Re: Electronic Music « Reply #16 on May 12, 2010, 8:29pm »
Karl,
To be frank yes, I wore a thick leather jacket, Jeans and militairy boots, but I was a hard rock lover who liked a mix of hard rock (Jimi Hendrix, Mc5, Iggy and the Stooges, Black Sabbath, Motörhead, AC/DC, Van Halen, Slayer and etc.), Punk (Sex Pistols, Angry Samoans, the Clash, The Dead Kennedys) New Wave (Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, New Order, Human Leage, Dead Can Dance, the Cockteau Twins and the Cure), and the Rolling Stones, Beatles, U2, the Police, Lou Reed/Velvet Underground, The Outsiders (Wally Tax), Public Enemy and the Beasty Boys (Hip Hop and Punk) too.
From Germany I liked Nina Hagen, Propaganda, Nena, die Toten Hosen, DAF (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft), Kraftwerk, the Krautrockband Faust, and the Berlin School of electronic music: Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, and Ashra.
I was an ecclectic, anarchistic fellow as a kid and teenager who loved fast, rough (not to smooth or polished), tense, noise, industrial, independant (Indie), alternative (that's what they called guys and people who liked music which was not mainstream, and who were subcultural and a little bit differant then the rest of mainstream disco, pop, rock and soul lovers of that time) music. I was not a punk, nor a hardrocker or New Waver, I was all three in one, and added to that the soul, disco, funk, rock, reggea, sca, electro and psychedelic music I liked. I made my own mix and created my own taste and collection.
Re: Electronic Music « Reply #17 on May 13, 2010, 9:06am »
Pieter
It is fun to exchange experiences such as this , I think it is perhaps a curiosity as to the other fellows experience to compare, I only would suppose.
Hopefully, Tufta will see this and describe of his experience whilst his teenage growing up.
It is a time during our youth of change, testing and comparing what is expected of us, and the differences between what we know, and what we seek to know.
Most of those years were during the cold war years and as of those years, protest music was popular with us. It did not mean we hated any one, it meant for the most part, we hated war and many of us, were fearful of what the Americans might do and what the Russians would do to ruin our world that we knew.
With this, a certain amount of concern of which direction our military might turn.
With this, was the constant change in my life that provided the guidelines to follow. For I was for the most part, to dodge responsibility and considered my self as the most least to provide to any sort of leadership. I just wished only to follow and let the other fellow do the leading and take the risk. In as of that, I never considered my self as very smart, just tricky.
Life plays tricks with us and that of what we {my self} wish not to occur, seems to drag us into the fray over our personal wishes.
Pieter, thank you for sharing, for you have spent a considerable amount of effort in describing with examples of illustration. For as with yourself, I also enjoyed most of that you have exampled. Although it was different with the Electronic music, I was not overly enjoyed with it, but thought it was quite interesting.
There were a few years though requiring concentration for training and three years on our fishing fleet, then those months with military service. Then my life work in civil service cut into what I wished for and what I must do.
In between though, it was motorcycles, attending with friends the concerts {indoor concerts though, it would be too hot to wear a leather jacket, it would then be some undershirt and jeans}
One occasion that later I was very embarrassed and confused. Whilst with a crowd at an evening concert. It was warm enough to wear a leather jacket {mine was a brown A2 Jacket}, I had the sleeves pulled up covering my undershirt. A very lovely blond lady ask if I was from California, but when I spoke, she just sniffed and walked away. It was very embarrassing and confusing, for I had no idea what I had done to hurt her.
Moments in our lives that never seem to lose in our memories.
Joined: May 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 969 Location: Poland
Re: Electronic Music « Reply #18 on May 13, 2010, 12:32pm »
Hi rockers! I knew most of the performers mentioned with the exception of Nena and Falco or Faust and Ashra. When teenager I used to be a 'hippie' - long hair, flower-shirts and jeans. The hippie in Poland were not the same as in the free world. In the west the hippies contested the western society, and we wanted to bring the values they contested into Poland, to make it a liberal democracy. They wanted communes we wanted private property back. Isn't this world straneh? Also the Polish hippie were in local opposition to group call 'git ludzie' or 'gitmeni'. Thiose were the aggresive guys. They later transformed into punks or skin heads.
