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What if Autechre had
 

offline cichli on 2004-08-20 17:10 [#01310441]
Points: 19 Status: Regular



This is my first post. I was wondering if anyone has
thought about this. A lot of people think TR was Autechre's
"most commercial," and it was pretty successful on top of
two reasonably successful previous albums. They obviously
had a lot of attention, since they were getting remix
requests from more commercial artists around this time. In
the US, electronic acts were starting to get pushed into the
mainstream, and the industry was looking for a vehicle. In
the UK, they were already pretty popular.

If you know what their personalities are like, you know
they'd never do this. But what if they had sold out and
dilluted their sound, tailored it for commercial success,
signed up with some big label, etc.? Would it be shit, or
still decent (it would still have their touch, but maybe not
cos they wouldn't have been totally into it)? A part of me
kind of wants to hear pop-Ae. Especially if they did hiphop
production or something.


 

offline cichli on 2004-08-20 17:11 [#01310442]
Points: 19 Status: Regular



The full title should be "what if autechre had 'gone
commercial?'


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2004-08-20 17:14 [#01310446]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



ae is ae, if they produced pop they wouldn't be ae, they
would be gestechre or autcom or something.


 

offline tolstoyed from the ocean on 2004-08-20 17:15 [#01310447]
Points: 50073 Status: Moderator



i don't like autechre, but welcome on board!!!


 

offline elusive from detroit (United States) on 2004-08-20 17:18 [#01310450]
Points: 18368 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



no way to answer this question.


 

offline elusive from detroit (United States) on 2004-08-20 17:19 [#01310451]
Points: 18368 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



but welcome to the boards, have you been in read-only mode
for long?


 

offline cichli on 2004-08-20 17:22 [#01310453]
Points: 19 Status: Regular



Thanks, I read it occaisionally.

I think it might be answered by looking at other artists who
did what I'm talking about: how their sound changed, what
was retained, what was lost, etc. I know Ae are unique, but
MAYBE it could have happened, cos they're still just humans
at heart (I think)


 

offline mappatazee from ¨y¨z¨| (Burkina Faso) on 2004-08-20 17:22 [#01310454]
Points: 14294 Status: Lurker



no, it would have sucked


 

offline cichli on 2004-08-20 17:24 [#01310455]
Points: 19 Status: Regular



Maybe, but I'd like to think they'd be creative enough to
find ways of getting original ideas into otherwise
commercial stuff. Maybe they're too stubborn to try.


 

offline mrgypsum on 2004-08-20 17:24 [#01310456]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker



the definition of pop music is kind of murky, technically
its music made and geared towards to mainstream audience,
but even if something is not pop, it can still become pop.
look what happend to punk rock, it has become pop music. so
ae could still become pop even with their current catelog,
but say they went the pop road, ala moby, it would suck as
does most music made for mass consumption.


 

offline cichli on 2004-08-20 17:29 [#01310458]
Points: 19 Status: Regular



I tend to think that the only way punk got into pop was that
the sound was really pop to begin with, it was just attached
to a non-pop subculture. I can't speak for all of it and I'm
definitely not an authority (don't listen to it), but I
think that was more a case of pretty accessible music being
attached to a subculutre. IDM-ish shit is different in that
it's nonaccessible at heart but not really attached to a
specific subculture.

Rap is an exception to a lot of these rules; sometimes it
can get pretty experimental but sell lots of records (or at
least that used to happen). Plus Ae are hiphop heads with
respect to some pretty mainstream rap.


 

offline mappatazee from ¨y¨z¨| (Burkina Faso) on 2004-08-20 17:29 [#01310459]
Points: 14294 Status: Lurker



And it would be very difficult due to the steep suck
differential of electronic music. Very difficult indeed.


Attached picture

 

offline mappatazee from ¨y¨z¨| (Burkina Faso) on 2004-08-20 17:31 [#01310461]
Points: 14294 Status: Lurker



To balance on such a slippery slope


 

offline cichli on 2004-08-20 17:33 [#01310463]
Points: 19 Status: Regular



Haha, excellent point. But what if they had done, like,
something tri repetae-ish but a BIT more accessible (more
patterns dropping out and coming back, something resembling
choruses) but with emceeing over it? Couldn't be THAT bad
(unless I guess if you hate rap)


 

offline mrgypsum on 2004-08-20 17:36 [#01310468]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker



aphex, ae (idm blah) is not that difficult to "get" into, it
has just as much chance at becoming pop as did punk in the
70's. it took 30 years for it to become "real" pop music,
whose to say that 30 years (or less) from now, pop will be
electronic or idm music. frig, classical music could become
pop, music it does not matter its accesiblity, just the
effect that it has.


