June 19, 2002
e-music

But not that e-music.

There's a piece in Salon just recently about the 'triumph' of electronic music. It draws out the standard stories of how hidden electronica has merged into the culture (see the standard Moby story of how all of Play was licensed, or how all those cool car and gap advertisements use electronica (and Nick Drake), but does so in a nice way than most - a bit more detail, a bit less 'parents just don't understand' if you will.

Which is the mature aspect of the piece that grabbed me. Anne and I have had, a couple times, a conversation that is a bit emblematic of our growing 'maturity'. We don't quite get the music the kids listen to these days. We listen to a fair bit of it - raised in freeform radio, I still prefer it (in Chicago, that means for me either WLUW or WZRD with a smattering of WNUR - but the fact is, we don't know what the cool stuff is these days.

This brooding reached a peak when Anne and I were discussing that we didn't know who the people were in a number of the electronic bands we listen to. And the piece in Salon does a nice job of touching on that topic, of the anonymity of the performers of electronic music. And so be it. They did miss the boat in this piece in forgetting to compare electronica in the late nineties to reggae in the early 80s. Of course, for this to hold, every frat party in 2012 will have loud blaring Thievery Corporation. I can hardly wait....

Ironically, current music playing - jazz on WBEZ.

Posted by esinclai at June 19, 2002 09:24 PM |
Comments

a-yup.

I noticed this last time I was in bloomington, Halloween, um, 1999. I went to a show at second story featuring the vulgar Boatmen sndwiched between two keyboard based electronica acts - guess who the kids were there for?

Musican friends are all pessimistic about the future of the "band".

Dang kids, turn that noise down!

Posted by: mike on June 20, 2002 09:41 AM

Funny you should mention the Boatmen, who played in Chicago last weekend in our neighborhood. The event was called "Ribfest" so paint your own picture. We were unable to go because we were entertaining my parents, who aren't good with concerts.

Posted by: Anne on June 20, 2002 10:30 AM

mmmm... Ribs!

Posted by: mike on June 20, 2002 01:53 PM
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