Jerome Wrote:OK I know this is going to be unpopular but for me rap, hip hop, trance and drums n bass (there's a contradiction in terms as very few actually have real drums anyway) are all lacking in any real depth. Musically there are just plain boring and they have no dynamics in their material. The more technology (and I am a great fan of technology) is introduced into the studio the more mundane the music becomes. Don't get me wrong - technology has it's place, but it is being overused/abused to the point where we might as well be listening to the washing machine. No-one is developing their own unique sound anymore - everyone seems to be dialling in the same presets in the same software packages and coming up with the same result. Even in 'standard' rock music the guitars are all starting to sound alike - because the guitarists are using the same templates for their 'sound'. I hear very little creative work from an audio engineering point of view. Maybe people are just not prepared to put in the effort anymore??!??
I'm afraid you couldn't be more off the mark.
In 99.99999999999% cases that I've ever seen in my life people who said that couldn't be arsed to listen or work out what's what within the genres. They're simply not listening, don't care to check it out, and make snap judgments based more on their perception of the audience or superficial hearing. It says more about the person saying that than it does about the music.
I listen to electronica frequently (it represents about half of my listening time) and I'm eternally hearing things that I've never heard quite like it before. The focuses are different from rock music, which I find largely boring after having it crammed down my throat for 40 odd years as the greatest thing since sliced bread. You have to consider everything that could be part of the music -- the production, the orchestration, the sonic detail. It's there if you only have ears to hear it.
To see the depth in trance and dnb (only two genres out of about half a million within electronica) you really need to hear remixes, because those are structural reinterpretations. For me it's an update of the idea of a standard in jazz. One of the things I really like about it is that sometimes when you're listening to a mix, you have no idea what you're hearing or whether you're hearing two productions simultaneously. I really like the feeling of "I think I recognise this song" and a familiar bit kicks in and confirms it -- or it goes off into a different direction.
I am not a fan of rap or hip-hop because I have nothing within those genres to identify with, not because I don't see any depth. What I do like I see lots of depth in. One amazing thing I've heard in that genre is Camp Lo, a duo who raps in "blaxploitation" (I hate to use the word, so pardon me) lingo -- and it's not easy to figure out what's going on in their songs. Check out "Luchini" which is probably their best number.
Recently I heard a lot of early British invasion groups (Rolling Stones, Beatles, Kinks, Who) and it struck me that they all sounded fairly ridiculous playing American blues numbers -- they only became great when they made it theirs, not when they were copying Americans. My point is that the same superficiality could be said about any music you care to name. Prog? Long, full of lofty pretenses, overwrought and juvenile. Punk? Can't play, lots of tuneless yelling. New Wave? Forget your chops, play simple things. Metal? Shrieking monkeys bashing guitars. Grunge? Dirty smelly hippies who want to be Led Zeppelin when they grow up. So called experimental stuff? Just start recording, make random noises, slice up, randomise and stitch them back together. Goth? Emo? Boo hoo hoo. Technical guitarists playing jazz fusion? Rampant OCD on display.
There are people who are developing their own unique sound nowadays (my personal favourites right now are Audien & Samantha James but they might change next week) but you're not going to find them unless you dive in and search for it and listen. Why? If you look to "mainstream" channels for music, what you're going to get is lowest common denominator stuff, and they're going to focus either on the spectacle (a la Lady Gaga) or the personality (a la Amy Winehouse -- no one ever seems to talk about her great albums or her great voice -- all you ever hear about is the substance abuse). The effort that is fed to you is in a package that is about things other than music. You've always had to dig for good music and nothing has changed. What strikes me as ironic is now that it's easy for everyone to look for new music (you're sitting in front of the greatest global library for music right now), and they can't be arsed to do it.
Basically, if you're not putting in the effort, you're not going to get any reward. If you hear very little creative work in electronica, rap, or hip-hop I know you're not actually listening with any depth because I hear so much creativity I couldn't even begin to start listing examples.