 

offline cichli on 2004-08-20 17:37 [#01310470]
Points: 19 Status: Regular



Yeah, but the industry needs a reason to push it for it to
get pop (by the $$$ definition of pop). Since they're afraid
to try new things, they'd probably just push shit like Moby
and Chem Bros since it's "more like" what people are used to
hearing. So that's the barrier for what kind of sound will
become $$$pop


 

offline mrgypsum on 2004-08-20 17:37 [#01310471]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker



sorry for my typing errors, i am typing with one hand, i am
holding and feeding my daug hter with the other


 

offline tolstoyed from the ocean on 2004-08-20 17:37 [#01310472]
Points: 50073 Status: Moderator



idm is getting pop...check latest britney!


 

offline mrgypsum on 2004-08-20 17:38 [#01310474]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker



they use some idm ish stuff in comercials, it has already
begun my friend


 

offline mrgypsum on 2004-08-20 17:40 [#01310475]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to tolstoyed: #01310472



although you are joking there is some truth to what
you say. look at madonna


 

offline mappatazee from ¨y¨z¨| (Burkina Faso) on 2004-08-20 17:40 [#01310476]
Points: 14294 Status: Lurker | Followup to tolstoyed: #01310472



I'm not sure what this so-called "IDM" is, but I don't think
that playing a synthesized violin sample backwards 1 time
out of the 30 forward times in the song makes it so.


 

offline cichli on 2004-08-20 17:41 [#01310478]
Points: 19 Status: Regular



Hmm, good point... Hummer commercials. But unfortunately,
artsy commercial designers trying to sneak in their own
taste when they have the leeway are not the same breed as
Warner Brothers execs. We'll see.


 

offline tolstoyed from the ocean on 2004-08-20 17:44 [#01310480]
Points: 50073 Status: Moderator | Followup to mrgypsum: #01310475



well, it was only partly a joke...i actually like toxic :)


 

offline cichli on 2004-08-20 17:45 [#01310483]
Points: 19 Status: Regular



In fact, electronic music has been used as BACKGROUND music
in ads and media for a long time. That could actually be a
damning thing, that pop culture just sees it as a
utilitarian background-sound tool, not for pure listening. I
think it's possible that it could remain that way (the more
experimental/inhuman kinds, anyway)


 

offline dog_belch from Netherlands, The on 2004-08-20 18:32 [#01310501]
Points: 15098 Status: Addict | Show recordbag



i think electronic music is largely "utilitarian
background-sound ", and I like that, it becomes interesting
if you listen to it hard enough, like if you stare at one
frame of a comic, the backdrop of a theatre production, or
the pattern on the carpet for long enough. You begin to see,
or hear, something approaching humanity.


 

offline zaphod from the metaverse on 2004-08-20 18:36 [#01310508]
Points: 4428 Status: Addict



its possible they might have made a good album instead of
the shit they normally put out.


 

offline mrgypsum on 2004-08-20 18:36 [#01310509]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to tolstoyed: #01310480



i like the video for toxic ;)


 

offline mrgypsum on 2004-08-20 18:37 [#01310510]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to zaphod: #01310508



i have to admire the users who dislike autechre. they never
let up on the hate.


 

offline mrgypsum on 2004-08-20 18:44 [#01310513]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to dog_belch: #01310501



i could care less if electronic music is/will become pop
music, i dont want to think that my taste in music is
somehow better than another persons, just because they might
have an affinity for pop - tart music. i like what i like,
and the popularity does not change that.


 

offline uzim on 2004-08-20 19:09 [#01310532]
Points: 17716 Status: Lurker



i don't know, depends on how they would have "got more
commercial".

i might have liked it if it went more melodic, more
rhythmic, techno-styled...

if it had added rapping and went less experimental, i doubt
i would have liked it at all.

"i have to admire the users who dislike autechre. they
never let up on the hate."


> same with the ones who hate venetian snares, boards of
canada, merzbow... no?



 

offline pachi from yo momma (United States) on 2004-08-20 20:44 [#01310584]
Points: 8984 Status: Lurker



Hmm..

