DOES ELECTRONICA HAVE SOUL?
As you know, I adore you and the magazine with all my heart. You and OffBeat are irreplaceable parts of the New Orleans music ecosystem, and y’all make this a much more interesting, and more fun, place to be. Moreover, you’re totally entitled to your opinions. Right or wrong, you’ve more than earned the privilege to say whatever you think. And you’re usually 100 percent right on the money.
That said, I’m confused as to why you chose to slam electronic and dance music in this month’s (otherwise bullet-proof) “Mojo Mouth” column. Nobody would ever question that electronic might not be your cup of tea. But to flatly say that these forms “don’t create much emotional impact” is simply off base. There’s good music, and bland, paint-by-numbers music, in every genre. If you have the time, and the interest, I’d suggest you give a close listen to anything by DJ Shadow, or Wendy Carlos’ “Clockwork Black/Tales of Heaven and Hell,” or the new Peaches record, just to name three of my favorites. These people make deeply emotional music.
For every sterile, disembodied Kraftwerk-type act, there are other thrilling, visceral groups like Suicide or Devo (just to drop two old-school examples; yes, the flowerpot guys rock like a house on fire). It’s not all cheesy ambience and thumpa-thump. And check out DJ Danger Mouse, or the Freelance Hellraiser: you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll kiss old assumptions goodbye.
Moreover, what’s so wrong about music-as-adjunct-to-breeding? Isn’t getting laid the core reason and driving force for most secular music, of every stripe?
While you and the majority of OffBeat readers may have no interest in any such acts, the bottom line is that (even well-intentioned) musical chauvinism doesn’t advance New Orleans’ recovery. What’s so precious and wonderful about this place is that it’s the crossroads, and merging point, for wildly divergent styles from all over the globe. Electronic and dance are artistically valid forms, they have their adherents, they make money in some cases, and they add to the mix here. New Orleans would be a much poorer place without (for example) the Media Darling posse, or John Worthington’s high-tech sound and image projects. The synth and turntable people aren’t counting on OffBeat for anything, but you don’t gain by shortchanging them. It bears mentioning that there will be an international electronic music conference in New Orleans this autumn; I can’t vouch for the artists presenting there, but it may be worth your time to check it out.
In the end it doesn’t really matter if one plays the tuba or synth, the drums or the drum machine, it’s the groove and the uplift that count.
—Todd Souvignier, New Orleans, LA
I apologize to those aficionados and practitioners of electronic music. My emotions regarding local musicians got the better of me. No, electronic music currently isn’t my cup of tea. But I certainly remember responding to what was probably the electronic music of my time (think back to Dark Side of the Moon). Everyone is entitled to express themselves artistically. And you’re right—musical chauvinism has no place in New Orleans’ musical recovery. Still, you can access electronic music makers from anywhere in the U.S. and the world. What you can’t get anywhere else except New Orleans is the soul and richness of a musical culture that’s been built upon generations of talent. For more letters on this topic, see below.—Jan Ramsey
WILL OUR MUSICAL CULTURE SURVIVE?
As a longtime record collector, I realized early on that basically all truly American music owes its existence to New Orleans. As a traveler, I at first visited the city hoping to find evidence of this historical legacy, to track down some trace elements of its rich musical contributions. Eventually, though, I found something much richer: a profound sense of community, not living in its past but celebrating its present, moving to the beat of its unique music. Over the years, I have returned often, to catch a little of that spirit, and to the extent that it’s been successful, I am eternally grateful.
And so, it was with appreciation that I read your “Mojo Mouth” article. To outsiders it may seem that music is just entertainment, and that providing incentives for musicians is frivolous in the context of larger infrastructure problems. But the disappearance of musicians from New Orleans doesn’t just mean less tourist dollars, or fewer choices for club-going locals—it is a threat to the very fiber that binds America’s most unique city. Thanks for your call to action; I hope that it inspires change.
