This is a documentary that took place in a golden time in our culture’s history. That’s right: THE LATE 80s…
Why am I so frustrated? Scroll below the video to hear a vicious rant about the 80s. You’ll understand ;)
Sampling was still not technically off-limits, and artist such as the Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Coldcut, and Public Enemy were sampling, during a time period that is now considered the ‘Golden Age’ of hip hop.
But, whether you like what they said in the documentary or not, and though the debate still… ‘technically’ goes on today (though to a much more minor extent) what happened around this time period REALLY DID affect how people would make music. I say do what you want, and if you get sued, you must be making waves, right? Then, pay the fee, if it’s worth it, or just replace the sample with a different one, or whatever, and move on. That’s just my opinion, though. I’m not telling you that this route is the one you “should” be taking…
But, I wanted to highlight this documentary because I feel like sampling needs to come back into fashion.
You might say, “Oh, Will, what the fuck? Isn’t it still big?”
To which I will respond, “First of all, don’t curse at me… and second of all, no, I don’t think it’s as big as it once was.”
Underground artists sample a lot more than big name artists, though… But usually, when someone puts their own take on someone else’s track, it’s a “remix” of that track, and not a whole new song based on a three second sample. Boring! Fucking SUPER-BORING! Why not just sample something, and then cover it up, if you’re so afraid of getting sued?
There are actually different ways to do it. You typically won’t have to pay as much if you’re expecting to sell far fewer copies of your music, if you are indeed trying to clear the sample. Obviously, every song is different, and to really understand how much you’ll have to pay, you have to look up a specific song for yourself.
But all I’m saying is, artists should sample more. Why not? It’s fun as hell, and it goes along with the folk-paradigm that involves the ancient tradition of borrowing music and reinterpreting it, as opposed to the copyright-paradigm (or copyright-era) of the last century, where every song is supposed to be an island unto itself, as far as taking influence directly from other prerecorded songs.
I would even go so far as to say that sampling not only stays in tune with the ‘borrowing’ aspect of the world music tradition of the last ten thousand years, but that it’s actually just an updated form of it, as recording equipment has become a lot cheaper and accessible. Not a radical opinion. Sampling is natural. It’s an organic step in our evolution of technology and culture.
So, without further ado, here’s the documentary…
Also, watch for the really awful sampling endeavor involving Janet Jackson ruining a Sly & The Family tune. Once you realize she’s sampling him, you might just cringe. I did.
It isn’t frustrating ONLY because the documentary ends on a “sampling should be payed for, it’s just logical,” note.. but mainly because I can’t stand almost any of the people in this video, with the exception of some of the musicians. My goodness, the clothes were awful. I could honestly write a 300 page book (and cite tons of examples) and how ugly people looked in 1988. Seriously, what was the deal with that time period? What was the aesthetic they were going for? I know when grunge music hit, people ‘stopped trying’ as hard to look good, but.. honestly, I don’t think they were really trying that hard in the first place, in the five or ten year period before grunge. I mean, come on. Look at some of the folks in this documentary. You’re telling me people had to ‘stop trying’ just to look better than they did in 1988? Oh my damn, what an awful time period in fashion history. Ok, that’s enough ranting from me. Enjoy this documentary..
Rolling Stone Magazine recently had an issue about “all the newest club” music sweeping the nation, including Skrillex, Deadmau5, and Bassnectar.
Now, although I have nothing against a mainstream music magazine covering ANY of those musicians, I just gotta ask: why now? Why the fuck, now?
Oh, because Hollywood started putting dubstep and electro music in some of their action movie trailers – so, clearly, it’s relevant to talk about that music now? What about Glitch Mob? They should’ve had a cover story, and it should’ve been four years ago! What about iLL.Gates? Do you even know who that guy is, Rolling Stone? You should!
Now, credit where credit’s due: Rolling Stone has some very decent political articles (especially from your best writer, Matt Taibi!) but as far as your music articles go, you’re stuck on an outdated music narrative from decades ago, where, as far as you’re concerned, the best days in music glory are likely behind us – as you jerk off top ten lists of “best new albums of 2012,” and cite no hip hop or electronic music, but instead have SOME decent new rock, as well Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen – ah, Bruce Springsteen!
You can almost see the magazine having a prolonged wet dream about The Boss as they cite his every (“relevant?”) move in the world of pop culture and music.
Now this is NOT an article designed to bitch about Springsteen. In fact, I don’t really hate his music, I think he’s a talented guy. But if he’s REALLY at “the top of his career,” let me ask you, readers, what’s his latest single called? Give up? Me too, I don’t know, and I bet most people don’t know… (But I bet Rolling Stone does!)
