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Sounds of Cologne – The WDR Studio for Electronic Music
- grecht 3y agoI once visited the remains of the studio in that cellar in Köln-Ossendorf as part of an excursion at university. I felt it was quite sad how it was just parked there, you wouldn't have assumed its historical importance.
- billfruit 3y agoWhy isn't Google Arts and Culture not available for smart TVs. It really would be a good app to have on the TV.
- ulrischa 3y agoAll financed with German tax money
- vocworker 3y agoWell not directly from taxes, but still public money. It's great to see it that not all of it is spent on entertainment for old people ("Musikantenstadl") and sports. Kind of validates how well public funding works for art and culture.
- eternauta3k 3y agoNot saying I agree or disagree with your conclusion (I'm undecided), but I disagree with your reasoning. The question whether the Rundfunkbeitrag is good is partly philosophical ("what is the role of the state?") and partly practical ("does the state provide better media than private enterprise?"), and I don't think this example sheds light on either aspect.
- seabass-labrax 3y agoI wouldn't say Musikantenstadl is just for old people. Perhaps 90% older viewers from what I can tell, but I can (personally!) guarantee that the figure isn't 100% ;)
- a2800276 3y agoAlso, while I wouldn't watch it if it was the last thing running on the last TV working after the apocalypse, a large swath of the population really enjoy it who aren't an interesting advertising demographic and who may not have the tech and financial means to access it otherwise. This is the system working: desirable content that couldn't be viably financed by the private sector.
- lionkor 3y agoIsnt it the shitty Rundfunkgebühr
- sgift 3y agoNo, it's the very good Rundfunkgebühr. Makes sure we still have something besides garbage journalism here. And also, arts & culture like this.
- eternauta3k 3y agoWith extreme-right parties polling >30%, I hesitate to give the state so much power for propaganda. See e.g. Poland https://www.ft.com/content/1861164c-1e41-4640-95a1-5615a0e9ba39 https://www.ft.com/content/1861164c-1e41-4640-95a1-5615a0e9b... .
- pelasaco 3y agoShould we link how the Silvester and Christmas in Poland x in Germany look like? Nothing is so black and white as you want to make it look like...
- sgift 3y agoThat's the reason for the Rundfunkgebühr instead of taxes. Keep it a bit further away from the state to limit its influence.
- pelasaco 3y agobased on the last drama involving the executives of public TV Channels, I'm not sure if it stills hold true
- eternauta3k 3y agoForcing all conservatives to pay for media made by an unelected clique with very different values is still not great. I know we want to avoid ending up with super-polarized media like the US, but I don't believe this is the way. I don't know what the way is, since you also don't want to give airtime to the crazies, and I feel the market for sane conservative news shrinks by the minute.
- naiv 3y ago[flagged]
- InCityDreams 3y ago>The way that they are pushing the leftist woke agenda... Could you clarify exactly what 'the leftist woke agenda' is (in this case)? I see so many accusations, but very few people are able to explain what they mean.
- amanaplanacanal 3y agoI’m also interested in hearing this. It seems to be mostly code words for other right leaning folk. What they actually mean they never say out loud, because it’s usually bigotry against people of color and lgbtq folks. Edit: downvotes but still no explanation.
- naiv 3y ago[flagged]
- naiv 3y ago[flagged]
- nickdurfe 3y agoNo, I believe people would like to know precise details of what you're referring to as "left woke agenda".
- xrd 3y agoThe Herbert Weimart (inventor of the first vocoder?) referred to in this article. It immediately makes me think of the pioneering electronic music artist Herbert. I bet it isn't coincidence.
- flohofwoe 3y agoNot to forget Herbert "Herbie" Hancock with the probably still best use of a vocoder in a pop song ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlKFeaeS1vc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlKFeaeS1vc
- CrypticShift 3y agoI admire two things here: the hardware aesthetic, which is just beautiful, and the pioneering spirit, which is extremely daring. That said, I've got a bone to pick with the standard narratives in electronic music history. They dwell on the origins like here but gloss over what I believe to be a cambrian Explosion brought about by DAWs/plugins from the 2000s. I get that it's 'history,' but this explosion deserves far more attention and analysis.
- diggan 3y ago> They dwell on the origins like here but gloss over what I believe to be a cambrian Explosion brought about by DAWs/plugins from the 2000s That's a bit like saying history about CSS1 is irrelevant because now we have CSS3, they're just different parts of the same history. Same with electronic music from hardware and electronic music from software. They're a part of the same history, just different parts. Of course, the latter probably wouldn't exists without the former, most music software emulates what we already were doing in hardware after all, albeit a lot more flexible. It's also way more fresh, even I as a youngster (~30y) can remember that, compared to all this initial hardware innovation where I wasn't even around to experience. That said, I'm sure there are plenty of articles about the history of DAWs and plugins, is there not? If there isn't, sounds like the world is waiting for someone like you to put it together :) I for one would read it for sure.
