Daft Punk

Leo

Well-known member
what i am interested in doing is dismantling the myth of Europe as the center of culture, challenge and destroy heirarchies of valuation created during the colonial era, and give criminally, systematically under-exposed African, and other, cultures more of their rightful importance and primacy within the world arena.

time and again i've said it has nothing to do with "race' but everything to do with culture.

Another way of looking at what repeatedly happens is that Eurocentric egos get bruised by my agenda, and accusations of "orientalism", "exoticization", and "romantic racism" gets dished out in retaliation.

saying "i kind of like this funky tune" is a long way from claiming "Europe as the center of culture", isn't it? especially when no one has said that or i'd imagine even thinks it. seems a bit of a strawman, no? and as someone else mentioned, it's a bit sweeping to state "ALL abc are authentic and good" while "ALL xyz are weak/bogus/bad."
 

zhao

there are no accidents
saying "i kind of like this funky tune" is a long way from claiming "Europe as the center of culture", isn't it?

if Europe/The West wasn't the perceived and structural (false) center of culture, then much more developed, advanced, functionally superior dance music from Africa would be much more well known around the world, lower quality American products would be relegated to obscurity, and much, much less people would say they like substandard crap like Daft Punk, or think it is remotely "funky". lol.
 
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zhao

there are no accidents
I don't know if you want to reconsider your fondness for that line, but it's one we've got used to – usually from people you wouldn't want to be associated with.

And well said Slothrop.

if you want to keep misconstruing my statements and view my project in the wrong light, it's your own messed up business, and there is only so much i can do to set you straight.

pretty clear by now that this is closer to the truth:

Another way of looking at what repeatedly happens is that Eurocentric egos get bruised by my agenda, and accusations of "orientalism", "exoticization", and "romantic racism" gets dished out in retaliation.
 

Chef Napalm

Lost in the Supermarket
Anyone who is an aspiring performer should take note of zhao’s approach here. Observe:

i can't decide if this is totally bland or completely boring.
…trolling…

on the one hand it's very unoriginal, and on the other hand it's really lame.
…trolling…

500,000 Daft Punk "summer jams" is not worth 2 minutes of proper Congolese Rumba.
…trolling…

people who like this song: have you no discerning ear what so ever??
…trolling…

what the fuck is wrong with you people? honestly.
…trolling…

you all listen to this. and compare to American 70s disco.

…and BAM! self promotion.

Well played, sir. Well played.
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
kind of incredible to read the interviews about the album and their love of 70s/80s pop (they have great taste btw) then hear the single which is basically likeable but naff funky disco house (and depressingly UNfunky - if you think its funky, you must listen to more actual funk, or chic at least, though i do like it more before pharrell comes in).

forget human after all, whats more incredible is how easily people get swept up into mega campaigns for once great/important artists making so-so music (see: bowie also).

zhao has a point about the western bias in the western media but then what dyou expect, we are in the west. you could promote the shit out of african music but for most people, unless its something with a massive pop appeal like oliver twist, that cultural distance is always going to be a barrier to engaging with it (and yeah, that barrier is due to eurocentricity too, but until african labels aggressively/arrogantly promote their product overseas like america and the uk do, we might be stuck with it).
 
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Leo

Well-known member
if Europe/The West wasn't the perceived and structural (false) center of culture, then much more developed, advanced, functionally superior dance music from Africa would be much more well known around the world, lower quality American products would be relegated to obscurity, and much, much less people would say they like substandard crap like Daft Punk, or think it is remotely "funky". lol.

so basically, certain tunes are a "lesser" music simply based on the culture from which they were created, full stop. hmm. well, while i like your african mixes and track suggestions, i'm sorry to say i'll also continue to debase myself by enjoying lots of substandard western crap. :D
 

Sectionfive

bandwagon house
seems like they are reaaaaalllly fucking popular actually,


It was an odd rise because Homework was big at a time when all dance music was big but they didn't get reaaaaalllly popular till four or five years after Discovery.
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
It was an odd rise because Homework was big at a time when all dance music was big but they didn't get reaaaaalllly popular till four or five years after Discovery.