Oh, and U2. Why, oh, why, does U2 continue be on the radar off all these big music magazines. If Bono is relevant for his work in Africa, alright, then talk about that – but I’d say that’s a little different than his work in a band most people haven’t cared about in ten or twenty years… and ACDC. Please, just stop talking about them. No one really gives a damn if they have new music. It sounds the same as all their old music, and why do they get press for it? There’s a million groups and artists who deserve recognition over those jackasses.
The point is, they’re appealing to the Triple-B’s: their Baby-Boomer-Base. They’re trying really hard to pretend like all the rock from the golden years is STILL what we should be paying attention to, as much as we should be paying attention to anything else that’s “new” in music… And, again, I’ll give them a LITTLE credit: they do have some articles about some of the new rock that’s come out (because Rolling Stone LOVES to rant about any new rock sub-genre in existence, as it helps validate their musical narrative, the narrative that proclaims that ‘every ten years, there will be a new rock revolution’) but you know what? There’s a lot more going on. Way more.
And no, I don’t expect them to do a cover story on all the new and incredible WONKY tunes…. (they should’ve done that two years ago) but just NOW coming to terms with “EDM” music, as if it JUST showed up, and blew away all your old Van Halen tunes that you’ve been overplaying for years? What are you, Rolling Stone, a frat house? Even most frat houses have been playing dubstep (or, what some folks might refer to as ‘brostep,’ – but I’m not even getting into THAT, as I’d completely you lose you, then!) for a decent amount of time. Not to mention all the fine glitch hop that’s been coming out… or, how about moombah? It’s somewhat popular now. Have you done anything more than a tiny little paragraph dedicated to “other” music for moombah? Have you even done that? …or did you just put it under some “DJ’s To Watch,” section, (or, you know, whatever BS “let’s get the ravers to read this, too”- themed subsections that mainstream music magazines love to throw in there on a whim, as an afterthought)
For god damn’s sake, dubstep is peaking, and many are talking about the “after-dubstep” time period now… In England, they’ve been at THAT point for awhile, now! Where were you, RS? Pretending you mattered? Isolated in your own little arrogant and stubborn world of rock glory that you ignored the world around you? Do you even have the internet? What’s next, a cover story on nyan cat? I wouldn’t be surprised. In fact, I kind of expect it… It would look something like this:
“Nyan Cat: How ‘Memes’ are Sweeping the Nation! But Have They Gone Too Far?”
(Subtitle: When Will There Be a Springsteen Meme? Because THENWe’ll Take it Seriously… We’re All Over 50.”)
And you might say, “gee whiz, if they want to talk about The Boss, why not just let them?”
Yes, it’s true, they can be as irrelevant about new music as they want, but if so, they need to stop acting like they give a damn about new culture and musical trends, and just say what they are, “a magazine about music that your parents might like,” instead of acting like they’re this counter-culture buzz-worthy hip-as-fuck magazine that ALWAYS knows what’s up.
They helped introduce the world to the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin, nearly fifty years ago… But expecting something like that today? Ha, forget it! They don’t care what you think. They know they’ll sell magazines doing an issue entirely about the Beatles, or talking up Madonna (whom Deadmau5 rightfully told off) or sticking Britney Speares on the cover, again, like they love doing. I want to type FTL, but I’m sure RS won’t get it.
Ah! No way, a new article about Ziggy? Yesss! So relevant! He’s goin’ places!
Rolling Stone and other giants of music journalism are one of the reasons it’s so hard for smaller sounds and musicians to get ahead. Why cover new music when you could rehash some story about any 60s legend? Well, I’m personally sick of hearing this notion – the notion that modern music lives in the shadow of the 60s or 70s (or occasionally 80s) music legends.
I’m sick of that over domineering attitude by the Big Music press to ignore a niche style of music until it starts to blow up – at which point, Big Music will see it, swallow it whole, and small music will have to start over. If they cared about new music, they would’ve done their homework, kept an ear to the ground, and talked up the new music trend when it actually started to become a new music trend in the first place! Their current approach is whorish. Straight up whorish.
Not that they’re reading this, in their little cocoon on another, more tubular-and-rockified planet… Mine is a small blog. But you know what? I wonder if they even know what a blog is!
Yes, that’s a bit of sarcasm, but I’m completely sincere when I say: Rolling Stone, you’re a fucking dinosaur, buck up or quit.
(and in case it’s at all unclear, the graphic above is of a tombstone of Rolling Stone, but it’s a joke, I don’t actually want them to die, I just want them to change, and change a LOT..)
