Talent vs Technology, Originality vs Art -ACID Product Family

Subject:Talent vs Technology, Originality vs Art Posted by: stuffedspacedog Date:3/15/2004 10:05:14 PM I see the same debate here about talent vs technology that raged in the early 1980s. Kraftwerk, the Human League and others were accused of making soulless music "made by machines" - the argument was that they weren't really talented because they didn't really play. The answer is that machines don't make music (not yet), people do. You'll get good and bad music regardless of the technology used. The argument about using loops is an interesting one. I see loops as an evolution of music creation. It's no different to hitting a note on a piano, it's just sound that is more highly organised, and it's all about what you do with it, not where it came from. I believe we are really artisans, not artists, and we make music by working our bodies and minds, not through flashes of divine inspiration. We operate in a human culture which is constantly recycling itself into new forms (and probably forgetting more than it learns) - we are part of that process. This notion of the uniqueness of art (and artistic genius) is a Western one that developed during the Renaissance, and has now passed it’s sell by date. To ask that people create their own loops or disguise the loops created by others is a bit like asking the Beatles to build their own guitars before their music can be seen as valid. Having spent many years working analogue with 16 track tape, I am completely relieved to have someone else spend time miking up a guitar and recording it instead of me - isn't that the point? Isn’t that what makes us free? Answers on a postcard!
Subject:RE: Talent vs Technology, Originality vs Art Reply by: musicdog Date:3/16/2004 5:11:07 PM Here, here !!!! I can remember working with BIG HAIR bands in the early 80's with much more EGO than TALENT...I'll take machines over bloated ego guitar manglers anyday.. musicdog
Subject:RE: Talent vs Technology, Originality vs Art Reply by: stuffedspacedog Date:3/16/2004 8:35:43 PM I worked with equally untalented all female anarchist punk bands at the same time - they also had BIG HAIR. Is there some kind of genetic link between big hair and no talent? If Michael Bolton has used Acid would he still be sh**?
Subject:RE: Talent vs Technology, Originality vs Art Reply by: Iacobus Date:3/17/2004 12:21:03 PM LOL Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid mD's ACIDplanet Page Guitars 4 Kids

I see the same debate here about talent vs technology that raged in the early 1980s. Kraftwerk, the Human League and others were accused of making soulless music "made by machines" - the argument was that they weren't really talented because they didn't really play.

The answer is that machines don't make music (not yet), people do. You'll get good and bad music regardless of the technology used.

The argument about using loops is an interesting one. I see loops as an evolution of music creation. It's no different to hitting a note on a piano, it's just sound that is more highly organised, and it's all about what you do with it, not where it came from.

I believe we are really artisans, not artists, and we make music by working our bodies and minds, not through flashes of divine inspiration. We operate in a human culture which is constantly recycling itself into new forms (and probably forgetting more than it learns) - we are part of that process. This notion of the uniqueness of art (and artistic genius) is a Western one that developed during the Renaissance, and has now passed it’s sell by date.

To ask that people create their own loops or disguise the loops created by others is a bit like asking the Beatles to build their own guitars before their music can be seen as valid.

Having spent many years working analogue with 16 track tape, I am completely relieved to have someone else spend time miking up a guitar and recording it instead of me - isn't that the point? Isn’t that what makes us free?

Answers on a postcard!