Interesting articles about music and musicians.

Susan Rogers is so amazing, wheter one is a Prince fan or not, she was the sounds engineer for the Purple One during the most of the 80s, when they weren't many women doing that, so the his peak, but then she is also an academic reseraching the psychology of music, and just cool all around.

 
Things are really not looking good for the Bandcamp many of us know and love. This article was a random stumble, but it ties in with a conversation I had with a friend only a few days ago, someone who used to work for an indie games outfit that was bought by Epic shortly before they acquired Bandcamp and resigned soon after to set up a company with his BFF. He was saying that almost all of his former colleagues had been given the chop except those who worked on their most successful release, so the timing of his departure could not have been better-timed even though he was one of the lead designers and in all likelihood would have been retained. Doing his own thing was always something he wanted to try at some point, but a big part of the reason he left when he did was the tangible change in working environment and not wanting to become part of the corporate machine. With this latest resale and series of lay-offs, I fear that is exactly what Bandcamp will become.

www.sfgate.com

Oakland-based, musician-loved Bandcamp gutted by 50% layoff

Epic Games sold Bay Area-based Bandcamp to Songtradr, with 50% of the fan favorite's employees laid off along the way.
www.sfgate.com www.sfgate.com
 
kihrjil said:
Hilariously earnest bit of well-actually-ism from the Quietus:

https://thequietus.com/articles/33744-amol-rajan-jungle-drum-and-bass-university-challenge
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I went to quite a few dnb raves in the 90s, gentrified wasn't quite the name for the atmosphere in a large proportion of them.

I went to a massive fight in Southampton once and a dnb rave broke out. That was probs the craziest one I went to. It was a warzone

Closely followed by one at the The Depot in Bristol (anyone remember that? The best nightclub Bristol ever had) when a slavic bouncer went loco with a bar stool on some chav looking types right next to us at the bar. Put me right off my warm red stripe, I can tell you
 
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Torsion Jim said:
I went to quite a few dnb raves in the 90s, gentrified wasn't quite the name for the atmosphere in a large proportion of them.

I went to a massive fight in Southampton once and a dnb rave broke out. That was probs the craziest one I went to. It was a warzone

Closely followed by one at the The Depot in Bristol (anyone remember that? The best nightclub Bristol ever had) when a slavic bouncer went loco with a bar stool on some chav looking types right next to us at the bar. Put me right off my warm red stripe, I can tell you
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Yeh the 'dnb was gentrified jungle' argument doesn't sound very plausible to me, and to be honest I can't say I've ever heard anyone make it. I suppose if there is some kind of nostalgic idea of jungle as more authentic then it probably has more to do with the violence and commercialisation that seemed to afflict dnb far worse. So jungle may be seen as less corruptible or whatever. Still, I didn't really disagree with anything in the substance of the article - just found it quite a funny thing to get riled up about given how grandstanding about the purity of subgenres is itself fairly authentic to UK dance music subcultures!
 
I haven't been to a straight up dnb rave in yonks , but I have heard they are nothing like they used to be in the early days. So maybe the gentrification argument applies to the modern era? Not that the article makes that case
 
Torsion Jim said:
I haven't been to a straight up dnb rave in yonks , but I have heard they are nothing like they used to be in the early days. So maybe the gentrification argument applies to the modern era? Not that the article makes that case
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I'd definitely agree that the gentrification framing is much more useful for thinking about present trends in bass music. But then these worries seem far more applicable to the current resurgence of jungle than to anything going on in dnb. If anything I'd be tempted to argue that the perceived authenticity of jungle is precisely what gentrification would depend on.
 
The class focused argument of authenticity, imo, is less applicable thesedays thanks to the sheer availability of affordable production tools.

with electronic music, of the sort I listen to, you can tell how authentic someone is by how their music sounds. I would argue that if someone spends years honing their break mangling and end up sounding like, say, Dgohn, you know the dood is putting the work in by the results. The authenticity is obvious in the end result
 
Chase n status new album has tonnes of mcs on it, he still looks like an accountant and sounds like leafy suburbs n bass
 
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