Entry #3
The Corruption of Electronic Music - Revisited
by AtomTM
Some time in 2012 I was sitting in a hotel room in Tokyo. I had woken up around 3 am and couldn’t fall asleep, due to the heavy jet lag. I needed to make some time before breakfast and an idea came to mind. I designed the cover of a book entitled “The Corruption of Electronic Music” with the juicy subtitle “Names and Facts”. I posted it, without much further ado on, I think a Facebook profile, long deleted ever since. I then went to have breakfast and go for a walk. Many hours later, to my surprise, the post had exploded and dozens of people had either commented or written to me directly, asking to buy the book. I kept the entire thing in the dark.
I remember how surprised I was about the feedback, since I felt that there must have been a need for such a lecture. Ever since I think that it is a book that needs to be written. Maybe in the near future it will be, by a machine learning system, or something alike. There should be a revised version of it as well, which brings it up to date.
You may wonder about the repost. 10 years have passed since I had posted that simulation. Today, more than ever before during those 10 years, I feel that we have reached a specific moment – some sort of pinnacle perhaps, if negative entropy can have such a property. I am preparing a series of talks right now which explicitly shall deal with an analysis of the current situation of “Electronic Music”, if ever such a genre existed and therewith, if there ever existed anything that could have been corrupted. There is something deeply decadent and transformative in the air, but try not to read this in a negative way – I am thrilled about all this.
The exoskeleton comes to mind, which has to be shed.
Let’s kill the old story.
4 Responses to “Entry #3 The Corruption of Electronic Music – Revisited”
Es un buen punto. Pero es difícil de tratar. La electrónica no deja de ser arte y por la experimentación de muchas variables es que se consiguen avances y cambios.
Desde el lado comercial de la industria de la música, festivales y clubs, entran innumerables factores que por supuesto mueven dinero generando deseos ambisios y corrompiendo a la gente.
Pero desde el lado de la producción se ha aprovechado la fama de algunos géneros o ritmos lanzando a la fama y enriqueciendo a unos pocos cómo cualquier industrial.
Estaría bueno hablarlo. Tengo un Podcast Mente Emergente 🍃
The book should start with Morton Subotnick describing his reaction when he first heard Hooked on Bach. I was a young music student at that time and a great admirer of Subotnick’s Silver Apples of the Moon and his other releases on None Such Records. I remember friends getting all excited when they heard Hooked on Bach; coming to me and saying, “this is what you should be doing since you like synths. You don’t have to just make the obnoxious sounds you always make with those machines. Here, listen to this”. Dr. Subotnick was more eloquent in his response, but we both had the same reaction. Carlos’ name should appear prominently when this book is written, with the addendum “forgive him lord, for he knows not what he has done”.
Michael Winburn
I think you are refering to “Switched on Bach” by Wendy Carlos
Very interesting! It reminds me of NN11 book “DJ Culture as a Function of Neoliberal Capitalism”: https://atom-tm.com/NN/11/DJ-Culture-as-a-Function-of-Neoliberal-Capitalism-Book/
Was it ever released as well?