I can't imagine Autechre ever going mainstream. They work
quite independently, and have no message to prove. Their
quest is based more on adventure and innovation than fame
and fortune.

However, it's probably not too surprising for mainstream
artists to have been influenced by Autechre. Consider Thom
Yorke for instance.


 

offline cichli on 2004-08-20 22:02 [#01310605]
Points: 19 Status: Regular



Yeah, their attitudes are pretty anti-commercial, which is
apparent in the interviews. Hell, they don't even like doing
the interviews.

I just like the idea of autechre doing something completely
different, even if it were bad. It would be funny to find
out that they'd secretly been producing pop music under fake
names for years.


 

offline mappatazee from ¨y¨z¨| (Burkina Faso) on 2004-08-21 00:45 [#01310626]
Points: 14294 Status: Lurker | Followup to uzim: #01310532



Ah, actually I was just considering if they went more
commercial to the electronic side of things. But if they
went more commercial to the hip-hop side of things, it could
have been quite good.


 

offline Ophecks from Nova Scotia (Canada) on 2004-08-21 03:44 [#01310670]
Points: 19190 Status: Moderator | Show recordbag



I'm always curious about what artists that tackle one
''genre'' (shudder) would do when stuck into a totally
different environment. AE with jangly Rickenbacker guitars,
Sly Stone with a laptop (he'd probably have to spend a lot
of time with the Reason manual), Janis Joplin fronting a
hair metal band. There's some guys (Paul McCartney's done
rock, classical, ambient techno, whatever... and there's
freaks like Bowie) who've had a finger in every genre's pie,
but I'd like to hear the more specialized people in
different contexts. I know it's silly, but I wonder how
their individual talents would translate through a different
medium. I would just like to hear what kind of hook-crafting
abilities the guys from AE would have under ''normal''
circumstances . Nothing impresses me more than a good hook
in a 2.5 minute pop song. I hear some AE hooks (first track
on Envane!), and imagine some pretty cool vocal arrangements
built around the melodic structures. It sounds phenomenal in
my head.


 

offline mortsto-x from Trondheim/Bodø (Norway) on 2004-08-21 04:02 [#01310673]
Points: 8062 Status: Lurker | Followup to cichli: #01310441



I hope they keep on from where they are now


 

offline dave_g from United Kingdom on 2004-08-21 08:39 [#01310771]
Points: 3372 Status: Lurker



Surely they ARE mainstream. I go into my local HMV, which is
a fairly average store. Look in the dance music section, and
lo and behold: autechre, aphex twin, aphex twin 26 mixes,
squarepusher, plaid.
Mr. James even gets TWO sections!
There are a few more which I can't remember, but seems
fairly mainstream to me.

I'm fairly certain I saw them on Top of the pops too,
although it may have been the fine young cannibals.


 

offline clint from Silencio... (United Kingdom) on 2004-08-21 08:49 [#01310774]
Points: 3447 Status: Lurker



Windowlicker is an example of RDJ at his most mainstream...
yet its one of his most groundbreaking tracks.

I think they could find a way of appealing to a wider
audience without compromising innovation.


 

offline mrgypsum on 2004-08-21 08:53 [#01310775]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to dave_g: #01310771



mainstream within the genre. but not like moby, chem
brothers or fatboy slim.


 

offline mrgypsum on 2004-08-21 09:00 [#01310777]
Points: 5103 Status: Lurker | Followup to clint: #01310774



windowlicker is pop music.


 

offline uzim on 2004-08-21 10:53 [#01310847]
Points: 17716 Status: Lurker



dave_g > well, i found some Merzbow cds at the Fnac in
Strasbourg... so Merzbow must be mainstream too o_O


 

offline clint from Silencio... (United Kingdom) on 2004-08-21 11:41 [#01310902]
Points: 3447 Status: Lurker | Followup to mrgypsum: #01310777



Well yes.


 

offline J198 from Maastricht (Netherlands, The) on 2004-08-21 11:44 [#01310903]
Points: 7342 Status: Lurker | Followup to uzim: #01310847 | Show recordbag



i love the FNAC! i bought my first aphex twin cd there when
i was on vacation in france. yay!


 

offline cichli on 2004-08-21 13:59 [#01310970]
Points: 19 Status: Regular



I think I remember that in one interview, Ae said they "play
non-electronic instruments, sing and clap" or something. Now
THAT'S what I want to hear! Folk instrumentations of
Confield as performed by Booth and Brown ;)


 


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