So, what is this about? It’s a top-ten list for genres that I think might benefit from being made into electronic genres – now, before you think I’m talking about throwing a house beat on top of a bunch of non-electronic samples, believe me – that’s NOT what I’m talking about. That would be a “Top Ten Genres That Should Be Remixed,” or something to that affect. I’m talking about remaking a particular genre, but with electronic tools and synthesizers. Fully self-actualized styles. Why? Because I enjoy electronic music, the sound of the kick drums, the tastiness of the synthesizers, and the physicality of the overbearing basslines.
All in all, there are a few genres I’ve listed that do have some entanglement with electronic elements, but when I say ‘plugged in,’ I’m talking about really giving these style the ol’ electronica shine down. Really givin’ them the ol’ rinse, and not just in some arbitrary way, the way a lot of old 90s rock bands “had a DJ” and OCCASIONALLY let him scratch for about 8 seconds before the refrain, no! The only thing that upsets my stomach more than that is ghost pepper! And at least with that, I get to taste some real spice before I invariably suffer, a few hours later, in the bathroom.
I’m talking about truly incorporating electronic techniques and structures into a wide variety of musical genres, both modern and older. So, with that, let’s get to it.
1. Soukous
Now, if you haven’t heard of soukous, don’t feel too stupid, as it hasn’t exactly destroyed the American pop charts yet. But that’s fine! In fact, I shudder to think what awful things R Kelly or ‘The Bieb’ would do to a genre like soukous, were it ever to gain popularity in the West…
Soukous literally translates to ‘shake,’ and it’s from the French Congo and Belgian Congo. It’s from the 1930s, but is still played today, and it just sounds so nice, especially how they play the guitars. I remember turning some of this music on, going to bed, and as I woke with soukous tunes playing, I was put in such a wonderful mood! Now, think about that light, breezy sound of African soukous music – but with the advances of electronic techniques, like dub effects or buzzed guitars or some ambient feedback. Not altogether necessary, but it could be a lot of fun!
2. Bop
I’m talking about the forward thinking / post-big band jazz sounds of John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis. Again, not just some corny remix with a breakbeat on top of a hard bop jazz piano loop; but instead, an electronic cacophony of odd time signatures and frantic note-killing square synthesizers bubbling over complex rhythms of 606 snares and 808 kicks and basses. It would be like breakcore without the punk rock sound, maybe a “mature” breakcore hybrid? I don’t know… But whatever it would sound like, I would be down.
And no, it probably wouldn’t be something Deadmau5 would want to throw down after playing some electro-house anthems that were specifically designed for a bunch of screaming fans (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but bop was traditionally music that was played in reaction to the big club sound. It was experimental, it could go wild, and it was always interesting and cutting edge – so, too, could be the incredible sounds of BopStep. (Note: Please don’t call it bopstep. Pleeeease.)
3. Medieval Music
Think of it – loots and breaks, medieval costumes, ecstasy, jousting, and glow sticks! Come on, doesn’t that sound pretty fucking spectacular? Actually, I suppose you could achieve a very similar effect by having a rave at the Renaissance Festival. Hmmm….
4. Bossa Nova
Alright, another breezy, upbeat genre that electronic music hasn’t really touched. Yes, there have been a few exceptions – but mostly exceptions involving some old bossa nova samples thrown atop some breaks and bass loops… Nothing wrong with that except its just remix-music. Why not an original track? Electronic music can sound truly wonderful when it takes on a ambient, lighthearted mellow demeanor. Look at some of the slower Ninja Tunes stuff… or, whatever ‘illbient’ music is. It sounds nice, and a rave-a-nova could also be quite fun.
5. Gabber (wait, let me explain)
Ok, ok. Gabber is as electronic as you can get, right? Well, yea. So here’s the flip – what if it were done non-electronically? What if gabber were done up with the harsh but human sounds of rock music? A quick, repetitive staccato bass, done with a guitar and a drum set. I know it’s the opposite of the theme, but this whole thing is just for fun, and this one might make you think about gabber differently… for a minute… if you were even thinking about gabber, at all, which you were not. Is your mind blown yet? It’s not? Really?! C’mon, gabber rock!
And if you’re thinking to yourself, “what the hell is this? Is this a joke?” The answer is, “Yes, sort of. But it would still be cool, if…”
6. Ragtime
Alright, so back on theme – no one’s played any ragtime in a hundred years! No wonder we’re in a recession…
This old style of catchy and melodic pop music might fair well, in an ironic way, if made distorted and hardcore. At least, I would definitely give it a listen. Wouldn’t you? A super-angry rendition of Maple Leaf Rag – you honestly wouldn’t be curious as to what the hell THAT would sound like?
