Major Turning Point

[a long]

Hi Marshall

Many people disagree with me when i say the " music biz " is standing at the cross roads. I had the same thoughts when we hit the 2000 years but this time it is different because of the major advancements in technology. There is so much music being released to the public now days that i find it very hard to believe that its all worth the effort. There are a lot of young people getting wound up like clocks but in reality the music that they are producing is complete rubbish. Techno, House, D&B have been part of my life for over 20 years now and i have the feeling that things are changing.

I have to say that 99.9% of the majors will only give a new artist the opportunity for an opening unless they have over a thousand hits on there web page at the social sites. If i started producing music tomorrow and asked one of the majors to have a listen to a demo, they will 99.9% of the time ask for my web address. This method is really evolution at work because if your music is not out there creating " hits with google " your basically not worth the listen.

Putting hard work and years of experience into ones music seems to be a thing of the past, if you really look closely to the music industry and i mean all genres. Piracy is at the pinnacle of having the major laws of copyright being rewritten simply because it has become bigger than the music or to put it better, popular music has become so bad that the kids don't have any respect for the work / artistry or the lack of.

The message that i receive today form the industry and many indi labels is one of self indulgence and contempt. After the big slow down in the dance scene from around 2000, when every one said that dance music was on its way out ( bollocks ) i see a major rise in quantity is better than quality and my question is this :

The people who know there shit also know that things have to change rapidly or the industry will become a joke to the future generations if its not already too late. What do you personally feel deep down in your soul needs to be done to turn this mess around ?

Thanks
Pete

[inthere]

There needs to be unity, both among DJ's and dance floors. By dance floors I mean the Dj's have to stop formatting themselves. There is an alarming number of rockheads out there that actually play one style of music all night and nothing else. Everything should play on one dance floor. This allows creativity and innovation. I said in another thread if a totally new kind of dance music was released, nobody would play it because it wouldn't fit into any of the current genres. Drum and Bass clubs wouldn't play it because it wasn't Drum and Bass, Techno clubs wouldn't play it because it wasn't Techno, House clubs wouldn't play it because it wasn't House, etc.

By Dj unity I mean Dj's have to start breaking records and sticking with them. They have to start selling records and getting their power back. This means playing hits more than once a night, and continuing playing them for months-not just a few days.
I'm at the airport and i have to board my flight but i'll continue this later, lol.

[Mantik]

hey this is a true thought, no one would play it.

djs and artists seem realy afraid of doing something new and djs play at the same speed and on the same bassline all the night long. its a kind of missing dynamic too.

[steffenb]

to be able to play whatever you want as a dj is only working if you got a
pretty strong name in the biz, so the people know your name and go to
your party more beacuse of your name and not beacuse of your music ....

if a "nobody" plays different styles of music during a set it just wont work !
cause people wouldnt feel it, neither understand it , so they better stick
to "dj one style`s" party so they know they get the same record the whole night
and they wouldnt be dissapointed ...

i live in cologne and this f#cking minimal music is a f#cking plague, its not that i
didnt like this kind of music, but it gets realy anoying when the climax of a party
is a hihat coming in after 4hours of just the same f#cking beat
try to play diversity to a crowd that likes those kind of partys ... it just wont work ...

i played in italy last year with a friend ... i played some old disco cuts,some deep house , some mnimal, some techno some old acid ... you name it ...
after a realy short time the manager of the party comes and says "ähm, the people want to hear the local dj, they want to hear this new minimal music, im sorry but you have to stop now!" ...

the perople dont want diversity they want a replica of the last weekend every weekend ....

the good thing is there are some small clubs around where you can do whatver you want to do as a dj, beacuse the people comng to those clubs like
to hear stuff they never heard before ... but thats a absolut minority in my book ...

[inthere]

i played some old disco cuts,some deep house , some mnimal, some techno some old acid ... you name it

That's a shame Steffen. I play a set like that all the time and people swear I'm the greatest DJ ever. It's their loss though because believe me, that club will soon be closing. No club playing only one style of music has ever lasted.

[steffenb]

Originally Posted by inthere

That's a shame Steffen. I play a set like that all the time and people swear I'm the greatest DJ ever. It's their loss though because believe me, that club will soon be closing. No club playing only one style of music has ever lasted.

thanks for you kind words marshall !

i realy hope the diversity in music that was "normal" at a party a few years
ago will have a comeback soon :)

at time i only see clubs playing only the latest greatest hype ... when the hype is
gone the next thing will be played out to death ... its like eating the same meal
everyday for months ...

