What do you say when some asks what do you do? (Page 3 of 6)

IMMA BITPOPPER

"What kind of music do you make" is an easy question, cus you can start with the TYPE of music and work your way back to the CREATION of it- IF you feel like it.
"Oh, what instrument do you play?" now THAT is the hard one. The dual uses of the word "play" cause a serious issue.
Let's compare two phrases:
1) "I play bass" (as in, "I cause music to come from an instrument, immediately demanding your respect and possible panties")
2) "I play the gameboy" (as in, "I control fictional characters all day for lack of a satisfying personal life. I am a fucking loser, please shoot me in the face and walk away. You will not be prosecuted.")
I got "What instrument do you play?" the other day on the subway. I just said "Gameboy" followed by "...that wasn't a joke." and didn't bother explaining further... Whatever, neither of us were wearing pants, I wasn't trying to impress anybody.

i do a heaps candy-segatrance

YES! Go Candy-Segatrance!! I had forgotten. When you come down and play a show for us, I am writing you up in all the online advertising as playing "Candy-Segatrance" if that doesn't pull the punters, nothing will

Person - "What kind of music do you write?"

me - "You know Sabrepulse? like that but not as good"

But seriously, in my opinion, if you need to explain your hardware to someone who asks you what kind of music you make, it sounds like you might not have understood the question?

I appreciate this isnt really doing the artists justice but for example.

nullsleep, - scary, hard, horrible music
Minusbaby, - Bass heavy ass shaking latin bass with bass
8gb - Deeply groovy cluby dance music
little-scale - Really good transgenre with lots of instruments with lots of experimentation.

Me personally, - Im still kind of finding my feet but its Dark, dancey crunchy electronic stuff.

I think people need a sentence or two to get a feeling of what the music sounds like, not how its made. The Form/Medium/Culture (as goto80 puts it) part of the discussion is really really interesting for us, but not really for casual music fans. When "chipmusic" has a section in tower records, kids in hot topic are buying American apparel Bit Shifter shirts and The latest Michael Bay movie has a soundtrack with Will smith rapping over MML Programmed

1) Thats great, so when people hear you say your X style and they dont care about ANOTHER one of those band/artists they will forget about you. That is unless the "novelty" of the combination of genres you compile perks their interest.

2) I think you are hung up on the wrong issue. People who love guitar will perk up when they hear you play guitar. People who love chip sounds or game music perk up when you say you play X console/computer as an instrument. In my experience majority of people I talk to about it dont see it as a novelty. If you'll notice, video games are no longer just a pass-time for kids, its the largest entertainment industry in the world (next to pron lol). Not only that, it is now considered a well respected art form, much like our music genre is becoming as video games and their scores are part of most 10-40 year olds lives in our modern world. Just because you dont get respect from the general public doesnt mean that is everyone else's experience.

3) I think you see it all as novelty, and assume that if you mention the tools of the trade you will be seen as a novelty. Why else would you have a chip on your shoulder about the topic? Oh wait, I know, to have a soapbox to stand on and be noticed...otherwise your music would do all the talking instead of you.  THAT is a music fail.

Respect

Last edited by 8bitweapon (Jan 12, 2010 4:56 pm)

I would be very happy if the amount of image macros used here won't mirror that of another place. I would even be happier if discussions like the above stay on the mature level they are now, and people who don't participate directly in them either enter with a meaningful argument or stay out of it. I enjoy discourse a lot more than mud fights.

Disclaimer: This isn't directly aimed at Rei but a general wish of mine. Yes, I am aware of the paradoxicality of disrupting the discussion with this. Carry on.