—Dan Prothero, Fog City Records, San Rafael, CA
WOW!! Thanks for a well-written article [“Will Our Musical Culture Survive?”] Jan [Ramsey]! I will scan it and send to many of those in my circle I think NEED to read this. I have been thinking of this but just could not focus or formulate my words/thoughts as well as you have.
Thanks for fighting the good fight and speaking up!
—Dave Maraist, Grant Street Music Hall, Lafayette, LA
Thank you for asking the question. Sorely needed context. And from one uniquely qualified to make the rest of us squirm.
I hope that we’ll look back on this hurricane and regard it as a moment in time when our citizens regained their will and sense of purpose. I unblinkingly believe that New Orleanians are blessed with a unique and powerful native intelligence. But like a lot of good things, we may have taken it for granted. And so here we are, provoked to talk about things we should have been discussing generations ago, having to compress contemplation, planning and action into absurdly tight time frames.
Will we be wise enough to protect what matters and smart enough to make this “next” New Orleans?
Keep your voice strong.
—Robbie Vitrano, Trumpet Advertising, New Orleans, LA
LONG AND RAMBLING
I just read Alex Rawls’ review of the Allen Toussaint and Elvis Costello show [in “A Fond Farewell … or Something Life That” in “Pop Life” online]. Near the end of his review he says, “but the shows as a whole rambled too much to be great.” Referring to long show in general and lumping this show into that group, I think Alex was too busy analyzing things and expounding on his thoughts to have a good time like everyone else at the show. In my opinion, Alex’s review was long and rambling and could have used a little editing. Who cares about a show he saw in 1978?
—Mike Hart, New Orleans, LA
SIMPLE PLEASURE
My dad will be 82 years old next week and this subscription is what he wants. He’s the one who brought me to Jazz Fest at Armstrong Park way back when. And he LOVES music and celebrates life each and every day.
Thanks for bring this simple pleasure to him. I’m proud to be back in New Orleans.
—Karen Gauthier, Metairie, LA
CORRECTIONS
Last issue, we wrote in “Overdue Recognition” that “Veterans of the Treme Brass Band have gone on to found other excellent groups such as Rebirth, New Birth and the Little Rascals.” We got this information from the National Endowment for the Arts, but it has been pointed out to us that Treme Brass Band was formed in 1991, while Rebirth was formed in 1983, Lil’ Rascals in 1986 and New Birth in 1986. We’re sorry for the error.—ED
Publisher Jan Ramsey touched off a firestorm in the country’s dance/DJ/electronica community when she wrote, “I’m sorry, but dance and electronica don’t really create much of an emotional impact—except maybe to get you laid that night” in August’s “Mojo Mouth” column. Supporters of dance/electronica wrote OffBeat in unprecedented numbers to refute Ramsey’s contention. Here are the highlights:
My name is Danny Moore and I’ve been a DJ locally at clubs throughout New Orleans for the last five years. I’d just like to say that I really take offense to your statement about dance/electronica and I find it rather ignorant and uninformed. Turntables have outsold guitars steady for the last five years and just because you don’t appreciate it really doesn’t give you the right to go and slag it off. There are loads of great electronica/dance that is jazz-influenced. I suggest you look into some—DJ Cam, Tassel and Naturel, Kruder and Dorfmeister, and Thievery Corporation—before making such erroneous and offensive statements about music that a lot of people hold so dearly. The State Palace draws thousands of people monthly to dance/electronica-related events and short of Jazz Fest, I don’t really know any jazz events that do that on a consistent basis. I do respect your opinion, although I disagree with it and I just find it sad that you feel the need to say such things in a publication that I really respected up until now.
—Danny Moore, Baton Rouge, LA
I am a frequent reader of OffBeat and usually enjoy your feedback on the local music scene. However, your off the cuff remark about electronic dance music has left many people including myself confused. Nowhere else in your article is dance music even mentioned and it seems that you have thrown in this generalization out of nowhere. I am puzzled why you would devalue your well-written article by slamming an entire genre of music simply because you think it does not have any emotional value. I know many people who say the same about jazz. I personally love the improvisation and energy of jazz, but I also do not go around stating that heavy metal music has no soul simply because I do not enjoy listening to it.
