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#1
10-22-2008, 08:09 PM
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Music that is dead: What does that mean?
Jazz is dead.
Blues is dead. West African Big-Band Highlife is dead. What does "dead" mean for a musical genre? Nobody plays it anymore? Nobody produces recordings of it? Nobody reissues old recordings of it? It sounds just like it did a year ago? Five years ago? 500 years ago? It's not popular music any more? You can't make a living at it? Its original social context is gone? It's uncool? It's a term that puzzles me. 
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#3
10-22-2008, 08:36 PM
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It means that the person making the statement isn't interested in it any more.
__________________
Never base a decision on the opinion of someone who is unaffected by the outcome.
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#4
10-22-2008, 08:38 PM
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its seems to be a bit of everything you listed above. It doesnt mean that its bad music, or that there is not anyone performing it anymore. It means that it is no longer a popular genre of music. Its not where the "scene" is at I guess. To me some music is more dead than others. Hear any gregorian chants lately? But theres still plenty of life left in jazz, blues and etc.
-Steve
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#5
10-23-2008, 06:23 AM
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I think I've decided to make 'dead' mean 'cool'. Kinda like 'bad' is, in fact, 'good'.
Led Zep is dead, brotha!
__________________
www.myspace.com/swampcastle - RIP Originally Posted by Scott Auld So if less is more, is silence the most? Last edited by HurricaneJesus; 10-23-2008 at 06:38 AM.
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#6
10-23-2008, 06:25 AM
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Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny...
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Quote:
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#8
10-23-2008, 07:27 AM
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More often than not, I think people use it to mean that /insert favorite genre here/ isn't selling well any more. It's a stupid corporate term of 21st century. Pick any genre of music, and I'm sure that at least one person somewhere in the world still listens to/plays/enjoys it, so it's not dead.
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#9
10-23-2008, 07:40 AM
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Quote:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL89st1UqMo I hear some in modern metal, maybe that band "Dead can Dance, IIRC". Just sayin....
__________________
http://www.myspace.com/dougworthington
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#10
10-23-2008, 07:47 AM
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It means exactly nothing.
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#11
10-23-2008, 07:58 AM
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I don't think music dies, today people that say that kind crap just say it because the stuff they're criticizing doesn't show up on myspace music.
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#12
10-23-2008, 08:25 AM
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Quote:
__________________
"I don't need no bath!!!" "What me'n Tector needs is some 'o them women you been hoggin'..." "You think you can fix that up for us, boy???" - Lyle Gorch. http://gearfab.swiftsite.com/Catalog...talog_260.html
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#13
10-23-2008, 09:21 AM
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Quote:
To say something is "dead" is to say it's not selling. Again, this assumes you care about about sales, and judge the validity of a genre of music by how much it sells.
__________________
"A bunch of blowhards weighing in on other people's business. We're a nation of gossips. And if you listen to the blowback, if you care what people have to say, you're doomed. Because they're never satisfied, they won't be happy until they drag you down into the hole they're in." - Lefsetz 2013
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#14
10-23-2008, 09:46 AM
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A good friend and I used to have an argument about punk being dead about every other week when we were in high school. I would say when a genre has certain criteria that seem ideologically essential and the arguer feels that that criteria isn't being met by the majority of artists who say they are performing that genre, that it entitles high schoolers and record store employees to argue about if it is dead or not. For instance, "The blues used to be a cathartic experience for rural black men and had great spiritual significance, now it is an electric guitar wank-fest for a bunch of 20 to 40 something white boys who grew up in the burbs." or "The punk malaise ideally has great contempt for what it perceives as conformity, yet all these so-called punks coming out of Orange County sound the same."
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#15
10-23-2008, 09:47 AM
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Well, Latin is refered to as a dead language because it isn't adding or assimilating new words or phrases, unlike English or Mandarin, say, which add many many new words a year.
So I assume that people use the word "dead" about a musical genre they mean that the lexicon of that style is no longer growing. We could definitely say this about certain subsets of the jazz and blues genre. For instance, I don't think any one has really reinvented Django-style swing although there are many skilled interpreters of that style. That would be my functional test of whether a genre is dead or not: Is anyone adding to the vocabularly of that style? This might mean adding new phrases, rhythms or textures or pulling in ideas from other styles.
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