Hi rockers! I knew most of the performers mentioned with the exception of Nena and Falco or Faust and Ashra. When teenager I used to be a 'hippie' - long hair, flower-shirts and jeans. The hippie in Poland were not the same as in the free world. In the west the hippies contested the western society, and we wanted to bring the values they contested into Poland, to make it a liberal democracy. They wanted communes we wanted private property back. Isn't this world straneh? Also the Polish hippie were in local opposition to group call 'git ludzie' or 'gitmeni'. Thiose were the aggresive guys. They later transformed into punks or skin heads.
Well Tufta, it appears we have come along a long road from our beginnings when the world as we knew it, was understandable.
It is good to know how you guys were in those times. For it would so seem, young people are so resilient as to make best of what they have to work with. You guys had the Soviet occupation, we were better with the Americans and Brits. The French for the most part, left us alone.
I had learnt swing dancing whilst living with my Auntie and two female cosines from the big band swing music broadcast by Armed Forces Radio. We had a battery radio we set upon the window ledge to listion and dance by. It was fun, for other wise, we fought and argued over what ever.
I usually lost, for the eldest, was older the my self and stronger. It was just in moments of stress, we three were of one, and we looked after one another.
Hi rockers! I knew most of the performers mentioned with the exception of Nena and Falco or Faust and Ashra. When teenager I used to be a 'hippie' - long hair, flower-shirts and jeans. The hippie in Poland were not the same as in the free world. In the west the hippies contested the western society, and we wanted to bring the values they contested into Poland, to make it a liberal democracy. They wanted communes we wanted private property back. Isn't this world straneh? Also the Polish hippie were in local opposition to group call 'git ludzie' or 'gitmeni'. Thiose were the aggresive guys. They later transformed into punks or skin heads.
Tuftabis,
Interesting, very interesting, and it is hard to explain or to describe, but I did not fit into a stereotype of a group. But your description "Rocker" maybe is a good one, an unusual rocker, because I did not belong to a subgroup. I like to pogo on Punk-rock, head bang on heavy metal and hard rock, dance on disco and soul (the Dutch disco's of the eightees played the great music of the seventees and eightees), and later in the late eightees and ninetees on House, techno (I like German and American -Detroit, Chicago and New York- techno, drum 'n bass, jungle and electro). I moved between subgroups on highschools because I did not belong to the hardrock group of metalheads, nor to the Punks of New Wavers, or the Disco's or Rasta's (Reggea fans). I was a hardrock fan which loved other music too when it was musical.
Pieter, thank you for sharing, for you have spent a considerable amount of effort in describing with examples of illustration. For as with yourself, I also enjoyed most of that you have exampled. Although it was different with the Electronic music, I was not overly enjoyed with it, but thought it was quite interesting.
Karl,
You are welcome, I liked your openess and Tuftabis story too. It was nice to share our youth memories and taste.
I think you two are very valuable Forummembers to me and very open minded and social chaps.
I like our exchange. It is also important and nice to know the personal, subjective and human views and tastes of others. Your youth as a West-German and Tuftabis youth as a Polish youngster in Communist Poland interest me.
Re: Electronic Music « Reply #23 on May 13, 2010, 7:10pm »
And the raw revoltionairy and militant sound of the Black Power, Black Panther and Malcom-X message of the Public Enemy Hip Hop struck me as a teenage hardrock, Punk and new wave lover. The beats, base and metal sounds were exiting. Before that the Mix of Hard rock and hip hop of Run DMC and Earosmith were exiting too.
The sound of yelling gitars, screaming voices, the upbeat tempo, heavy bass drums, the scratching and lyrics. Real straight teenage boys dream of sex, drugs and rock'n roll.
The New York jewish Hip Hop Punk rockers Beastie Boys who became Buddhists and Free Tibet activists!