I find your remark about electronic dance music hypocritical in its own ignorance. Was your article not about how U.S. residents do not know much about their own local music? Do you think perhaps you should research more electronic dance music before making such a blanket statement? One local act you might start with is Telefon Tel Aviv. If you still have no emotional response, I would suggest checking your pulse to see if you are still alive.
I hope that in the future when you are trying to make a case for New Orleans music’s survival, you do not alienate an entire group of residents when doing so.
—Swede White, New Orleans, LA
My name is Donovan Fannon and I live in Gulfport, Mississippi. I was raised and lived in New Orleans and its metro area for 25 years. I was reading your piece with much agreement and empathy earlier today. I have also had the pleasure of working (on a technical level, mind you. I was merely a stage sound technician) with a few of those “vague” names you mentioned with great lament. My lifelong relationship with New Orleans music began with my first saxophone, bought from a pawn shop, which belonged to James Rivers (his name was engraved inside the body). Any night I worked (ran sound) with Eddie Bo was a real treat, as was listening to local and regional greats (in my opinion) such as Marc Adams, Joe Krown, Sunpie Barnes, Chucky “C” Elam III etc…. And I agree with you 100 percent that most locals could give a toss about any of them, which is truly a sad thing. Then I came across a passage in your piece that raised an eyebrow.
“I’m sorry, but dance and electronica doesn’t really create much of an emotional impact—except maybe to get you laid that night.”
For a little over 10 of those years in New Orleans, I’ve been a DJ and producer, and for more than 15 years, I’ve been an electronic music enthusiast. I think I’ve tasted a pretty broad palette of the genre, from the commercial stormers and automotive radio jingles, to delicate drones of the minimal set. I could go on and on about myriad obscure bleeps, thuds, and whistles that are as emotive and evocative as all get-out. You get the picture.
More to the point, even your current poll excludes DJs as live music. I understand your reasoning: some DJ playing top 40 hits in a “live venue” is the local live music equivalent to calling a corporate hot-line, and being greeted by a thick accented, outsourced workforce. It’s cheap labor, and it’s carrying the dread potential of killing the local reserves of able-bodied talent.
You see DJs as part of the problem, and by your definition (if I am understanding you correctly), I agree with you. But you are absent-mindedly dismissing all electronic music of substance along with it in your blanket statement. Maybe you were just trying to make a humorous point, but at the expense of a group of people that you are clearly out of touch with.
Electronic music has the same factions, gripes, pitfalls, and other trappings as any other genre of good music. It has all the recognizable elements of music, but it is only publicly embraced in its most homogenized and harmless forms, and it is not without its share of associated social vices.
In your statement, you correlate electronic music with a single goal of “getting laid,” which I actually consider an emotive impulse (that’s another debate in its own right, but I digress), but you talk as if that hasn’t been an aspect of music in general? How much music has been written INTENTLY on the grounds of carnal acts? Some of those songs are considered “classics,” even “timeless.” Don’t forget that this topic has spanned across almost every known genre of music (maybe traditional gospel excluded, but prove me wrong. I’m willing to learn).
DJing, and electronic music in general, can be a rather mundane, completely fruitless effort, if treated in the manner that works behind a fast food commercial or in a stereotypical frat bar. I’m fully aware of this, and I can say that the majority of my peers in the electronic music scene concur. But understand that there is a vast range aside from that which you refer to, and to dismiss it all as inconsequential is simply not right.
