music
sep 19
2007

Electronica

I was actually thinking about proposing an article at the end of 2007 called "The Year of Electronica," in which I make the argument that some of the best albums of the year are direct descendants of that horrible word no one has used in a decade. LCD Soundsystem, Justice, Klaxons, Simian Mobile Disco, Chromeo, Datarock, and, if you stretch it a bit, Kanye, M.I.A., Battles, Mark Ronson. But then Slate published it. Dammit. (I like my examples better, and I would have slipped in that Kanye quote about creating a new kind of electronic hip-hop.) Noted: Idolator quibbles with some historical points.

7 comments

Mark Ronson?

posted by taylor at 3:11 PM on September 20, 2007

You're questioning the quality, or me stretching electronica to absurd ends?

(That Ronson album is awesome.)

posted by Rex at 3:14 PM on September 20, 2007

dance punk.

posted by nope at 11:26 PM on September 20, 2007

I should have added a note that said: it's really easy to disassemble this thesis. The only way to write is to be suggestive, not historically deterministic.

posted by Rex at 1:29 AM on September 21, 2007

I think stretching the term to absurd ends is pretty accurate. It's a dumb term that should never have been invented to begin with, straight up music-journalist b.s.

posted by Dino at 4:36 PM on September 21, 2007

I think if I could kill any form of criticism today, it wouldn't be YouTube comments or Digg threads -- it would be "anti-music crit music crit."

posted by Rex at 5:38 AM on September 22, 2007

Good one!
That might be a good place to start, but it would do nothing to eliminate meaningless words like "electronica", would it?

posted by Dino at 8:26 AM on September 22, 2007




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