Fear of a Black Planet
Fear of a Black Planet is the third studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released April 10, 1990, on Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records. Production for the album was handled by production team The Bomb Squad, which expanded on the dense, sample-layered sound of the group's previous album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988). They constructed elaborate sound collages for the album's music, incorporating varying rhythms, numerous samples, media sound bites, and eccentric music loops, which reflected the group's political tones. Fear of a Black Planet contains lyrical themes concerning organization and empowerment within the African-American community, while presenting criticism of social issues affecting African Americans at the time of the album's conception. The album debuted at number 40 on the US Billboard Top Pop Albums, selling one million copies in its first week. It subsequently peaked at number 10 on the chart and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Upon its release, Fear of a Black Planet received general acclaim from music critics, who praised its musical quality, sonic detail, societal themes, and insightful lyrics, and was ranked one of the best albums in 1990 by various publications. It has since been recognized as one of hip hop's greatest and most important albums, as well as musically and culturally significant. In 2003, the album was ranked number 300 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2005, it was chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.
Background
In 1988, Public Enemy released their second album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back to critical recognition and sufficient sales, while fulfilling their creative ambitions to create what they considered to be a hip hop-equivalent to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, an album noted for its social commentary. The album's dense musical textures exemplified a new production aesthetic in hip hop at the time, while the controversial, politically charged content by the group's lead MC Chuck D, whose braggadocio raps contained references to political figures such as Assata Shakur and Nelson Mandela, as well as endorsements of Nation of Islam-leader Louis Farrakhan, intensified the group's affiliation with black nationalism and Farrakhan. The group had also expanded their live shows and performing dynamic. Fear of a Black Planet was conceived at the time of the controversy surrounding anti-Semitic remarks allegedly made by group member Professor Griff. In a May 1989 interview for The Washington Times, he was quoted as saying that Jews were the cause of "the majority of the wickedness" in the world. Public Enemy received criticism from religious organizations and liberal rock critics, as well as media scrutiny, which added to charges against the group's politics as being racist, homophobic, and misogynistic. Chuck D subsequently fired Griff from the group, but he later rejoined and has since denied holding anti-Semitic views and apologized for the remarks. Def Jam director of publicity Bill Adler later said that the controversy "partly [...] fueled the writing of 'Fear of a Black Planet'".
Concept
To follow-up It Takes a Nation, the group pursued a different direction, content-wise. According to Chuck D, they sought make a more thematically focused work than its predecessor and to condense Dr. Frances Cress Welsing's theory of "Color Confrontation and Racism (White Supremacy)" into an album-length recording, "telling people, well, color's an issue created and concocted to take advantage of people of various characteristics with the benefit of a few". He said of their musical intentions in an interview for Billboard, "We wanted really to go with a deep, complex album [...] more conducive to the high and lows of great stage-performance". He has said that the commercial circumstances for hip hop at the time, having quickly transitioned from a singles to an album medium in the music industry during the 1980s, also influenced the group's creative vision, and stated in an interview for Westword, "We understood the magnitude of what an album was, so we set out to make something that not only epitomized the standard of an album, but would stand the test of time by being diverse with sounds and textures, and also being able to home in on the aspect of peaks and valleys". The album's artwork followed Chuck D's concept of two planets, the "Black" planet and Earth, eclipsing. The group enlisted B.E. Johnson, a NASA illustrator, to create the cover. Cey Adams, creative director for Def Jam at the time, later said of the creative decision for the artwork, "It was so interesting to me that a black hip-hop act did an illustration for their album cover. At that time black hip-hop artists, for the most part, had photos of themselves on their covers. But this was the first time someone took a chance to do something in the rock'n'roll vein"