7. Grunge
Here’s an idea that might thrill some and irritate others. Combine the rugged and thrashing power of grunge rock with the sounds familiar to the rave scene. Does that sound ridiculous? Perhaps, but it’s worked wonders with the few examples that have actually come out already! Yes, that’s right, it’s been done, a couple of times… I think it could go way further, if anyone wanted it to. I released the ‘Grungestep Compilation,’ on a label I ran, Soul Outsider Records, and it was hugely controversial. Tons of people enjoyed, and many people fucking hated it. I mean, REALLY hated it. I remember posting the idea on a forum, and one person responded saying I was basically “a corporate asshole, trying to sellout grunge.” Ha! Wow! I didn’t put any money into it, and I gave the whole thing away for free, but I’m a corporate asshole! Nice.
After that, I made an album (with grunge samples) creating unique songs, not just remixes. In between these two releases, I found a Lil Wayne mixtape where he raps over a grunge-loops-put-to-hip-hop-beats format. Not sure if he signed off on it, or if someone just went ahead without his permission. It’s happened before. The point is – the ideas of grunge don’t have to be foreign to the language of electronic music. Maybe what edm needs is some grit added to it’s clean synth sound. (It worked for dubstep!)
8. Funky Rap Metal
Fundamentally an open minded sound; what else could you ask for in the early 90s in music? You got your hip hop, you got your hardcore metal, and you got some incredibly delicious funk smeared all over it. You could make it grandiose and socially conscious, like Rage Against the Machine, or you could make it personally reflective and gritty, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or you could, well, you could make it annoying, like Limp Bizkit… (though they were never really that ‘funky’)
The point is, a style of music as wide-ranging as this was might be open to some of the advancements in music of the last fifteen years – keep the funk, keep the metal, the hip hop and rap – but maybe put a subbass in there, make it grimey, and try to see if you could add some bitcrushed vocoders to the mix. It would be the sound of fucking lightning. Yea, you heard me! Even a sparsely used wobble, from time to time (note: and I really mean ‘from time to time’) might not hurt, either. Hell, you know the wobble would make this new hybrid genre poppy enough to be in a Spider-Man movie preview in no time! Just don’t call it, “Wobble Against the Machine.” That would be fucking stupid.
9. Parliament-Style Funk
I don’t care how; just bring it back! It was done in the 90s with G-Funk by artists like Dr. Dre, Snoop, and Nate Dogg. If you think about, they were able to make a major impact on rap music, considering they were all pretty much working together in California. It goes along with the little-known reality that much of the cultural change that we see in the world starts out, basically, from small groups of people. The Beats contribute a whole genre of literature, and how many of them were there? Not that many, at first, and most of them were friends, hanging out and writing.
So, yes, PFunk was definitely open-minded to electronic techniques, but it’s been almost thirty years since Atomic Dog, and what the world needs now is more PFunk. Make it BFunk, CFunk, or even DFunk. Whatever. Just bring it back, now! And plug it in even more than before!
10. Brazilian Psychedelia
In the late 60s and 70s, Brazilian groups such as Os Mutantes created masterfully tripped-out and cut-up gems that would’ve excited the Beatles – hell, the Beatles probably loved some of this stuff, and I’d ask them if I could what they thought of it, if bring the two best Beatles back to life… This style of music floored 90s-music-god, Beck, as well. When he first heard Os Mutantes, he couldn’t stop listening to them, over and over, and over and over and over, until he ingrained the psychedelic Brazilian musical sensibility deep into his psyche, releasing tunes like, ‘Tropicalia,’ and having, overall, a strong influence from these tunes in much of his music.
So, what needs to happen is this: somebody needs to do to Brazilian Psychedelic music what hip hop artists from the 70s and 80s did to funk music – sample the hell out of the best bits and pieces of the genre, and create a new form of music that will surely stun the world. Another name for this article should have been, “Ten Ways to Make a Million Dollars and Change the Landscape of Music: A Blueprint: You’re Welcome.”
Ok, maybe that’s overreaching. But you get the idea. It would be dope as fuck. If you do it, I won’t even sue you if you take credit for coming up with the idea! All I ask is that you mentioned StrangeFlow and “that wonderful Bassadelic blog, of which I gathered so much inspiration…”
So, a couple months ago I made a new song. It was ugly as hell, but for a couple days, I couldn’t stop listening to it. It was loopy, demonic, and ugly, and was really the opposite of what I’m normally going for in an electronic song, and I was very aware of that. I guess this was an exception. Well, I decided that, since it was so different from my normal musical output, I’d try my hand at creating a new musical moniker, and ⱣΔU5Ё was born.
