When your Genre is dieing (an Emo Tale)

[DJ FC]

I think music has meant just as much to me as most anybody and probably as much as the regular posters in the download of the day thread. I do not participate there for 2 main reasons:

My musical scope has been very limited and not shared by other members of this board

and

Sadly, the time I have had to immerse myself has fallen several fold since graduating from IU and even moreso since moving to London. And in London they just don't have the kind of music that I used to love.

I can say that music has meant as much to me as anybody else because for almost my entire youth it dominated my interest and dictated how I acted. But the types of music I found myself entranced were, well early Trance and American Gangster Rap. Two genres which everybody else in the world seems to dismiss as 100% garbage and sugary cheese. And, admittedly, these two genres bring a lot of trash to the world of pop music. So I was always a bit sheepish about my hidden obsession with the two genres.

But I was a purist in both genres, mostly in Trance. I was a member of some online forums, discovering the mechanics of these types of music. I spent a great deal of time trying to make music with pirated software, with limited success. Ultimately I didnt have the budget for the hardware to go any further. But it didn't change the way I felt when I heard something expertly put together. I'd hear a piece of electronic music and after 20 minutes, if it was good, I would feel euphoria. It was an amazing feeling I don't know if I can explain to people. It's not like being drunk and hearing some ballad that you want to blast out - it's not that kind of euphoria. It's also not the kind that you get taking ecstacy and listening to trance music either. It was the kind you get when something so foreign and abstract somehow describes your being. Early Trance music was so organic in such an odd and mechanical way that when it was right - it was right. You could listen to it actively or passively and it became a part of you. Because it wasn't over-the-top and it wasn't obnoxious the way that people tend to think of it. It was mostly extremely subtle and understated. Formulaic and repetitive. Nothing fancy, but a pure sound and journey through time. When you got an ear for it, it was amazing. But then the ecstacy got involved and people wanted CHOONS. These were still enjoyable, quite a bit so, because they shared the same roots as the original trance. And I found myself listening to all the choons with everybody else. But like any drug, the effect wears off with too much use. And the false-euphoria of the choons spoiled everybody's taste for electronic music. Friends, you need to discover the understated trance. It exists.

Then there was Gangster Rap. I loved it for some of the same reasons I loved Trance. For one: Gangsta Rap is not about a message or an idea. Yes I know they are rapping about murder and drugs and saying words. But the focus of their words is the sound moreso than the content. Don't ridicule rappers for what they rap about. Their rap is an instrument the same as a drum set. So you had some artists who were making music that just made you feel good. You just nod your head and smile. These were people like Dr. Dre and Three 6 Mafia. They weren't rapping about important things. They weren't fake white guys from Minnesota. They were just very good at conveying a sound and an emphasis of feeling with it.

Now that I'm out of the USA I have exposure to neither of these genres, even though they are both dead. I still cling to the past like a dumb little emo bitch. I reminisce of the days when Tiesto released In Search of Sunrise 2 and the whole trance world creamed their pants at the simple joy that was released upon the world.

I stumbled upon this:

YouTube - Three 6 Mafia feat. Tiësto - Feel It (Official Music Video)

YouTube - Three 6 Mafia feat. Tiësto - Feel It (Official Music Video)

and it makes me want to cry. It's awful. These two genres should never mix and now they are just pop trash. Two of my favorite artists (DJ Tiesto and Three 6 Mafia) making a song together and it makes me want to throw up.

[Der Fuhrer]

Break da law nigga (we aint playin).

I used to love gangster rap. Snoop, Dre, Tupac, DMX, Outkast and Nas. I even liked old school Ludacris, I'm talkin like Back for the First Time shit. Then I started to realize that I couldn't relate to the shit in their music. I started to see the inherent racism and, "laugh at the white man for making us rich" type mentality of the artists. Now I'm to the point where all forms of rap music, new and old, repulse me.

Once I starting hating rap music, I didn't know where to look to quench my musical thirst. I spent some time trying to enjoy new-age rock and roll. I heard some OK bands, some that I liked more than others, but nothing really gave me what I was looking for. Then I started listening to some harder rock/punk bands. Again, some of these bands I liked a lot, but others were far too emotional and pussy-whinning for me. I also tried listening to classic rock. It was good, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. Some bands were great and I still listen to them today, The Doors, Clapton, The Who, Iron Maiden, but a lot of the other shit all sounded the same to me. Then one day I found what I was looking for. It was glorious the first time I heard it. It was amazing. It wasn't a band, it was a man. His name is Glenn Danzig. Although perhaps he fell off the horse late in his career, his early stuff is amazing imo. He was the front man for three bands. I like them all, but Samhain is probably my favorite band of all time. Maybe I'll post a video of a live set in DLotD. Many of you are probably familiar with his work. You probably either hate it or love it. If you're into electronica music, he also made two electronic albums Black Aria and Black Aria II. I haven't heard them cause I'm not a big fan of that, but I heard it wasn't all that great.

I guess my point in all this is that losing touch with a certain genre of music that you love is no fun, and it can be hard to find something else that you like as much. But if you keep looking, and wading through the shit, I'm sure you'll find something that you really like.

[SittinOnDubsWGW]

The merge of house/trance/rap has been getting pretty big over the past couple of years, especially at clubs.

The song you posted above, I think has a good party/club beat, but I'm not feeling the vocals at all and that is what kills it (for me).

There's times where I think electronic music is picking up here stateside, but I don't think it'll get too popular other than strictly at clubs.


Alt rock and electronic are what I have playing the majority of the time.