5 ms·
People here with critical perspectives are missing the point. "Where's the value?" The answer is that the people who make this music are not making music for yo
by msutherl 13y ago
People here with critical perspectives are missing the point. "Where's the value?" The answer is that the people who make this music are not making music for you. They make it more as a personal challenge and/or to one-up their friends.
There's a long history, going back to 80's[1], of artists abusing various computing platforms to write somewhat melodramatic music that pushes the boundaries of both traditional pop songwriting and the computing platforms themselves. This tradition is closer to hacking than it is to pop music in that it follows its own internal logical of oneupmanship and works aren't produced for any audience outside of the "scene" itself. Black MIDI is just another plausible and entertaining development in that context. Probably some kids who got into the scene and wanted to distinguish themselves by doing something new.
It is indeed also in some respects "good music", but at this point it's already so weird that it's not particularly enjoyable to most people. I happen to have been following this sort of music for awhile, since at least the explosion of the chiptune/micromusic scene in the early 00's, and I've learned to enjoy it such that I liked the pieces linked in the article and in this thread. I liked them both as cheesy sentimental pop music and for the "hacks" (e.g. playing a bunch of notes to make a phased "kick" sound) in the same way that someone might appreciate technical guitar playing. Another poster was spot-on when he said that this is basically hacked additive synthesis – that's precisely the joy of it! Ultimately, it's just another acquired taste, like wine or classical music.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene
- msutherl 13y agoSome "scene" music that I actually listen to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GIemGd3Ctk&list=PLkMjO0BRqWublSn0cMfeFUiD04gA3GIdS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GIemGd3Ctk&list=PLkMjO0BRqWu... (FM funk) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl7TjvZzWMY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl7TjvZzWMY (Zabutom) Basically just really good 4-part harmony on 8-bit chips. It's really not unlike pre-Rennaisance church music (early polyphony), or a lot of modern choral music.
- plaguuuuuu 13y agoThat first one reminds me more of a jazz / electro / rnb / funky house type of thing. Mixed with some japanese video games of course. If that's done entirely on one 8-bit chip it blows my freaking mind.
- ingrownpsyche 13y agoI don't know if it's done on a real chip or not, but that's FM synthesis, like produced by the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_YM2612 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_YM2612 in SEGA machines.
- ballard 13y agoDemoscene encompasses pushing limits of video hardware (mode-x, 3d) and god know how many copper bars than mod trackers (audio), but there's definitively sizable overlap. Heck, keygens allegedly often have some cool shit in them besides serials in the form of demos. Sometimes the UI themselves is reported to be clever. For the uninitiated, mod tracking is kind of like midi but with either or both synthesized and digitally-sampled instruments played typically by software. A friend in high school in the late 90's ranked near the top 5 globally with a beautiful piece that used like 32 channels, all in software. No help from a GUS with this. http://artscene.textfiles.com/music/mods/S3M/MODLAND/ http://artscene.textfiles.com/music/mods/S3M/MODLAND/
- algorias 13y agoInteresting that you bring up the demoscene. This music genre shares with it the fact that it takes a platform to its limits in a technically interesting way (just like 4k intros, C64 demos, etc), but in my taste it distinctly lacks aesthetic merit, which is recognized in the scene as an essential component of any good prod.
- Cthulhu_ 13y agoAnd taste is something that cannot be argued with. C64 demos, 4K intros also take a certain kind of people to appreciate.