unbelievable moves with tits and ass on show, rubbing against some Jesus’-abbed macho. The video features the girls just dancing and following the camera in the street, with some guy skateboarding in the back. It looks like a random gang of friends decided to dance around and skate to their favorite song and film this. Some even say the it looked like they didn’t take much time to think about it and just shot it. So what? Does it matter how much time it took to come up with the idea? It doesn’t, as long as the music video follows and fits the song so perfectly it doesn’t take your attention away from the song. I love low quality, amateur-looking music video. In defence of such videos, I raise you The Beastie Boys and most of their music video artistry consists of low-quality cameras, highly contrasted colors, a hole video features The Boys looking into the fish-eye lens, or just randomly singing at the camera. So shut up about that.

This is all I have to say yet about Warpaint. It’s really sad that these girls are not as famous as they should be. It’s also sad that girls have Beyonce, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj as icons, and not these four simple girls.

Nice!

I have to practice my English, besides, there are a lot of things to write about, like music and movies and people and artists and so on. And it’s kind of hard to talk about it to people who are not as interested in Jean Michel Basquiat’s Documentary as you are, or the Beastie Boys’ video anthology, or the way Sofia Coppola uses Converse sneakers in one of the scenes in “Marie Antoinette”, or how important it is not to forget old artists, or why EDM sucks, or how to create a band or yadda yadda yadaa. There will be lots of things, I promise. Because everytime I listen to a new song, watch a new movie, discover a new artist, I get OBSESSED. So don’t get too bored when a few posts will be about the same things, only the word arrangement will be different.

See you soon!