Reddit reviews Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music

Merzbow live was one of the best things ever.

I'm no expert on the contemporary noise scene, but there's stuff I like in it. I suppose it interests me more theoretically than practically. A couple weeks ago I read a bunch of essays extolling noise, some of which were really fascinating (in the book Audio Culture, which I highly recommend). Highlights (not that they're necessarily right, just interesting): Futurist Luigi Russolo saying that the modern man doesn't care about "music" and that "noise" is all that will appeal to listeners in the post-Industrial Revolution world; Henry Cowell saying that "noise" (unintended sound) is already on equal standing with "signal" (intended sound) in classical music, just not recognized as such, and that "noise" is what makes each instrument distinctive and what gives dramatic climaxes their power; various others promoting different ways of listening, including Pierre Schaeffer's "acousmatic" listening (basically - hearing the sound for what it is, completely separate from the source of its creation (i.e. not hearing a "violin", but instead hearing the specific timbres the sound), the result of which is moving away from strictly musical sounds and incorporating noise and natural sounds (he's a musique concrete composer); etc., there were lots and lots and lots of cool ones.

I suppose my interest depends on how broad your definition of noise is. If all it encompasses is the contemporary noise and noise rock genres then I'm... kind of interested - I like that stuff. But if it's expanded to all non-traditional sounds in all their contexts... then that's precisely what I'm interested in.

some film

Modulations

Pump up the Volume

24 Hour Party People

If you are interested in rave/electronic dance music culture, this is a pretty decent list of documentaries/movies

As far as books go, I would recommend Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, Altered State, The Underground is Massive, Technomad

Dancecult has been writing about electronic music culture for many years now

IMO a formal history of electronic music starts with the beginning of sound recording technology, and maybe beyond that, musique concrete would be another launchpoint

But if you want something more silly, put a donk on it

There's a lot of neat music from the 60s and 70s with creative recording techniques (the Beatles, Beach Boys), and the rise of progressive rock synthesizer madness from bands like Yes and Genesis (they sounded rather different before the 80s if you're expecting "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and "I Can't Dance"), ELP, Can, etc. I'd even throw Pink Floyd in the mix

I have a substantial library of music-related literature and reading about/studying music is my favorite pastime.

Generally I queue up a lengthy session of music intended for passive-listening when I set out to read critical/analytical texts. Any sample from one of the ambient subgenres, or modern classical, or field recordings of study-friendly atmospheres will do.

There is much more to music lit than just texts describing how music sounds. I have a strong affinity for socio-cultural criticism, particularly as it relates to sound art. And there is certainly no shortage of these texts available which explore music and society in various ranges of depth.

But to directly address the scenario you've posed - words about music - I can cite a wonderful example which I am reading at present.

Ethan Hayden is a linguistics expert, composer and performer currently pursuing a Ph.D. in music at the University at Buffalo, US. I had the pleasure of attending one of his performances of his work, "…ce dangereux supplément…" in 2015. The work is a set of phonetic studies for voice, video, and electronics in which Hayden makes a wide range of vocal sounds, none of which are coherent expressions of any known language.

This made Hayden a fitting author to tackle Sigur Ros' ( ) album for an edition of the popular 33 1/3 book series. The parenthetical album is sung entirely in the nonsense Hopelandic language created by the members of Sigur Ros.

So what does one write about an album with no discernible theme or statement? And how would one begin to describe the nonsense sounds of the Hopelandic language? Over the course of 150 pages, Hayden expertly addresses these questions, and presents both a critical analysis of Hopelandic and a philosophical perspective on the recording itself. The book adds a fascinating critical dimension to the album and aims to help listeners approach the recording with a greater sense of understanding.

I hope that this (somewhat extreme) example suffices to justify the task of writing about music. I'll offer a few other exceptional examples of music lit for further exploration:

Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music edited by Christoph Cox

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross

and for an example of musio-cultural analysis, read

The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds by John Higgs.

I didn't mean internet articles... but, if you're curious about how the idea of the "DJ" has changed over the years:

DJ History here: It also directly addresses the issue of DJ celebrity I bought up in the post.

And short / interesting articles about elecronica in general:

Audio Culture has some great short articles.

More nerdy book on the "culture" of underground electronic music:

Club Cultures

I don't really mind Deadmau5 or Skrillex. I love listening to new stuff. It's listening to people get angry about electronic music not being like a rock show that usually makes me confused.