—Donovan Fannon, Gulfport, MS
My name is Matthew Guilliams, editor for the New Orleans Electronica Digest, and electronic music enthusiast. I find your comments concerning dance and electronica to be both vicious and ignorant in scope. As a classically-trained bassoonist and jazz-trained saxophonist, I find that your statement: “ I’m -sorry, but dance and electronica doesn’t really create much of an emotional impact—except maybe to get you laid that night.” to be insulting. While electronic music is pressing the bounds of jazz and soul, I find the “jam band” to be rehashing the same old rock and ragga themes over and over. 12 white guys on a stage playing a 20-minute rendition of some neo-hippy funk rock tune have about as much emotional impact as a wet sponge. Give me a big black man from the streets of Chicago singing while DJing his produced track of 4-to-the-floor beat neo-gospel. Or give me the Latin-jazz from your West Coast Hispanic producers. Give me my Jamie Lidells and my Ron Carrolls. Give me my Jamiroquais and my Daft Punks; my Osunlades and my Kaskades. Give me all those musicians who pull from the past great sounds of Earth, Wind & Fire, Al Green, Bill Withers, Michael Jackson, and Depeche Mode—who pull from gospel, soul, R&B, jazz, disco, Latin, rock, punk, and electro sounds.
I hate MTV and I hate the associated culture. In electronic music, I find true visionaries. I find old souls trapped in young bodies that can gather together, dress to the 9’s, and enjoy themselves without the petty nonsense that seems to seep out of the pores of U.S. culture. I find local musicians in the electronic music community in New Orleans have made contributions to music on a global scale. New Orleans has been an electronic music hotspot for many, many years. Most people do not know that because our musical affluence has happened on the scale more commensurate with the speakeasy than with the music festival. Our advancement is done in little hole-in-the-wall, artsy and funky bars at events that you almost have to know someone in the know to be privy to its occurrence. Our membership includes musicians and listeners from all different musical backgrounds. So we have a wider appreciation and musical breadth and depth of knowledge than do you, since it is obvious that we are knowledgeable about you, and you know nothing of us. In your ill-educated view of what electronic music is, I fear that you may be missing out on a large piece of the musical puzzle. What you see at Ampersand, Metro, and the Venue is not representative of all electronic music. You assuming as much would be like me disliking a punk high school band and assuming that all live music was of the same caliber… baseless.
—Matthew Guilliams, New Orleans, LA
The name of your publication is very well suited for your recent article. I must say that it was very “offbeat.”
“I’m sorry, but dance and electronica doesn’t really create much of an emotional impact—except maybe to get you laid that night.”
I have to ask: What experience have you had that you based this statement on?
Shame on you for generalizing a genre of music that you clearly know very little about.
“At least the jam band promoters are developing, cultivating and mining a market.” Hmm. Interesting. Are other promoters not? I have been to a few jam band shows: i.e. Jazz Fest night shows. I was utterly amazed at the amount of recreational activity this group of people partakes in. Maybe they too are getting laid after the show.
“Music clubs are not just performance venues; they are the breeding grounds for nascent composers, great musicians, and create the atmosphere for a musical culture’s preservation and evolution.”
Finally! We agree on something!
This is also true for electronic music clubs and venues. Some of the most cutting edge producers and most profitable DJs have graced various stages in New Orleans, drawing record number crowds for some venues.
Electronic music is evolving, and has recently been SLAMMED into American consumer’s faces (TV commercials, movie soundtracks, radio ads, television shows). It’s a sign of the times. Brace yourself sweetie, ’cause it’s only gonna get worse (for you that is).
I am afraid that you might have Katrina Brain. You might want to schedule a check up.
—Kelly Sampson, Chicago, IL
Having recently read your article in OffBeat about the survival of our music culture, I feel compelled to respond. I question where the unwarranted comment about electronic music came from. It doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the rest of the article or the point you were trying to make. It seems as if you just wanted to throw in your opinion on a genre that you are not familiar with. To say a genre of music is simply based on getting laid is way off base and quite frankly wrong.
I have recently relocated to Chicago from New Orleans. Chicago being the birthplace of house music (one of many genres of electronic music), you don’t have to look far in Chicago to see the emotional response that electronic music gets from all ages, races, and backgrounds. The City of Chicago has weekly events with electronic music (along with classical, jazz, world music) it sponsors in the parks for free. It is a spiritual and emotional experience unlike few I have experienced. While having this experience, I look around and I am NOT the only one experiencing this. Same takes place nightly at venues across New Orleans. Perhaps you should say that you are ignorant to electronic music and it does not give you an emotional response.
