is noise getting bigger, smaller, or staying about the same

This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound.

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is noise getting bigger, smaller, or staying about the same

Post by banned »

it's impossible for me to quantify... (THEN ATTEMPTS TO) I think it's gradually picking up new fans without losing all of its old ones, so maybe. but is it? idk
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Re: is noise getting bigger, smaller, or staying about the same

Post by Soloman Tump »

Social media makes it much easier to connect the dots between isolated scenes.

So I dunno
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Re: is noise getting bigger, smaller, or staying about the same

Post by banned »

Soloman Tump wrote: Fri May 20, 2022 11:51 pm Social media makes it much easier to connect the dots between isolated scenes.

So I dunno
you've contradicted yourself there... you mean, it's getting less niche? perhaps.

I couldn't imagine ten years ago vomir having a three billion word wikipedia page. but then what new serious scholarship has been written about noise? jliat would know
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Re: is noise getting bigger, smaller, or staying about the same

Post by FAP »

I think on a macro level, more people are definitely aware of its existence; maybe not ‘into it’ per se, but with the all-seeing eye of the internet combined social media, it’s not as foreign of a concept as it once was.

Consider the recent revived interest in Les Rallizes Denudes: even though LRD aren’t strictly noise, feedback features quite prominently in what is arguably their most notorious works, and now there’s tons of people who are actively seeking out their material (and more official reissues seem likely to happen in the near future).

On a micro level, however, I think it comes in waves. There’s a lot of projects that burn red hot for a few years then die out shortly thereafter. I’m speculating here, but in my experience these kinds of projects tend to be started by guys in their early 20’s who are really inspired and have a lot of energy; they have their fun, crazy shows and put out a bunch of tapes or whatever, then real life obligations eventually reach a point where they have to slow down a bit until they either lose interest entirely or are put on indefinite hiatus. This can apply to labels as well; obviously I know this first hand.

Certainly there will still be ‘diehards’ who have been deeply invested in the scene and will continue to be invested in it for years or even decades to come—the fellows behind Phage Tapes, Scream & Writhe, White Centipede, etc. come to mind—but keeping that same passion going for so long isn’t a task fit for everyone. In the metal scene, you see tons of 40, 50, 60+ year old guys that still genuinely love it: noise simply doesn’t have the same scale of support and legacy to draw from.
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Re: is noise getting bigger, smaller, or staying about the same

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Re: is noise getting bigger, smaller, or staying about the same

Post by RUBBISH »

No.
Have people always used noise/experimental/non-musical type elements in popular music...yes.

Noise will never be popular like music is.
Never meaning as long as people think the way they do and as long as the pop culture money machine operates the way it does.

Experimental type music could maybe become a trend for a season or two...it does lack the cohesive fashion element that noise also lacks but that punk metal and hip hop have in abundance...noise draws fashion off these genres it seems. So yeah not even experimental will ever become popular in the Pop sense.

I'm also thinking that a 10 min Noise tape (edition of 25) about anal rap_e or ancient Mayan ruins will ever be something that makes a lot of money or has a 'popular' amount of people clamouring to hear it or associate thier public personas with it.

Again...No
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Re: is noise getting bigger, smaller, or staying about the same

Post by banned »

Experimental type music could maybe become a trend for a season or two...
a trend in what sense? I cannot see it having any more mainstream appeal than noise, and afaict contemporary experimental means noise without the asshole context. there is "harsh" and "power electronics" and "harsh noise wall" but I can't separate these out easily from that.
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Re: is noise getting bigger, smaller, or staying about the same

Post by banned »

you are essentially right though, I think, that what separates noise from music, as much as it can be, is that you cannot "blow up". there is no profit to be had, and thank fuck for that. we failed at noise haha
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Re: is noise getting bigger, smaller, or staying about the same

Post by ¾ dead »

I think the answer is going to be different for every individual within their individual context. I was making noise before I knew it. And I kept making noise after that youthful exuberence that FAP mentioned gave way to inevitable decay.

In my mind, things are not any different across that continuum. I would prefer not to break down or qualify my existence, my frantic, stupid clawing, against the collective and its waves of congealed awareness and action, or against seperate individuals (if i can help it). It seems to be a waste of time wondering about or comparing myself against other people. I barely know, or know how to express, myself. I can only make stabbing gestures, never pin down "the truth". There's no point in inserting myself into environments in which I have nothing to contribute (or else find some fleeting, ejaculatory rush). Subjecting myself to others and others to myself is not something I crave, unless it's to fulfill a particular need/urge/service of comfort/enrichment to the other remnants of this decrepit, moribund universe. I'm not anti-social, after all. It is closer to a veneer of humbleness and humility that barely conceals a seething, pustulent well of self-hatred that is often externalized as neurotic perfectionism and impossibly high standards through which nothing is ever accomplished and callers are seldom seen. So, nothing's changed, simply because I don't gague things in terns of other people.

The long and short of it is this: I am a sickly, aging alcoholic. Over time, I have become more and more accutely aware of my weakness and growing indifference to imposing myself onto unknowable collectives and individuals outside of myself. I would prefer to live and die simply, as a beast. Not a nervous, agitated architect groping the empty air for salvation. I want to live what remains of my life as best and as easily as is possible.

I am out of beer and I have to work in the morning. Fuck!
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Re: is noise getting bigger, smaller, or staying about the same

Post by Fire of the Mind »

I think that more people who would be interested in something "beyond music" in terms of artistic expression through sound are being exposed to it than ever before and that these people are connecting with other like minds and forming more robust communities. Mind you, a lot of these people may well be dilettantes and lookie-loos rather than diehards or even passionate fans, the kind of people who can expand their musical palette to Prurient's most accessible Pitchfork-reviewed records but get a bit queasy looking at Skin Crime cassettes and "just don't really get" stuff like The New Blockaders or Star where the musicality is either eroded entirely or abstracted to the point of nigh-irrelevance; but even so, it's pointless to gatekeep too hard when the people who just aren't into it will inevitably get spooked or peacefully move on, and I'm happy to welcome those who demonstrate a sincere open-mindedness on the subject. Ultimately, no, as Rubbish says, there aren't many of us and this will never be a large field, but it may be expanding somewhat closer to its potential limit if that makes sense.
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