Electronic Music and EDM
Frank,
I was interested in your take on how Kraftwerk has helped you as an artist. I, like you, am trying to find the positive aspects of a style of music and mode of creativity that is far beyond how we likely view the creative musical process. I have a hard time being so kind. It is entirely understandable how Kraftwerk decided upon its course as an alternative to the sounds of The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and Motown. Germany was also redefining itself as a nation, and Kraftwerk was successful at being an integral part of that process by linking individual isolationism with a national identity separate from the permanent mark of Adolf Hitler and fascism. Musical historians have been kind to the electronic age of music. Why it is easy to deservedly praise the pioneers of blues, rock and roll and the roots of Appalachian folk music descended from the immigration of Potato Famine Irish and African slaves. I have a harder time seeing similar comparisons to the authoritarian dressed Kraftwerk and their structured electronic beat as not being reminiscent of that darker time in German history. I was actually a student at The University of Paris in 1977 while a junior in college, learning about European history and politics according to the French. Believe me when I tell you the French initiated everything in history! I travelled in France and Germany and played bluegrass music throughout both countries. It was a very popular genre of music, for Europeans were infatuated with the music of the southern states of America. I frequented cafes, town halls and small clubs. I never heard Kraftwerk. I have no recollection of electronic music in Europe at that time. I totally missed electronic music in France and Germany, despite its enormous popularity! How could that be? Maybe I was that unaware of what was really happening then. Or maybe the critics, the “experts”, just remember it differently. I also didn’t need hashish, cocaine, LSD or ketamine to “appreciate” the electronic and trance music that has become a popular respite for disaffected western European youth trying to identify as a group, a culture, through today’s rave clubs. But then again, I wasn’t an educated critic, either!
“Things go better with Coke” - electronic, trance, psychedelia, acid house, new rave. Our society has helped model this part of our culture. The answer is, “ Guns don’t kill people, people do”. Electronic dance music doesn’t kill people either. It just needs the assistance of illicit drugs in order to heighten its effect, its message on our youth. Enough harsh criticism. I guess I need to try to read more about why I need to appreciate this music more. Maybe I’ll just try some flunitrazepam and “feel the beat”.
Rudolph Rustin
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