big shout out...

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

... to jauntyalan  for banging on about the Justice album. I live a sheltered life as a mild-mannered academic and would not otherwise have been exposed to this young person's banging 'house' music. I couldn't be bothered to read the ILX thread so I have no idea if this is a popular position or not. It sounds like Daft Punk put through a blender.

Also: a warning to freakytigger  Not only have I 'obtained' a copy of Operation Mindcrime, I have even worked out how to get the heavy metal umlauts onto Queensrÿche!!

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

What is 'the big picture' then??

It shouldn't surprise anyone that people who are into minimal techno will hate this (other than as a one off) (ie an ENTIRE ALBUM does my head in) b/c the aesthetics are so opposed.

The types of dance music I hate most = dance music for people who don't like to dance (Groove Armada, X-press 2 et al) and dance music which encourages people to dance like indie kids, ie badly, or in a 'mosh' style, ie antisocial. You can't dance properly to this!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Is making people dance its primary intention?

The whole "dancing properly" argument seems foolish to me unless made by a very good dancer, and very good dancers are unlikely to be in the kind of contexts where Justice gets played, no?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

& you could argue that a REALLY good dancer would be reactive and flexible enough to find a way to dance well to it!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Is making people dance its primary intention?

If it isn't it should be! Given that it purports to be DANCE music.

I mean...it sounds clumsy and beery and heavy-handed in ways which I think leech energy from the music, and make me want to dance less, and it's the very fact that this is deliberate which irks me so much. They've basically only got one sonic idea and that idea is really unfun for more than 5 minutes at a time.

It's funny, though, all of the acts of this ilk that I hate on have at least one track I love! I just don't like seeing it become a big, popular, crossover thing b/c there is BETTER out there.

"beery"

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

better than genrification by silly claims -- does it "purport to be dance music" or has some dimwit merely assumed this at some point? -- we would do better to label all music by its alco-analog

ok gets hilarious do-you-see gag out of way first viz "THIS INDIE IS WHITE and WINEY" zzzz

this salsa is like a fine malt whiskey
this j-pop is like a bloody bacardi breezer
this jazz fusion is like warnink's avocaat only the egg has been POACHED ect etc

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

It shouldn't surprise anyone that people who are into minimal techno will hate this

Lex, this doesn't make sense to me. If I can like both minimal techno and this, why would I assume that other people who like m. t. wouldn't like it? I can see that if they were exclusively into m. t. they wouldn't like it, but then the argument is tautologous since they wouldn't like anything that wasn't m. t....

I can understand it might do your head in though -- I think that's what I like about it, it's so OTT.

Also 'whether you can dance 'properly' to it' is surely a rubbish criterion! A poptimist viewpoint would be that the only definition of dancing properly = dancing improperly from a purist perspective!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I am a dancing purist :D

(Actually I feel this way whenever I see people sing the praises of doing things craply, whether dancing or singing or whatever - I think doing things properly is a VIRTUE especially if it makes one look cool.)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

fsvo "properly" = the generational kink at issue here

(viz "academic" painting vs ___________*)

*insert anti-academic movement to taste

there is a fubsy and timid version of lex's position obv; there is also the william morris arts-and-crafts avant-garde version, and "we" (by which i mean us when we're bein "reynoldsian nu-rockists for dylanesque dancing") get muddled tryin to fite both battles at once cz you CAN'T

[dalek-made-of-light briefly trolls across back of room]

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

we must be at cross purposes. by improperly I don't mean 'badly', but 'in ways which aren't sanctioned by social codification'. I guess I see quality as a technical judgement (i.e. I can judge someone's dancing good or bad IF they are trying to dance 'well' but obviously neither of us would want to use that criterion in relation to children dancing at a party) whereas 'propriety' is a judgement relating to social mores. i.e. properly meaning something more like in the right context, in the right spirit etc.

Lex is the reason I don't dance

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

(And I hope you feel guilty about it!)

Lately I've been thinking that minimal is more for dancing in your head.

Re: Lex is the reason I don't dance

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I am going to dance to minimal in a TENT all night tomorrow :)

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

dr t totally OTM there