Saturday, January 20, 2007

Observation et blogging.

I've just noticed something, exciting design means boring content.
The more bright colours, the more pretty pictures, the less time there is to write;
But of course some don't start blogs to write, for some the blog is nothing more than a modern version of the diary, except that diary's are meant to be private.
Was that an adequate summation of your output, well then........ what can i do for you.

Equality of intention.

Insurance policies are like nuclear weapons,
you have them and maintain them but hope to never use them.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Genre confusion 3: Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails are usually said to be an industrial band however their front man has been shown to have very ambivalent feelings towards this term and if you examine their releases ones sees that Industrial is not by any means the full story.
Their first album the now embarrassingly dated ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ was basically Synth Pop.
Their second major release ‘Broken’ is very much harsh, hate fuelled, Punk Rock influenced, Industrial.
Their second album The Downward Spiral is to a certain extent more mellow it brings back the Synth Pop influence and replaces some of the harshness with a greater experimentalism and replaced the Punk Rock with a certain level of Heavy Metal influence creating a Avant Guard Industrial tour de force.
Their third album ‘The Fragile’ is considerably more difficult to describe so I’ll just put in a few descriptive terms that I think fit the album and hope you agree; softly industrial, massive, epic, beautifully destitute and emotive.
Their forth album ‘With Teeth’ is easier by far to describe, it simply combines some of the best elements from all their previous albums and has got them labelled [in the music press at least] Alt Rock [Alternative Rock] rather than Industrial.
From what I can tell they are influenced by Ministry, Alec Empire, Skinny Puppy, Gary Numen, and David Bowie, so make up your own mind.
The influence of genre is mutable and difficult to describe accurately.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Genre confusion 2: Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson, like Green Day also have a somewhat contentious history of classification.
They are usually referred to as a Goth band much to the annoyance of Goths [the young and un-knowledgeable nature of many of their fans is once again a contributing factor to this]. However both the band and their eponymous singer have for their part always denied, or at the very least been very ambivalent about the application of this term, mainly due to its constricting implications. Other phrases often used by the more knowledgeable are Industrial, Glam Rock or sometimes Neo Glam, general all purpose umbrella term Metal, and to a considerably lesser extent Punk Rock. The band for their part have often referred to their music as being Rock and Roll.
This hugely eclectic mix is met out in their influences:
The Beatles, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Kiss, The Sex Pistols, Bauhaus, Adam and The Ants, Gary Numan, and in a much more direct way Nine Inch Nails. [the bands only permanent member Trent Reznor is a long time friend of the Mansons and has produced two of their albums as well as being their label boss until he shut up shop as it were.]

Genre confusion 1: Green day

Green Day are said to be chiefly influenced by The Clash, and Stiff Little Fingers I would add to that list: Ramones, The Pogues, The Sex Pistols, and Bad Religion the fact of the matter is that they add very little to that mix. This does not however justify the argument that they are not a Punk band clearly they are, clearly they make Punk music. This argument is based primarily on the fact that they are not only very popular but that they also despite the fact that they’ve been around for something around fifteen years attract a mainly young audience that is for the most part un-aware of the length breadth and history of Punk Rock and thus have a somewhat over inflated view of the bands importance within this history.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Curb my agreement?

I have for quite some time found myself in agreement with Larry David’s character on Curb Your Enthusiasm and I just have some questions;
is this normal?
Is there something wrong with me?
Should I be worried?
I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m often excruciated by his behaviour and find myself at a loss to understand the reasoning behind it [particularly when he makes up horrible lies rather than be honest] having said that, I more often than not have the same reaction to other characters in the show. In any case I think a great number of the things that he does are perfectly reasonable and I get the feeling that most people would act in the same way were it not for the taboos of social convention.
Is this nothing more than a monstrous act of solipsism?
Am I simply trying to justify my agreement with this strange character by suggesting that really 'you all think the same as me and you’re just to scared to say it'?
Racists use this sort of justification all the time, and I can assure you that I’m no racist.
Having said that this sort of solipsism is actually quite common, one sees it all that time, and its actually quite disturbing when you think of how many people must be using it to justify totally abhorrent behaviour and how many of them would not have allowed themselves to do this were it not for that justification.
This has gone rather off topic but then I can’t think of anything else to say on the topic, I do however find that writing this has been rather therapeutic, I find my fears and worries subsiding, besides I’m sure you're all thinking the same thing anyway.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Here's a question i asked on Yahoo answers.

Did Nine Inch Nails re-invent industrial music?

Some aditional information.

industrial music was a genre invented in the mid seventies it is not a sub genre of anything else allthough it does ocasional cross paths with many other genres but its not a part of any of them.

One of the answers i received.

I don't really think of NIN as industrial. It's heavily influenced by industrial, but it's a whole other animal. Pretty Hate Machine was more synth-pop type stuff. It's closer to late 80's Depeche Mode than it is to "industrial." (That's a compliment.) Broken was the most industrial sounding IMHO but it was heavy on guitar (and that's not really industrial.) Reznor made his own genre really. He combined elements of synth-pop, industrial, speed-metal, classical, drum & bass, and ambient (among others.) I've never really liked the "industrial" label much though because it doesn't mean anything. It's usually used to describe music that incorporates a lot of ambient noises and sampling (stuff like machines) for instruments and percussion, but the music over (or underneath) those noises is what's really important. Groups like "Skinny Puppy" rarely even had a "song" mixed in with their chaos. NIN mixes some chaos with what are generally full melodic songs. Almost all NIN songs could be performed with an acoustic guitar and/or piano. That's not really the case for what I consider "industrial."

And my response to it.

This is definitely the best answer i've seen in a long time allthough having said i don't agree with it the term industrial does mean something its bassically a statement against the music industry [look at that word 'industy']
"heavy on guitar (and that's not really industrial.)" the original and some would say only true industrial band throbbing gristle used guitars as did and do ministry, as with any ellement of industrial music its not so much what you use as how you use it. "Reznor made his own genre really. He combined elements of synth-pop, industrial, speed-metal, classical, drum & bass, and ambient (among others.)" all electronic genres of music including synth pop and drum and bass have some level of debt to industrial music
the music of the original industrial pioneers particulaly NON beers some resembalance to the experimental 'neo classical' music that was being made in the 50's and 60's.
ultimetely reznor probably has wed experimental industrial music to the idea of actual song writing and pop sensibility but its hardely a new genre.