Recording
Recording sessions for the album took place during June to October 1989 at Greene Street Recording in New York City, The Music Palace in West Hempstead, New York, and Spectrum City Studios in Long Island, New York. Fear of a Black Planet was produced entirely by the group's production team, The Bomb Squad, which included Chuck D, Eric "Vietnam" Sadler, and brothers Hank and Keith Shocklee. It marked the first time that Keith Shocklee was credited as a member of the team; he played a significant role in composing the main tracks and music for the album. For the album, they expanded on the dense, sample-layered "wall of noise" sound that was previously presented on It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. The production's musique concrète-influenced approach reflected the group's political tones, with sound collages that featured varying rhythms, scratchy samples, media sound bites, and eccentric loops. Members of the Bomb Squad listened to records during the sessions and used devices such as the E-mu SP-1200 drum machine, the Akai S900 sampler, and a Macintosh computer to arrange samples and sequence tracks. Chuck D explained their approach to sampling in a 1990 interview for Keyboard Magazine, "We approach every record like it was a painting. Sometimes, on the sound sheet, we have to have a separate sheet just to list the samples for each track. We used about 150, maybe 200 samples on Fear of a Black Planet". Instead of selecting from the numerous, basic backing tracks that Eric Sadler had collected, Chuck D wanted for the production team to improvise beats during the sessions, leading to much of the album's music being composed on the spot. In order to synchronize the samples, the Bomb Squad used SMPTE timecodes and arranged and overdubbed particular bits of backing tracks that had been inspected by the members for snare, bass, and hi-hat sounds. Chuck D said of their production approach, "Our music is all about samples in the right area, layers that pile on each other. We put loops on top of loops on top of loops, but then in the mix we cut things away". For the track "Burn Hollywood Burn", he dealt with clearance issues from different record labels in order to collaborate with rappers Big Daddy Kane and Ice Cube, who had been pursuing the Bomb Squad to produce his debut album. The recording marked one of the first times in which MCs from different rap crews collaborated together, and it led to the Bomb Squad working with Ice Cube on his 1990 debut album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. Once all the tracks were completed, sequencing began of the seemingly discontinuous album for The Bomb Squad, amid internal disputes among its members. Sadler later said of its post-production, "A lot of people were like, 'Wow, it's a brilliant album'. But it really shoulda been much better. If we had more time and we didn't have to deal with the situation of nobody talking". The album was conceived during the golden age of hip hop, preceding the legal limits and clearance costs later placed on sampling. Music writer Simon Reynolds has called the album "a work of unprecedented density for hip hop, its claustrophobic, backs-against-the-wall feel harking back to Sly Stone's There's A Riot Goin' On or even Miles Davis' On The Corner". In an interview with Stay Free!, Chuck D discussed the use of sampling on the album at the time, stating "Public Enemy's music was affected more than anybody's because we were taking thousands of sounds. If you separated the sounds, they wouldn't have been anything--they were unrecognizable. The sounds were all collaged together to make a sonic wall". An analysis by law professors Peter DiCola and Kembrew McLeod estimated that under the sample clearance system that has emerged in the music industry since the album's release, Public Enemy were to lose at least five dollars per copy at 2010 rates.