I decide to really enjoy the freedom that this new moniker afforded me – since it wasn’t part of my typical style, I felt free to do whatever I might choose to do. Eventually, as is often the case when I create a new character, ⱣΔU5Ё ended up being quite weird after not too long. I found some PSA image from the 50s on some random Google search, and found the ugliest-looking cartoon face I’d ever seen – I decided at once to use it as the face of ⱣΔU5Ё, and overnight, the character I’d created had transformed from weird and eccentric to terrifying and just plane bizarre. He was so odd, in fact, that I wasn’t able to contain him within the realm of music – he needed a journal – a ‘terrible journal,’ and thus, The Terrible Journals of ⱣΔU5Ё was born.
After a couple months, I had 111 pages about the sordid bass-music-producer. He would take drugs, scare people, make music, take more drugs, manipulate EVERYBODY around him, and eventually burn his own house down by mistake. It was the most fun I ever had writing, and it reafirmed my belief that it’s so much easier (and way more fun) to write about characters you don’t like. You can do whatever you want when you’re writing about the villain! The hero has to be written in such a narrow context, but the villain can literally do anything at any point! (Also, a few recognizable electronic producers showed up in the novel! Canceroflove, Angryrancor, and iONik all make cameo appearances)
So, anyway, I’d like to offer this as a free ebook to anyone who wants to read about ⱣΔU5Ё and his creepy tales… I put the “NSFW” label on this one… There’s really nothing awful, graphically, about it. but just as a warning: the subject matter is for adults only. DEFINITELY for adults ONLY.
It’s free, and fictional (ⱣΔU5Ё is a real jerk and nothing he does should be imitated) and you might get a laugh out of it. ⱣΔU5Ё’s path is but one path for electronic musicians, and not a desirable one, to be certain.
ⱣΔU5Ё is also on bandcamp, with his ‘album,’ @ http://pau5e.bandcamp.com/ – but please, don’t give him any money. He’ll just spend it on drugs. Bad drugs. WEIRD drugs.
He’s got a soundcloud with his all his tunes on it: https://soundcloud.com/pau5e here’s a couple more of his tracks below:
Holy snappers, the dude has 147 followers on soundcloud as I write this. God damn it, ⱣΔU5Ё. God damn it.
Live Nation Entertainment (the lovechild of a merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster) has recently gone and purchased the underground electronic music event promotion company, Hard Events. Robert F.X. Sillerman (the guy who used to run Live Nation) has already stated that he plans on injecting at least one BiLLiON dollars into this emerging market, which, I don’t need to tell you, is a LOT of cash! So what does this all mean? It means there might be a bubble. Dubstep is the new disco… or, maybe more appropriately, all of ‘edm’ is the new disco?
So what will this mean for underground electronic music overall? Well, look at other popular forms of music that have been commercialized – rock music, for example. Remember arena-rock in the 80s? Tons of money was put into it, and a lot of money came out of it, too. But eventually, what happened? Well, if we believe the widely-accepted narrative of American rock music, it came to a close when grunge came in… Fine, right? I’d say so! But then, sooner or later, grunge also blew up commercially (to the chagrin of many Seattlites) and it eventually died out, too.
Rock always goes through periods of rise and fall, as does hip hop, and electronic music, too. If you really look at what’s happening, and consider the history of electronic music, it’s burst before. It burst in the late 1970s/early 1980s with the rise and fall of disco – after which, there was STILL electronic music, but it was forced underground until something called ‘acid house,’ (a reworked form of disco with updates technology, updated aesthetics, and updated drugs) formed. And, as the chart below shows, we might be coming into another electronica-bubble soon, and not some vaguely entertaining Aphex Twin analogue-bubble, either! (wink)
Now, before you freak out and get really uptight about this, remember, it’s a little tongue-in-cheek. Meaning? It’s a joke… and, as any uptight electronic music fan will tell you (like me, for example) it’s not 100% accurate. You can tell because the ‘tipping point’ is witch house. (Yes, Dugg Funnie, you’re completely right – I DID forget to add trance :D …my bad)
The Great EDM Crash
Also, it should be pointed out, skwunc is not a real genre, and grungestep never got THAAAAT big. Nor did witch-house… it’s a joke, there’s no ‘EDM’ stock.. ;)
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