Wierdo Music

luka

Well-known member
lool, ive listened to them all, i like them, im not being mean. im explaining why they interest me. its like hes rooting round historys dustbin. but lets not let tea trick us into discussing his music in bartys wierdo music thread
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Speaking of narcissism, here's a quote from a Spaceghostpurrrp review I did for FACT in 2012 which I suppose might be relevant to this thread:

The internet, of course, has blurred the line between public and private identities in general, and this effect has certainly been felt in hip-hop, which in the past few years has seen the cult ascendancy of “bedroom” producers and rappers like Lil B, Main Attrakionz and Clams Casino, who have seen their homespun, personal and eccentric styles reach a wider audience, particularly in the hip, indie-friendly online press, which naturally prizes their off-kilter, experimental, sometimes contrary takes on “straighter” mainstream rap. This “bedroom” rap music isn’t outgoing, intended for parties and clubs; if anything its ”ingoing” – expressive of an isolated inwardness that has led its makers along wayward lines, far from the free-ways rappers like Ross drive their musical Maybachs down.

I guess in recent years I've really become a 'poptimist' of sorts, insofar as I tend to favour stuff that is popular, direct, danceable, sensual, etc. over awkward, intellectual, avant-garde stuff which I once assumed was superior. But, as others have pointed out on here, to favour one thing zealously over the other is also rather small minded.

For the purposes of reviewing I've been listening to an Aesop Rock album for the first time ever over the last few days, and I have to keep consciously suppressing my now instinctively peeved reaction to his verbose, contrarian take on rap music, to acknowledge that he's a sort of autistic/artistic genius.

To play devil's advocate, though, these biases are perhaps not only unavoidable but actually ESSENTIAL to the business of musical appreciation and creation. Hating things, being prejudiced against things, refines and sharpens taste.

Gone off topic here. I was going to say that I really enjoyed Synth Britannia because it was about these weirdos making deliberately weird music for the sake of their own indulgences, rather than trying to figure out how to make a crowd go crazy. My preference is increasingly for music that DOES do the latter, but I like the fact that music can be different things to different people.

EDIT: However, music which is allowed to be self-indulgent can become simply... well, self indulgent!
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
A couple of thoughts on Corpsey’s post.

I would say that I share your “poptimist” tendencies. The fact that I feel the avante-garde is currently producing more interesting music than “normal music” (to borrow Luka’s phrase) is more a reflection on the current dire state of pop/functional music then it is on the merits of the avante-garde.

I would say though, that the weirdo music I enjoy (and post) is for the most part functional first; the idiosyncrasies do not come at the expense of the music’s purpose.

For example the Non Africa and the Intruder Alert stuff would be great to dance all night to in a sweaty club, but they also happens to be industrial, aggressive, they lack warmth, etc. which gives them a bit more of an avante-garde flavor.

A lot of the bedroom rap I post is explicitly functional; inducing/heightening the effects of codeine.
 
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sadmanbarty

Well-known member
I don’t really know anything about this scene. It seems to be what they play at some LGBT parties in the States. I don’t know if it’s a localized scene or if it’s across the country (or international for that matter).

After a bit more soundclouding, I'm getting the impression that this stuff is localised; hailing from the trans clubbing scene in Oakland.



 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Luka actually made some weirdo music himself recently, that song about Greenwich.

It was great, though. I'm inspired to try and make my own weirdo music.

Is Lil B weirdo music? Riff Raff?

EDIT: LOL @ dissensus birthing a new genre
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
After a bit more soundclouding, I'm getting the impression that this stuff is localised; hailing from the trans clubbing scene in Oakland.




Yeah that stuff I don't think is what luka means by weirdo music, the LBGT scene in the US, especially the voguing scene and all that death dropping (falling on the ground in extreme positions) is a hermetic subculture with its own mores and stuff.

Really full on, alot of the music :

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9YoXm0TP1Ww" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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Slothrop

Tight but Polite
I've had a few gos at pinning down the characteristics of Internet music here. Can't remember what threads. It's something I like speculating about, diffuse, airy speculation

Is it basically equivalent to what Reynolds calls Record Collection Rock, but with youtube videos from niche contemporary scenes instead of CD reissues of 60s garage rock?
 
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Corpsey

bandz ahoy
is yung lean an internetty sort of rapper?

