The importance of "bad" music/art

Dusty

Dusty

Tone deaf
Yes, I completely agree; it's a bell curve with the internet bringing a vast wealth of medicore to the masses. Seems stupid to still talk of pre-internet now that we are living in the future where most people weren't even born then, but label curation really kept a lot of this away from public ears.

I myself am guilty of being a medicore artist. I probably should refrain from inflicting it on others.

Corpsey said:
Please post an example of bad/mediocre dub techno and perhaps explain what makes it bad/mediocre in comparison to something you consider great.
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I feel almost bad picking on someone, what if they are reading?

So... not bad, but mediocre for me would be Coppice Halifax. Like Pete Namlook, it's a quantity over quality outpouring of releases. There's probably some really good stuff in there somewhere, but after a few albums you question how much of your life can you give to one mans mediocre output. It makes you retreat to what you consider the great, and appreciate that connection you have with it.

For me, Deepchords 'Liumin' album, or 'Deluge' by Submersion.

What's the difference? Dub Techno is often accused of being paint-by-numbers. It's the formulaic sub-genre in techno, which is itself pretty standardised to begin with. Many people follow the rules to the letter but miss the spirit of the thing. Zombie, plodding, emotionally dead music for the sake of it. Hitting that intangible 'otherness' that makes an album stand apart and suck you in, it's in the spaces between the rules. If we could define and replicate it, then it wouldn't be special.
 
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Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Leo said:
there's not much outright bad music released, but a TON of mediocre music. I guess maybe like the bell curve, equal measures of great and bad with the majority being ok/middling. mediocre could conceivably be viewed as good by some people, so it slips in and gets released but bad rarely rises to that level.

mediocre has risen exponentially with the advent of digital music, where anyone can self-release on Bandcamp/spotify or start their own net label.

related: when something is disappointing, we say "it's ok" when really it isn't. it's obviously lacking, yet we grade it up a notch for some reason. not bad enough to be slagged off, so we're polite about it.
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Last time I went to the gym - OK, it was in the Before Time, but whatever - there was music playing that I'd call unequivocally bad.
 
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
there's a difference between "bad" and "not your cup of tea" (see what I did there?). if it was played at a gym, the music you hated was most likely mainstream pop that was good enough in that genre to rise to the top of popularity, so in effect not "bad" for what it was trying to accomplish. just bad to you (and probably me).

someone (Goethe?) said the role of the critic is first to understand what the work is and what it's aiming to accomplish, and then judge it on how well it does in accomplishing that goal (regardless of whether the critic personally likes or agrees with the style and goal).
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Dusty said:
What's the difference? Dub Techno is often accused of being paint-by-numbers. It's the formulaic sub-genre in techno, which is itself pretty standardised to begin with. Many people follow the rules to the letter but miss the spirit of the thing. Zombie, plodding, emotionally dead music for the sake of it. Hitting that intangible 'otherness' that makes an album stand apart and suck you in, it's in the spaces between the rules. If we could define and replicate it, then it wouldn't be special.
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This reminds me of when I asked droid in the ambient thread how you can tell good from bad ambient. (Can't remember what he said now.)
 
R

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
related: when something is disappointing, we say "it's ok" when really it isn't. it's obviously lacking, yet we grade it up a notch for some reason. not bad enough to be slagged off, so we're polite about it.
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also related - a lot of self released stuff can actually sound not as bad as it might once have done due to ease of access w/r/t decent sounding production software etc.
 
woops

woops

is not like other people
rubberdingyrapids said:
also related - a lot of self released stuff can actually sound not as bad as it might once have done due to ease of access w/r/t decent sounding production software etc.
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True but has this resulted in more music we want to hear being available?
 
Dusty

Dusty

Tone deaf
Corpsey said:
Coppice Halifax video

vs.

Deepchord video
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Yeah. Perfect. Picking tracks in isolation and you probably could have found a Coppice Halifax track that sounded better than a Deepchord one, but I stand by this example. Deepchord, is ...deeper? There's more weaving in and out, the Tokyo samples pull you in and in the context of the album as a whole it plays its part.

You can hear Rod Modells experience at play. This is the work of a master of his realm.

The mediocre acts as a baseline of grey to judge against. This is how dull things can be, this is why you strive to rise above.
 
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V

version

Well-known member
Leo said:
related: when something is disappointing, we say "it's ok" when really it isn't. it's obviously lacking, yet we grade it up a notch for some reason. not bad enough to be slagged off, so we're polite about it.
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"Quite like,"
 
WashYourHands

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
they're traps, impossible to filter or distil down

you get lost in your own memories, but despite these First Blood-esque, knife-carved, hand-made, redwood forest obstacles, i WILL FINISH IT

(if @version asks you for your 100, think

vk-featured.png
)
 
chava

chava

Well-known member
Dusty said:
I personally spend a lot of time scouring Bandcamp and Discogs for niche and outlier releases in key genres. Obsessively hoovering up everything with a dub.techno label for example. My guilty pleasure. Sonic comfort food.

As part of this journey, aside from uncovering hidden gems, you skip through a lot of mediocre or just plain bad releases.

It definitely helps remind you what good music actually is, it sharpens your judgement by being constantly reminded what it isn't. From a music production perspective, it also helps you realise where people go wrong and what pitfalls to avoid yourself.
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Dub techno is a deep pit of mediocrity. It is very hard to find something completely bad, but no one has yet to match Basic Channel. Not even remotely
 
chava

chava

Well-known member
Leo said:
there's not much outright bad music released, but a TON of mediocre music. I guess maybe like the bell curve, equal measures of great and bad with the majority being ok/middling. mediocre could conceivably be viewed as good by some people, so it slips in and gets released but bad rarely rises to that level.
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Genuinely bad music is getting so rare I get all excited when I find it.

I guess the whole lo-fi/outsider music exploits that feeling.
 
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