The Logic Off Topic list

> >Fine statement. I\ufffdm a bit sorry for the DJ generation.

I am truly sorry for you.  I feel incredibly lucky and priveledged to have
spent my youth during the first 10 years of clubland, as we know it.

> Lets say a couple gets married now, and they play some Sasha remixs. Later
> when they're having their 25th anniversary are they going to have the band
> play "their song" ...? I'm really trying to understand this.

If there's a dj at the marriage, there will be a dj at the anniversary, not
a band, and amongst a lot of new records being played, some old ones too
including the Sasha records.

> My theory is this. If you listen to a great song, often there is a great
> beat. But in this ever more superficial world, now they dispense with the
> melody, the lyrics,  etc and just stick with a beat and simple riff. If
you
> think about it, this is part of a long trend. A symphony - lets say
Brahms -
> each part is about 10 minutes long - and all built upon one theme and a
> counter theme and variations. It takes patience to listen and understand
the
> musical idea. Then  big band jazz made this quicker and more accessible.
Then
> rock and roll was a further simplification. But the beatles used to use
> augmented and diminished chords occassionally. Then heavy metal got
simpler-
> "power chords = 1 +5".  And there was stagnation for a while. Grunge came
> along and at least has some fresh dark harmony, but it was too dark
overall.
>

Interesting but does not apply to Trance.   You are trying to listen to
trance as a normal song.  Big mistake.  Trance is a music that works in a
hypnotic way,  requiring no melody or vocals.  It directly affects your
emotions with out you having to think about it.   It is more akin to the
ancient tribal drum rhythms and shamanic ritual dancing of native cultures,
than modern, western culture 'songs'.  You have the deepest misunderstanding
of what it is about.


> So the stage is set for mindless techno/dance music. Its upbeat. Its
social
> and fun. The musical ideas are usually a bar or two. In fact, there are
often
> quarter note repeating elements - which have a hypnotic affect. But it
seems
> to be the junk food of music - candy bars - plenty of sugar and artificial
> flavors - but no vitamins.

It is only mindless to those who have never been able/willing to put
themselves in the situation required to understand it.  I suspect you never
will.    Your loss mate.

> But thats fine. I like listening to it - to a certain extent. Actually its
a
> different experience. A lot of my favorite music (and I have been busy
> putting it all onto my IPOD!)  has some sort of emotional ebb and flow -
> while the dance music's main claim is very little of that.

Good trance music has enormous emotive power, if you know how to unlock it.
There will be two camps of people reading this. Those, that like you do not
understand trance, will be agreeing wholeheartedly with what you have said.
And the other camp, which has been able to grasp the concept, will probably
be thinking: 'If only he knew'.

Regards Hector.