[Mantik]

Originally Posted by steffenb

to be able to play whatever you want as a dj is only working if you got a
pretty strong name in the biz, so the people know your name and go to
your party more beacuse of your name and not beacuse of your music .......

depends on. there are realy big names where people go for because they expect and get this kind of sound they want and realy get pissed off if they doesnt get it.
there are also people which made something fresh and got big and famous through that.

the problems start to roll when artists try do to be someone they are not because of some hype. the difference is always obviously to the ones which are just letting out what needs to get out of them. if this happens everything is allright, no matter what kind of club, hype, crowd ect. is happening. this is how new music is born. so many musicians had to fight against frozen formulars of their genre and often they where totally unknown before they got legends.
about minimal music, its the same with fullon or heavy "schranz" etc.
a set has to be dynamic. up and down, up and down. playing one style ends just into a flat curve without any story. so every genre can be realy great if played correctly. but i think i do not need to tell this someone here on the board, but sadly so many djs out there seem that they just doesnt get it. its like a painter just using one color. no contrast, flat curve.

[datune]

Well, that just goes to show you that all those DJ's are just SHIT DJ's, cause I can tell you that people like David Guetta, Roger Sanchez, Erick Morillo, Carl Cox are for sure NOT playing the same style of music all the time, heck, David Guetta played Lenny Kravitz in the midst of an underground club in Antwerpen, right after playing some deep acid track, and the crowd went mental.

I hate all those preposterous, arrogant moron DJ's who think they have to play THEIR style of music, all the time, I've seen many a DJ like that, and they all fail miserably. As a DJ you should play first and foremost for the CROWD, not for yourself. I've yet to meet a successfull DJ who does not understand and successfully implement this in their sets.

About the minimal being such a trend in germany right now, it's the same crap with "Techtonik" being such a trend in Paris. It's just a hype that will pass eventually.

I wish people would stop thinking about music in terms of sub-sub-sub genres, and whether it's commercial or not, I've said this all my life, commercial music doesn't exist, there is only good music and bad music, end of story.

[inthere]

Originally Posted by datune

I've said this all my life, commercial music doesn't exist, there is only good music and bad music, end of story.

I've said this all my life too, why is this so hard for people to understand?

[Reptil]

Originally Posted by inthere

There needs to be unity, both among DJ's and dance floors. By dance floors I mean the Dj's have to stop formatting themselves. There is an alarming number of rockheads out there that actually play one style of music all night and nothing else. Everything should play on one dance floor. This allows creativity and innovation. I said in another thread if a totally new kind of dance music was released, nobody would play it because it wouldn't fit into any of the current genres. Drum and Bass clubs wouldn't play it because it wasn't Drum and Bass, Techno clubs wouldn't play it because it wasn't Techno, House clubs wouldn't play it because it wasn't House, etc.

By Dj unity I mean Dj's have to start breaking records and sticking with them. They have to start selling records and getting their power back. This means playing hits more than once a night, and continuing playing them for months-not just a few days.
I'm at the airport and i have to board my flight but i'll continue this later, lol.

Not every dj can do that, even if they imagined it, or even wanted it.
The problem is with the promotors though, and organisers.
Whatever they do lately it lacks imagination. (in this country, the last decade, not other places)
And when there's an "eclectic DJ" on stage finally, the flow is so ridiculously out of sync with any groovy vibe or musicality ad hoc, it angers me even. (and others, that aren't drunk at the moment of occurrance.) It seems some are being chosen to fit "a format", not for an individual presentation as "selector".

Sorry for the rant, I'm actually positive about the future, but IME it's always been "difficult" LOL, being a homo universalis living in a place, carved up into square pieces. It will happen though, I'm positively sure about it.

I agree with you about the breaking records thing. I think a lot of people now, not only djs but in general have very fragmented thoughts about music. I guess they need to hold on to one particular style (only), to be able to make sense of it all.

[Reptil]

Originally Posted by datune

....About the minimal being such a trend in germany right now, it's the same crap with "Techtonik" being such a trend in Paris. It's just a hype that will pass eventually.

dunno bout that, techno, electro and derivatives will be with us for a looooooong time.
I see it as a new form of free jazz. (idea about arrangement, role of improvisation, letting go of classically based harmonic structures) The cool thing about techno still, comparing it to most jazz is the improvisation coupled with raw energy.

Originally Posted by datune

I wish people would stop thinking about music in terms of sub-sub-sub genres, and whether it's commercial or not, I've said this all my life, commercial music doesn't exist, there is only good music and bad music, end of story.

hear hear