Electro shmelectro
I said this over on Tal's Tumblr. Not that I haven't said it before in better detail, but I don't think I've said it here:
"Cold" versus "hot" and "electronic" versus "not electronic" are unrelated issues, since there's nothing either inherently hot or inherently cold about electronics. Feedback and power chords are just as electronic as vocoders and synth washes, and what makes vocoders register as "electronic" is that they sound like low fidelity microphones or transmissions that are interfered with by static - which is to say accidental features that occur because of inadequacies or defects in the technology. When electronic music sounds "cold" it's usually because of a self-conscious attempt to sound like a 1950s science fiction idea of technology - so it's a deliberate choice to evoke or symbolize the opportunities or risks of technology, and to sound "futuristic," but the sounds aren't actually inherent in the technology.
And I went on to say what I have said here before, but with slightly different examples:
So the whole issue of "cold" versus "hot" in relation to technology feels like a cliché - or at least a misfire, a fairly dated use of symbolism, since it both evokes and sidesteps various issues that aren't really related to whether a particular timbre sounds hot or cold. E.g., the mass production of clothing when coupled with worldwide communication can lead to a more "uniform" look around the world - not that everyone dresses the same but that the various choices aren't tied to your locale, so local idiosyncrasies can get wiped out. But this is unrelated to whether one chooses "earth tones" or not. And someone's individual idiosyncratic style choice can also be transmitted around the world as well, in pictures and videos, rather than being confined to oneself and a few friends.
What's happening with the Internet and music is that locally we feel a greater sense of diversity (that's what causes all the babble about the loss of a "monoculture" or the loss of a cultural "center") even while different parts of the world are more connected and therefore more similar, the two phenomena being two sides of the same coin, both resulting from the greater ease of transmission.
"Cold" versus "hot" and "electronic" versus "not electronic" are unrelated issues, since there's nothing either inherently hot or inherently cold about electronics. Feedback and power chords are just as electronic as vocoders and synth washes, and what makes vocoders register as "electronic" is that they sound like low fidelity microphones or transmissions that are interfered with by static - which is to say accidental features that occur because of inadequacies or defects in the technology. When electronic music sounds "cold" it's usually because of a self-conscious attempt to sound like a 1950s science fiction idea of technology - so it's a deliberate choice to evoke or symbolize the opportunities or risks of technology, and to sound "futuristic," but the sounds aren't actually inherent in the technology.
And I went on to say what I have said here before, but with slightly different examples:
So the whole issue of "cold" versus "hot" in relation to technology feels like a cliché - or at least a misfire, a fairly dated use of symbolism, since it both evokes and sidesteps various issues that aren't really related to whether a particular timbre sounds hot or cold. E.g., the mass production of clothing when coupled with worldwide communication can lead to a more "uniform" look around the world - not that everyone dresses the same but that the various choices aren't tied to your locale, so local idiosyncrasies can get wiped out. But this is unrelated to whether one chooses "earth tones" or not. And someone's individual idiosyncratic style choice can also be transmitted around the world as well, in pictures and videos, rather than being confined to oneself and a few friends.
What's happening with the Internet and music is that locally we feel a greater sense of diversity (that's what causes all the babble about the loss of a "monoculture" or the loss of a cultural "center") even while different parts of the world are more connected and therefore more similar, the two phenomena being two sides of the same coin, both resulting from the greater ease of transmission.