Music
Fear of a Black Planet contains themes of organization and empowerment within the African-American community. Chuck D's critical lyrics on the album, interspersed with the surrealism of Flavor Flav, also concern contemporary black life, the state of race relations, and criticisms of institutional racism, White supremacy, and the power elite. Music critic Greg Sandow writes that his language is "strong and elusive, often fragmentary. Embedded [...] critical, sometimes brutal thoughts [...] it's hard to dispute the lyrics' assertion that many Whites are afraid of blacks", while music author Robert Hilburn writes that songs on the album "decr[y]" what Chuck D. sees as the consequences of white, European cultural domination in the United States and throughout much of the world". In his book Somebody Scream!: Rap Music's Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power, Marcus Reeves states that the album "was as much a musical assault on America's racism as it was a call to blacks to effectively react to it". According to music writer Greg Kot, Fear of a Black Planet is "hardly a black power manifesto for world domination, but a statement about racial paranoia. Though he spares virtually no one with his withering raps, Public Enemy's Chuck D is harshest of all on his fellow blacks, expounding on everything from history to fashion: Use your brain instead of a gun. Drugs are death. Know your past so you won't screw up the future. Gold chains worn around the neck demean the brotherhood in South Africa." The opening track, "Contract on the World Love Jam", is a sound collage made up of samples, scratch cuts, and snippets recorded by Chuck D from radio stations and sound bites of interviews and commercials. The tension-building track introduces the dense, sample-based production of the album. "Incident at 66.6 FM", another collage that segues into "Welcome to the Terrordome", contains recorded snippets from a radio call-in show interview of Chuck D, which allude to the media persecution perceived by Public Enemy. "Burn Hollywood Burn" assails the use of black stereotypes in movies, and "Who Stole the Soul?" condemns the record industry's exploitation of black recording artists and calls for reparations. "Revolutionary Generation" celebrates the strength and endurance of black women with lyrics related to black feminism, an unfamiliar topic in hip hop music. It also addresses sexism within the black community and misogyny in hip hop culture. The title track discusses the root of White fear of African Americans, particularly racist concerns over the effect of miscegenation, with Chuck D arguing that Whites should not worry as the original man was black and "white comes from black / No need to be confused". It features a vocal sample of comedian and activist Dick Gregory saying, "Black man, black woman, black child / white man, black woman, black child?". "Pollywanacraka" also concerns interracial relations, particularly Blacks who leave their community to marry wealthy Whites, and societal views of the matter: "This system had no wisdom / The devil split us in pairs / and taught us white is good, black is bad / and black and white is still too bad". Music writer Robert Christgau said of Chuck D's performance on the track, "people keep bringing in Barry White or Isaac Hayes, but he's playing the pedagogue, not the love man, maybe some Reverend Ike figure". "Meet the G That Killed Me" features homophobic etiology and condemns homosexuality: "Man to man / I don't know if they can / From what I know / The parts don't fit". Written by hypeman Flavor Flav and Bomb Squad-producers Keith Shocklee and Eric "Vietnam" Sadler, "911 Is a Joke" features Flav as the main vocalist and criticizes the inadequacy of 9-1-1, the emergency telephone number used in America, and the lack of police response to emergency calls in African-American neighborhoods. Songs such as "Fight the Power", "Power to the People", and "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" propose a response by African Americans to the issues criticized throughout the album. "Power to the People" has a tempo of approximately 125 beats per minute and mixes elements of Miami bass, electro-boogie, and fast-paced Roland TR-808. Addressing the plight of African Americans at the turn of the 1990s, "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" features cacophonic sound textures and a central theme of unity among African Americans,[41] with Chuck D preaching "Brothers that try to work it out / They get mad, revolt, revise, realize / They're superbad / Small chance a smart brother's gonna be a victim of his own circumstance". Richard Harrington of The Washington Post writes that songs such as "War at 33⅓" and "Fight the Power" "may sound like a call to ohms and arms, but they are really a call to action ('turn us loose and we shall overcome'), a message to conscience and a plea for unity ('move as team, never move alone,' both cautionary advice and game plan)". "War at 33⅓" has a theme of resistance and a 128 bpm-tempo, cited by Chuck D as "the fastest thing I've ever rapped to, rapping right on top of the beat".
Re: Electronic Music « Reply #24 on May 13, 2010, 10:55pm »
Wow Pieter! Flavor Flav and Beasties in one thread! I'm sure that violates some law somewhere. I used to kick it with some Easy E and Too Short back in the day. Some raw a** Ni**as.
Re: Electronic Music « Reply #25 on May 14, 2010, 3:50pm »
Pieter
Oh boy, I think I am over my head with some of the heavy metal...Many of these bands I had not to see on their concerts.
The Beatles, it is between a must see and perhaps not. They were innovators with many variations of their style.
Jimmie Hendricks, now there is an innovator of different style. I think perhaps for my taste, his, and Bob Marrilee with the Jamaican Reggie, is a must see and hear.
The Stones "Rolling", for some reason, there music simply mirrors my feelings, very strange but true. And, I am still not sure if I ever like Mick Jagger, for he was so skinny, but boy would he belt out the music...
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