It was a combination of Ed Banger being an extension of their empire, Justice being Daft Punk Mk. II, The live album being unreasonably adored, and their incorporation into American Geek Culture. Gorillaz actually managed to do this too, to a point now if you're a mopey little white middle-class kid who might not be too into music yet for music's sake, the 'mythos' of Gorillaz buys you into it. Daft Punk got the Leiji Matsumoto animated 'saga' (not even going to lie, major reason for my love of them as a teen), the robot pop-cultural thing, and their ability to be 'soothing' yet catchy.

I've bitched about this elsewhere w/ Blackdown, but I find it so cheesy that they're playing up in interviews this warmer sound based on real instruments, analog recording, and the return to disco sound. It's all so inherently rockist in watching someone like Todd Edwards gush about their ability to function as musicians while playing down his own creative process... It's a separation from faceless, aggressive noise modern DANCE culture for Americans to fully grasp.

Oh yeah, and Pharrell is a shit singer, and the fact that he's being utilized for his singing instead of actually contributing to the music says everything you need to know.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
and of course you will continue to like Daft Punk.

North Koreans will continue to love the state propaganda songs they grew up with too.
 

Sectionfive

bandwagon house
It was a combination of Ed Banger being an extension of their empire, Justice being Daft Punk Mk. II,

absolutely, and similarly they weren't getting the same adoration till the Indie element became more pronounced, Trash blew up and probably crucially getting namechecked by James Murphy which leads to..

I've bitched about this elsewhere w/ Blackdown, but I find it so cheesy that they're playing up in interviews this warmer sound based on real instruments, analog recording, and the return to disco sound. It's all so inherently rockist in watching someone like Todd Edwards gush about their ability to function as musicians while playing down his own creative process... It's a separation from faceless, aggressive noise modern DANCE culture for Americans to fully grasp.

[/QUOTE]
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I'm never sure how seriously to take zhao when he goes off like this. I tend to think it's halfway between genuine feeling, trolling and use of hyperbole as a rhetorical device.

dunno man, I always appreciate all your post-colonial arguments about dismantling vestigial systems of cultural valuation and the underrepresenation of African musics, and even when I don't share it I appreciate fanatical enthusiasm about a musical devotion. but then you're comparing Chic to totalitarian propaganda songs and screaming Eurocentrism every time someone fails to immediately 100% agree w/you and forever renounce all Western dance music in favor of Congolese rumba, and all your good and legitimate points get lost in the wash. you are like the most self-defeating spokesperson ever.

sidenote: I think I had this argument with you before, but I don't think more rhythmically complex automatically equals more rhythmically advanced. and rhythmically complex definitely doesn't equal better (i.e. Klaus Dinger only played one 4/4 rock beat and he is still one of the greatest, most innovate, rhythmically advanced motherfuckers ever to walk to face of the earth!)
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
also just about Chic I remember reading an interview w/Tony Thompson where he said he was originally a Billy Cobham type jazz guy and when he joined Chic Nile Rodgers took away like half his drums (i.e. that scene in 24 Party People) and made him totally reinvent his style without all the flashy jazz fills and polyrhythms and stuff
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
also zhao are you so sure East Asian musics ain't got no good rhythms? I been listening to Stomu Yamashita lately (the early avant-garde records he made in Japan before he went to England and did a bunch of shitty jazz rock with Steve Winwood) and that is some super rhythmically advanced percussion business, in a totally different way from African rhythmically advanced. and there's also samulnori which I still haven't heard much of but is basically a percussion-based Korean folk music.

also, just on the main topic of this thread, the best thing daft punk ever did was the noisy acid parts of Homework. I am with zhao that filtered disco loops is some of the most boring shit ever.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
also, just for record, dissensus wouldn't be dissensus w/o zhao going off about something africa-related every few months. it's a dissensus ur-text. Black Athena, Luc Montagnier and HIV, oh the memories...
 
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