Friday 19 October 2007

Turning The Tables On Young Music

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‘I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables.
I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought guitars.’
LCD Soundsystem 'Losing my Edge'

In the ongoing battle between guitars and turntables, it would at first seem the bands are winning. The lack of musicians in my school is quite disappointing but those rarities who are in bands should consider this: what if that DJ Stigmatic (yes, you Zeek Braz) steals all the groupies that hang outside the music room, cause he can actually make them dance?

However (good) Indie bands do have the upper hand because not only are they live, with the interactivity of the perfomance, but have started incorporating that electronic, dancy feel to their music. Sitting behind some laptop with a ready-made playlist and some unnecessary headphones could earn one more credit than a slightly out of time cover of 'Valerie'. Which makes sense I suppose.

So what is cooler, the mysterious robots of Daft Punk, or the legendary riffs of the Arctic Monkeys? Picking up a guitar and finding that D chord to a mass of arms crossed audience seems far less productive than sticking on a bit of the Chemical Brothers resulting in a mass of bopping heads.

Your choice though.

Naomi Berrio-Allen (Longhill High School Future Music Reporter)

2 comments:

Russell Maddicks said...

Nice one Naomi. You've got the balance just right. How hard is it to play Cds for a few hours?
Give me a live band every time, unless its the Chemical brothers.

Meatbreak said...

Ah, the interaction with dj's comes from the way they manipulate the audience yer see. It's the same, but different. It's not hard to play tunes for a few hours, but it is hard to play good ones in an order that has a powerful effect on people. There's nothing interactive about watching a self-absorbed band fantasising about being the next BIG THING. Bad DJs, bad bands, same same.