Girl Talk

[Jeremy]

You're comparing putting a CD into a CD player and training for two
decades on an instrument.

I compose music with computers. I put CDs into CD players. I perform
on instruments. They're not the same thing. They're only loosely
comparable in that the end product is some sound.


On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 8:58 PM,  <manny at garfieldartworks.com> wrote:
>
> You are underinformed about me, per se.
>
> I know exactly what a symphony conductor does.
> I took conducting classes both at CAPA and Carnegie Mellon, and I also
> took some theory classes at both places arranging and interpreting
> orchestral scores. I took many 'serious' music classes
> at both institutions, and having worked for the Pgh New Music Ensemble for
> ten years, as well as having sung in a professional choir for over a
> decade, I knew many serious professional musicians.
>
> An orchestra or other classical ensemble almost always plays other
> people's music, not their own.
> DJs almost always play other people's music, not their own.
>
> Yet in fact, at the rare instance that original music is played, it's much
> more likely that the DJ will play original music than the orchestra will.
> That is because today, a DJ who also writes music can
> compose it on computers, and even press it on a dub plate, for very little
> cost and relatively little effort. Whereas the cost of commissioning an
> orchestra to perform original music composed by its own conductor or one
> of its players is rather vast and time-consuming in the classical world,
> so it's not done as often. When it's done, it's usually in the context of
> a "New Music Ensemble", which is something else entirely that most lovers
> of classical music don't want to attend or hear, because they just want to
> hear the tried and true classical chestnut hits.
>
> The same way that a crowd wants to hear familiar hits played by the DJ.
> Shall I go on with the analogies, or is it starting to make sense?
>
> Note that my intention is by no means to denigrate the function of either
> an orchestra or a DJ.
> They both have their function, which is to replay or reinterpret
> previously composed music.
> But what they both don't usually do, at least in widely accepted and
> popular situations, is play their own original, composed music.
>
> However, Girl Talk does.
>
>> While Girl Talk isn't an a-list celebrity, he is a celebrity nonetheless.
>>
>> It should be noted that being a serious musician is not "the 18th
>> century equivalent of a DJ." Apparently you don't know what a symphony
>> orchestra conductor does, or what serious musicians do. That's OK.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 8:02 PM,  <manny at garfieldartworks.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> You compared Girl Talk to the conductor of a Symphony Orchestra. Heh.
>>>
>>> Well, technically, you said he is an example of celebrity.
>>>
>>> So I merely brought out an example with which I thought you'd resonate,
>>> that is the function of a symphony orchestra conductor as celebrity,
>>> which
>>> is quite common. They don't put the entire orchestra on billboards and
>>> bus
>>> stop ads, they put the face of the conductor, who is the face of the
>>> orchestra, even though he does not perform on an instrument, nor create
>>> or
>>> perform his original music. The conductor, unless he is conducting his
>>> own
>>> music, has nothing to do with the performance of original music
>>> creations
>>> (and neither do the symphony players), only with the reinterpretation of
>>> others' works, like the 18th century equivalent of a DJ.
>>>
>>> And therefore, the conductor is more about celebrity, and less about
>>> performance, than Girl Talk is, who performs his own original works
>>> live.
>>>
>>> In other words, the medium of performance has changed so much - from
>>> orchestra, to rock band, to banks of synths and drum machines, to a
>>> laptop
>>> - that the frame of reference has to change radically as well. The
>>> performance should be put in its proper contemporary context (and not
>>> misunderstood), which is that of a single guy using Ableton Live to play
>>> his music on stage in a performance setting.
>>>
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>>>
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>
>