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I find it really weird that the unique openness, positivity and lack of pretentiousness among EDM fans/dancers is being perceived as something negative. I inste

I find it really weird that the unique openness, positivity and lack of pretentiousness among EDM fans/dancers is being perceived as something negative. I instead find it hugely refreshing - EDM is all about going with the blissful flow and feeling/sharing in positive emotions with the people around you. As long as the music contributes to a great vibe it's fantastic music as far as I'm concerned, I don't care one bit about if you spent an hour or a year creating the song. I spend way too much of my regular life being analytical (heh..) and thinking instead of enjoying, and I really don't understand why it's so popular among music fans to always look for the flaws in everything instead of finding the beauty. I understand that as a someone who has seen through the smoke and mirrors it may be tempting to clear the smoke. But I came because of the smoke machine, and when I look back I'll remember the warm feeling of empathy, fun and joy seemingly flowing through the hazy air - not about how much time or effort the DJ spent on the tunes. That doesn't make me stupid or ignorant, I'd argue it makes me the opposite. https://newrepublic.com/article/118854/edm-and-hippies-how-ravers-became-new-flower-children https://newrepublic.com/article/118854/edm-and-hippies-how-r...

morsch 10y ago
I like your attitude. It doesn't matter if the DJ's job is easy or not, as long as people are happy with it. I don't think that's a widespread idea though: people think making a DJ set takes both enormous talent and loads of work. I think it's because we react in such an emotional way to the music, that it'd seem odd if just about anybody could manipulate us in this way. And people pretend as if the work required to perform music had some kind of inherent value: if it took you half a lifetime to learn, it must be good, and vice versa. Plus, fandom is both familiar and entertaining. That said, I'm not sure pretentiousness is that rare in either EDM fans or DJs: https://youtu.be/hOj0E_ryI2U?t=64 https://youtu.be/hOj0E_ryI2U?t=64
Uhhrrr 10y ago
Musicians and more sophisticated listeners see simple music as boring and vapid, not blissful. Liking it doesn't make you stupid, but it may well mean you're ignorant. I would bet the likes of Tiesto will be much less interesting to you in a few years' time.
- noobiemcfoob 10y ago
  Throwing Tiesto out there as "simple", "boring", and "vapid" is exactly the same. I'd ask you to apply your own argument to his music. You don't get to compose for the Olympics while being a simple hack.
- ThrustVectoring 10y ago
  Uhh, it varies, really. There's music that's simple because the musicians don't know how to be make interesting music, and then there's music that's simple because that's the musically correct thing to do and the musicians have the confidence to be like "no, we're not playing all the notes and doing all the things right now". There's layers of sophistication. Sometimes becoming a better musician means learning to put more into a song, and sometimes it means less. A good example of this: Ahmad Jamal, Surrey With The Fringe On Top, particularly the section 50 seconds in - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7PDwzY9LA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7PDwzY9LA More mainstream is the drumming in "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes.
  - Uhhrrr 10y ago
    That section goes for 10 seconds. I guess if Tiesto only ever played for 10 seconds that would be cool.
    - Uhhrrr 10y ago
      One other thing: Jahmal is playing against the time signature in that section, which would be anathema to someone who just wants to make sounds to move bodies by.
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  I think simplicity in music can often be a positive, not a negative. I love both at times, complex music that I can keep listening to over and over and finding new elements to enjoy, and also simple music where it has been boiled down to only the essential element that perfectly expresses a particular feeling. Horses for courses. The "sophisticated listener" should be intelligent enough to understand that.
brokenmachine 10y ago
I love your attitude and wish more people were the same. It's a kind of jealousy that exists between people and I think speaks to the general unhappiness of most people in modern society. If people were happy in their lives, they wouldn't want to bring down successful people. A google search for "unearned pleasure" comes up with lots of interesting results. I would expand that to the idea of "unearned success", which I think is implied to be a bad thing in our society. There's a limit of course, but I wish our society was less focused on consumption and competition and more interested in trying to help make the average person's life less stressful and more fun.

morsch 10y ago

I like your attitude. It doesn't matter if the DJ's job is easy or not, as long as people are happy with it. I don't think that's a widespread idea though: people think making a DJ set takes both enormous talent and loads of work. I think it's because we react in such an emotional way to the music, that it'd seem odd if just about anybody could manipulate us in this way. And people pretend as if the work required to perform music had some kind of inherent value: if it took you half a lifetime to learn, it must be good, and vice versa. Plus, fandom is both familiar and entertaining. That said, I'm not sure pretentiousness is that rare in either EDM fans or DJs: https://youtu.be/hOj0E_ryI2U?t=64 https://youtu.be/hOj0E_ryI2U?t=64

Uhhrrr 10y ago

Musicians and more sophisticated listeners see simple music as boring and vapid, not blissful. Liking it doesn't make you stupid, but it may well mean you're ignorant. I would bet the likes of Tiesto will be much less interesting to you in a few years' time.

noobiemcfoob 10y ago
Throwing Tiesto out there as "simple", "boring", and "vapid" is exactly the same. I'd ask you to apply your own argument to his music. You don't get to compose for the Olympics while being a simple hack.
ThrustVectoring 10y ago
Uhh, it varies, really. There's music that's simple because the musicians don't know how to be make interesting music, and then there's music that's simple because that's the musically correct thing to do and the musicians have the confidence to be like "no, we're not playing all the notes and doing all the things right now". There's layers of sophistication. Sometimes becoming a better musician means learning to put more into a song, and sometimes it means less. A good example of this: Ahmad Jamal, Surrey With The Fringe On Top, particularly the section 50 seconds in - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7PDwzY9LA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7PDwzY9LA More mainstream is the drumming in "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes.
- Uhhrrr 10y ago
  That section goes for 10 seconds. I guess if Tiesto only ever played for 10 seconds that would be cool.
  - Uhhrrr 10y ago
    One other thing: Jahmal is playing against the time signature in that section, which would be anathema to someone who just wants to make sounds to move bodies by.
brokenmachine 10y ago
I think simplicity in music can often be a positive, not a negative. I love both at times, complex music that I can keep listening to over and over and finding new elements to enjoy, and also simple music where it has been boiled down to only the essential element that perfectly expresses a particular feeling. Horses for courses. The "sophisticated listener" should be intelligent enough to understand that.

brokenmachine 10y ago

I love your attitude and wish more people were the same. It's a kind of jealousy that exists between people and I think speaks to the general unhappiness of most people in modern society. If people were happy in their lives, they wouldn't want to bring down successful people. A google search for "unearned pleasure" comes up with lots of interesting results. I would expand that to the idea of "unearned success", which I think is implied to be a bad thing in our society. There's a limit of course, but I wish our society was less focused on consumption and competition and more interested in trying to help make the average person's life less stressful and more fun.