Furthermore, if there is no emotional response from this genre, then why have advertisers and marketers for companies from Cadillac to Coca Cola to Intel used electronic music in their ads? If it did not get a response, would they use it?
So in a forward-thinking city like Chicago, electronic music is good enough to be featured next to the likes of Yo Yo Ma, but not in New Orleans?
I do agree that the music culture in New Orleans needs to be preserved. The city could do a lot to help that along. Bashing a certain genre of music does not get that done in any way and does not help the cause. ALL music should be preserved, not just music that YOU like.
—Jeremy Friloux, Chicago, IL
My name is Conner Richardson. I am a New Orleans native, a Tulane graduate student in music and the electronic music director at WTUL. I read your article, “Will Our Musical Culture Survive?” and could not help but wonder about some statements which you made. Specifically, you mentioned: “dance and electronica doesn’t really create much of an emotional impact- except maybe to get you laid that night.”
This is somewhat odd, as it falls right after a paragraph discussing people being familiar with the “big names” of New Orleans jazz music but not knowing the roots or innovators in the genre. I suspect you fall in that category, but for electronic music. In other words, I think your statement of electronic music not “creating much of an emotional impact” might be because you just haven’t been exposed, or looked out for, the real innovators in the genre.
New Orleans has a rich history of electronic music and has been home to many innovators in the field. One example includes Telefon Tel Aviv, two natives who have had a significant impact on the global electronic music culture. Outside of music production, we find people like Todd Souvignier (Special Operations for Tipitina’s and very involved in the New Orleans Music Co-op) who have not only helped the New Orleans music community as a whole grow, but also have an impact on the electronic community by authoring books such as The World of DJs and the Turntable Culture.
Further examples include promoters such as Disco Donnie, whose raves at State Palace Theatre are nationally known and revered. We also can’t forget Quintron—you cannot deny the electronic influence of someone who constructs a drum machine using a bank of oscillators.
At the same time, electronic music in New Orleans is not even specific to raves or clubs. Events outside the club have sprung up; for example McKeown’s Books holds a monthly event in which local electronic musicians present “a night of difficult music.” Tulane has also been host to a series of electronic music events bringing in composers from top ranked universities such as Mara Helmuth, Kai Dong and David Wessel.
In addition to this, in November New Orleans will be hosting the ICMC (International Computer Music Conference), which will bring together electronic music composers and researchers from all over the world. New Orleans being host to this event is nothing short of phenomenal. I might even go as far as to say that this is one of the most significant musical events since Katrina.
Also, this past year, while Tulane was shutting down programs in Computer Science and engineering, the school started a new program in the Newcomb Department of Music, which focuses on electronic music and technology. It’s not hard to envision a situation where this new program points to a bright future where electronic music can further incorporate itself with New Orleans’ culture. As you probably are aware, New Orleans being on this much of the “cutting edge” is rare.
We obviously have the people, the resources and the innovation where New Orleans can be seeing some interesting things in electronic music.
But now, let’s further explore your statement: “electronic music doesn’t really create an emotional impact.” I assume you’re a fan of music, having been active in OffBeat for quite some time. It’s surprising that you’ll make a blanket statement like that—especially of that kind of derogatory nature. While I cannot “prove” to you the emotional impact music has on people (you can’t quantify a feeling, especially in context to music), I can assure you that electronic music has had quite an emotional impact of many New Orleanians. If you’d like, I could point you towards some artists who I feel are emotionally moving, but I am not trying to “convert” anyone with this response. Instead, I am asking for an apology to the New Orleans electronic music community for making such a statement publicly and (from what it seems) without much thought. I am also curious if this mindset steers the course of OffBeat magazine, and if so—should we accept this as a community?
I’m also asking you to keep an open mind and perhaps stray from making generalized blanket statements about “any” genre of music. I can assure you this will only lead to a more musically fulfilling life.
—Conner Richardson, Cupertino, CA
