there was a sudden change in music in the 90s. mid 90s. i just had gotten into breakore, dark ambient, industrial hardcore. alien sounds, experimentalism, shrill FX. cold, mysterious, odd vibes. space sound.
then, it started to break down. generally, not unusual for a subculture. each has its time, i guess. but there was something that - caught my awareness. that made me worry.
suddenly, almost everyone i know, as an artist, as people involved, or as friends, abandoned the alien soundscapes of this music. to be exact, they went pop. and this did not only happen in breakcore, or dark ambient, but many other genres to.
80s were in, suddenly. cheesy 70s too. and so on.
i, back then, felt this was more than just a case of bad luck, of chance, or just another meaningless, "postmodern" phenomen. i felt i, we, were fighting a war, and we just had lost, and were now lone soldiers trapped in nowhereland. because the change was so total. so deep. in so many eras, at so many points at the same time. i back then felt that it was part of a larger problem. a larger danger.
and not until now, i realised the true extent of what happend.
it was the onslaught of anti-intellectualism in art.
techno, breakcore, hardcore, and related genres, to the mid 90s, was music for the head, on so many levels. first, directly, of course. it was music to feed your mind. to work on your intellect. to make your conciousness fly. to get into a headtrip. but it was also on a "productional" level intellectual, the way it was made. always full of ideas, experimentalism, bold new steps.
the 80s nostalgia and the rest, that replaced it, or merged with it in the mid 90s, was the opposite. simple melodies. simple lyrics. simple song structures. music that no longer dared your mind. that no longer induced deep, long, complex thoughts. but rather, that quenched these thoughts. vigorously.
and this is why people liked it. don't listen to some complicated acid hardcore structure by some freak somewhere. kick back with some abba song about love. hey it's got a simple tune, you could whistle it along. don't think too much. just relax and enjoy.
and this was part of the anti-intellectual turn of tides in almost all music fields.
the focus was now on everything simple. easy to digest. that doesn't upset you or makes you worry or wonder or ponder. melodies you already known a lot of times. themes that you heard thousand times before.
oh there are only the same four chords in most tracks? yes, but aren't they sweet sounding? doesn't strain your brain too much, eh? just relax. forget the intellectual.
even in the realm of "experimental electronica", this anti-intellectualism set in. genres like IDM were created, with the same mind-numbing, brain-killing major scale octave and perfect fifth based melodies over and over again. music for elevators.
so, as i said, these were not isolated phenomenas. the anti-intellectual swing was almost total - or was it actually total? almost everyone followed this notion suddenly. there was no real experimentation, no real intellectualising of music going on anymore. and people openly rejected the intellectual. yes, they were quite open about it. their "point" was, music that is abstract, for thinking, intellectual, is "boring". the focus should be on emotion, or maybe dancing - not on thinking. as if these were contradictional. you can dance till you sweat to some of the most intellectual music. and you can cry your heart out to honest emotions of intellectual music. fuck, i'd say you only can do this to true intellectual music. some of the classical, or modern, or non-modern composers come to mind. j.s. bach music isn't less sweet because his fugues are deeply mathematical and intellectual, or is it?
so, there was really an ideology, a cohesive movement, behind this anti-intellectual turn. repeated in magazines, blogs, reviews over and over again. always the focus on "simple tunes", simple structures. always the focus of emotion over intellect, of body over intellect. i shouldn't need to mention that "emotion", and "body" over intellect is one of the core motions of anti-intellectual ideology? one of its core concepts.
people were deeply, deeply afraid of intellectual music suddenly. they couldn't stand it. it scared them. they couldn't understand it. complex melodies, different song structures, amorphic music, music that broke the rules, the concepts, and got rid of them. it gave them the creeps. they clang so desperately to the traditional, boring, lifeless musical structures.
it should be noted, that the anti intellectualism in music, was not a standalone phenomena either. it tied in to a much larger, maybe much, much dangerous anti-intellectualism, that got viral and extreme somewhere towards the end of the 90s and the beginning of the 2000 years, in almost, or rather, in all areas of life.
so this, together, is part of a very dangerous, very worrying trend, that could become even more complete in the future.
but, it is no reason to give in to defeat. it is not something that has to be accepted. it should be fought, and it can be fought. in fact, a lot of us gave in to some sort of shock, became inactive, or gave in, in light of this happening. it is time we gather ourselves again, and stand up, and move on, and take a stand. a stand for the intellect, for the mind.
create intellectual music again. truly intellectual music. that at the same time, of course, can be deeply emotional, and having an impact on the body. truly complex, complicated, creative, daring, visionary, idealistic music. that breaks everyones rules, moves on from any concept. that questions all authority in music - and overcomes it.
it is time to take a stand. so let us do it.