Tuesday, 29 November 2016

Not happy, ARIAs! (Reader discretion advised.)

I love music, from all eras. Not all genres, but all eras. I'm a long-time subscriber to Rolling Stone Australia, I own roughly 200 CDs, and numerous music books and DVDs. However, you could certainly call me a purist. That is because I truly despise techno (except, in some cases, when it's used in movie scores). It could be because of my upbringing; growing up, my older siblings, my brother especially, lapped up every Wild or Skitzmix album they could buy. But all I heard was fucking screechy noise.

So you can imagine my disgust when Flume swept the ARIAs last week. I'm sure he's a very nice, clever guy, but how the FUCK can being able to move dials and scratch vinyl on a turntable be considered musical talent? I simply cannot accept that it can be. Anyone can stand behind a turntable and push some buttons et cetera, but legitimate instruments? They can take literally years of dedication to master. I also hate Sia's music, but I really would rather she had won than Phlegm.

Plus, techno (at least to my ears) doesn't even acknowledge how fucking superficial it is. One of my favourite bands is AC/DC, whose music is often condemned as superficial. But not only does their music actually acknowledge its superficiality, that's actually the fucking point of it. AND you can very easily dance to it.

None of you have to agree with any of this, much less share my taste. But were I a musician, I would never let a DJ or "producer" tamper with my work. I wouldn't care what they offered or how it might paint me. And I really don't know if I'll watch next year's ARIAs after this year's show's results. For better or worse I have no respect for techno "musicians," and it puzzles me how anybody can respect them.

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