- CrypticShift 3y agoIt is certainly not irrelevant, and it certainly is at the basis of most DAW/vst stuff. But, there are still a lot of new ideas around. And you do find some historical articles [1]. No books I know of, though; I wish I could write one :) I suspect the high complexity and decentralization of the community's evolution leave scholars disoriented. It is the same story for the music being made (with these same tools) itself; the genres exploded around 2000, and most popular music histories speak more of the Beatles than the last 25 years. And a final point: these new tools (and again, the resulting music itself) are sometimes brushed aside as 'low brow' in academic electronic music circles. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38864623 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38864623
- zwieback 3y agoPublicly funded radio and TV in Germany was a mishmash of entertainment, education, news reporting but also music production. Entire symphony orchestras and Jazz bands were part of the state-run stations. Private broadcasting didn't exist, maybe wasn't allowed then. Not surprised to hear about electronic music being funded as well, the public networks had a reputation of being somewhat elitist and high brow.
- nwellnhof 3y ago> Entire symphony orchestras and Jazz bands were part of the state-run stations. They still are: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundfunkorchester https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundfunkorchester
- a2800276 3y agoJust a small correction. They are not state-run but run by a sort of public trust. There are meticulous mechanisms that are intended to keep the public broadcasting system independent of government influence. These work to some degree, and are just ridiculous boongoggles in other cases. E.g. to be independent, they are not funded by taxes, but have their own non-government agency (GEZ) that collects broadcast fees. Nowadays every household has to pay, but even a couple of years ago you could opt out if you didn't have a TV or radio. The GEZ had a special squad of investigators to check if you owned a TV or radio. All in all it works fairly well, but it is somewhat elitist and panders to a strange bouquet of special interests that strangely mirror the composition of its "neutral" governing body. All in all though, German radio is pretty good and public television isn't dominated by ads and has high quality content, especially if you are into more high-brow cultural productions. And the news are excellent.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoI grew up on '60s and '70s WDR electronic music; it was super important for me in my teens, not only musically, but also as a gateway to my interest in computers, signal processing and European history. They mention in the article a bit about the political push against experimental music in the 1930s, but it's interesting to consider that the re-surfacing of such music was also very political: the West were very happy to broadcast free and progressive music across the wall. I definitely have a feeling that experimental music has become a lot more niche since relations softened, the extra funding and promotion has dried up a bit, and now the world of that music has moved almost entirely to the back rooms of various universities.
- Theizestooke 3y agoYes, it was a way for western powers to show their support of free speech and liberal values. Now that the communist block is gone, there is less incentive to support the arts and claim cultural victory.
- LanzVonL 3y agoActually, communism controls our own movie industry. Take the famous case of the remake of Red Dawn where they changed the antagonist from China to North Korea. That was done at the TOP levels, communist pressure on Obama, who then exerted pressure on the studio. On behalf of Xi. John Cena learning Chinese so he could apologize for supporting pro-democracy protests in Taiwan is another one. Our bland culture is partly designed by communism.
- yorwba 3y ago> That was done at the TOP levels, communist pressure on Obama, who then exerted pressure on the studio. On behalf of Xi. Source? All I can find is https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/05/18/407619652/how-chinas-censors-influence-hollywood https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/05/18/407619652/... a producer named Peter Shiao claiming that "Chinese diplomats asked him to arrange a conversation with the makers of Red Dawn" but by then they "were already erasing references to China in post-production." Which seems to suggest they were persuaded by some other means, but doesn't tell us how.
- internet101010 3y agoThat was interesting but I have to admit that the parallax scrolling effect was very distracting.
- JKCalhoun 3y agoI was thinking as I was scrolling, is it a film they want to create? Interesting anyway — I kind of dig it.
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoThe more recent news in October on the studio since this page was produced is the city of Cologne continues to take an interest in preservation going as far to take ownership and plan to promote and use the space for education and culture centre. https://www.stadt-koeln.de/politik-und-verwaltung/presseservice/studio-fuer-elektronische-musik-des-wdr-wechselt-die-eigentuemerin https://www.stadt-koeln.de/politik-und-verwaltung/presseserv...
- fab1an 3y agoif you're into these sort of things, check out "Hainbach" on Youtube.
- stefantalpalaru 3y ago[dead]
- quink 3y agoIn the immortal words of Hugh Greene, responsible for WDR’s predecessor organisation NWDR until three years before the founding of the Electronic Music studio here: > We are going to use this organisation to change the way the rest of the country thinks. We want them to see stuff they don’t like. We don’t really care if they complain. Granted, it’s what he said about the BBC, but he did it in Germany too, to a level of success that deserves greater recognition.
- LargoLasskhyfv 3y agoNur Kölnisch Wasser macht Euch Nasser! Kölle Alaaf! Yeah!
- pelasaco 3y agowaaallaaah habibi, wallaaah
- MCUmaster 3y agoI wish I could read the article but it’s a frustrating example of modern web design.