Definitely seems like that to me. I'm not overly familiar with him but isn't he a Swedish white boy who uses the aesthetic markers of Houston rap? I always think of ASAP Yams describing something as 'not organically wavy'. Ironically, of course, as ASAP Rocky started out as an internetty sort of rapper, too, borrowing that Houston aesthetic wholesale despite coming from Harlem. He also blew up off the back of Tumblr/blogs.

It's interesting, actually, to consider the connection between the anonymity and fluidity of identity the internet offers EVERYONE and this new (there's a better word for this but I can't think of it) de-localisation of music, this eroding of the sense that a certain type of music comes from a particular place or a particular type of person.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I liked what luka said in the thread about Rinse FM pop, about how young ppl today don't have any compunction whatsoever about taking a bit of this sound and a bit of that sound and mixing it all in together, and how he envied them that.
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
internetty music to me just seems like stuff that somehow just sounds disconnected from 'reality'. not in that astral travelling sun ra sort of way. just a sense that the person has no connection with anyone else. or the music hasnt been borne out of connection with someone else. i.e. its not 'for' anyone, and its definitely not for a group or scene etc. it doesnt sound like its inspired by anything 'physical' or tangible in the old fashioned sense. its the work of someone who has perhaps spent too much time on youtube, soundcloud, tumblr, etc etc. now that i put it like that, it seems quite obvious actually lol.

asap rocky i admire for his superior taste, but hes so painfully on-trend, his music rings pretty hollow. its like a style mag journalist deciding to rap. next to no gravitas. fantastic beats though, on those first rocky and ferg albums.

this thread seems to conflate internetty music like compton white (im going to start a new thread for compton white) with stuff that we have heard about cos of the net, like jersey club, SA house, etc.
 
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Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Well, the interesting thing with Rocky is that much of his taste (so far as I'm aware, and Crowley may correct me here) came from Yams. Yams was the mastermind behind Rocky look and sound. And he effectively blew Rocky up by building up realniggatumblr. It's all covered in this NYT article:

By the beginning of 2011 Rocky had a batch of songs that were ready to go. Here again Yams had a plan. Since April 2010 he’d been running a Tumblr — the title is unprintable — which had become one of the most reliable hip-hop tastemaking sites on the Internet, trafficking in obscure gangster rap, scans from old hip-hop magazines, rare photos and all manner of insider jokes. It had a devoted following — it was historical, attitudinal and an alluring blend of street knowledge and nerd knowledge. “That’s what made” his Tumblr “special,” Yams said. “I really mixed both.”

The Tumblr was entertainment, a map of modern hip-hop taste, and, for Yams, also a strategic gambit, “a setup.” Using Tumblr, a blogging platform that allows easy sharing of content, was a conscious choice: “It’s like advertisement.” He was building a reputation as an online tastemaker, spotlighting up-and-coming artists and advocating for a taste level that would be receptive to Rocky’s sound when it was unleashed. “I kept my whole affiliation separate,” Yams said. “I was writing about Rocky like I ain’t know him.”

In April 2011 he posted “Purple Swag,” Rocky’s breakthrough song, a homage to Houston’s chopped-and-screwed music, to which Yams had heavily exposed Rocky. Within months Yams had gotten what he needed from the Internet: Rocky signed a major label contract and a distribution deal for ASAP Worldwide.

That success was a validation not just of Rocky’s skill, but also of Yams’s vision and his ability to infuse it both into Rocky’s music and also into the ears of hundreds of thousands of fans, all without playing so much as a note of music. Yams had built the rapper, and also the audience. All that was left was to convince the mainstream.

FTR I think Rocky's made some great records but he's a pretty average rapper, as are many in this trend-led era. (But ever was it thus.)

I kind of agree with your definition of it being music 'not made for anybody', except that the internet is full of people who like this type of music. I guess you can almost return to this idea of 'weirdos' making music for 'weirdos', and the internet connecting outsiders more than they ever have been before.
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
yeah i know it was all yams. its why the last ferg and rocky albums have been so crappy (both of them are trying to get more autobiographical, when im not sure anyone cares about that aspect of them, or that they even have anything interesting to say about themselves/the world?).

the internet is full of people who like this type of music. I guess you can almost return to this idea of 'weirdos' making music for 'weirdos', and the internet connecting outsiders more than they ever have been before.

yeah this is where the idea of internet music as existing in some sort of pathetic feedback loop that means nothing to anyone else in 'the real world' falls apart. i think at its best internet music is just weird, and is somewhat self- or web-reflexive, rather than stuff that tries to capture a bigger/offline audience and fails at it in some way.
 
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