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Bowie, genius or not...
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stray
stray
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Edited Jul 28, 2010, 11:25
Re: Bowie, genius or not...
Jul 28, 2010, 11:22
zphage wrote:
Non conventional song forms, not guitar centric, and because of technology she has been able to approach sound purely for textures and rhythms: tonal/atonal/rhythmic/arrhythmic


ooh, thats an interesting point, is it because of technology though ? (sorry, my masters degree is wrapped up entirely in this issue, as in, what are the real aesthetics and freedoms inherent within the digital medium). When I listen back to the ground breaking pre digital composers, and compare them with the early tech experimentations of Stockhausen, Cage etc, and then think about the more out there compositional experimentations of groups like The Dream Syndicate I end up going...um...... Wha ?

It's a tricky thing, but to simplify, I hear nothing in Bjorks work, along the terms you define as regard her approach, that could actually be uniquely attributed to technology (cos, lets be honest, the bleeding edge of musical experimentation has been dealing in the same currency that she is for a bloody long time). Compositionally speaking that is, in terms of an attitude to 'sound' as you use the word.

Also to simplify, I remember once seeing her work live with a large ensemble of what could be described as 'world musicians' and there was no technology there. But, what I do see from that is that maybe (not a big maybe either) that the initial ideas that led to her bringing those musicians together came from small scale experiments with technology that allowed (and arguably encouraged) her to chuck many sound sources/textures at a wall to see what stuck (together, compositionally). Is that what digital media allows, and therefore creates ? My gut tells me er.., cos we don't actually have interfaces flexible enough to allow the freedom that the medium itself theoretically has. That, in fact, we are 'guided' creatively to produce work following certain work flows. Digital music creation is the most liberated and flexible form of digital media, with the others (video, film, image) lagging years behind, but there are still constraints, there are still signposts and paths you're kinda forced to follow. So is all creativity in the digital medium a reactive process ?, cos what with it being a purely symbolic space it sure as hell doesn't need to be philosophically.

I'm not arguing here, I'm just thinking aloud. The idea you raise is a popular one that definitely has some legs but it's one that I'm not entirely comfortable with, and I'm trying to work out why it's bugging me exactly cos yeah... we have a lot more freedom now (er, I think), but.. it's not entirely our expression. um. Anyway, going to try your omega3 reccommendations in the near future (next payment day), thanks.
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