Favorite electronic music on Myspace

[chasw]

Hello: I've been surveying the many thousands of musicians with myspace sites who classify their music, at least in part, as "electronica". I've gathered the best tracks (according to my own tastes) that I could download, either directly from their myspace players, or from one of the commecial download services I subscribe to. I then compile the tracks into a "Myspace Favorites" playlist and burn a CD to play while on the road in my Cadillac.

I am amazed at the high quality of music I've been able to find from among these relatively unknown artists around the world. I've compiled a new electronica playlist every month for the last 4 months. I then publish the playlist via the blog at my own myspace site, with links to each artist's myspace site, so my readers can listen to their music and download the ones they like for their own playlists. This is only a hobby for me, but I have acquired some ultra-fine music that is, for the most part, not publically available.

Check out the July edition of my myspace blog and let me know what you think of my selections. thx - CW

www.myspace.com/chasw88

[elektro80]

What is "electronica"?

[opg]

[elektro80]

Sure.. again..

I am hoping for yet another definition..

I had to listen to a long discussion of this last night and I have less idea now than ever before about what electronica is.

[chasw]

What is electronica? I didn't catch the last discussion on this question, so I'll blithely offer some thoughts based on my searches through the vast expanse of myspace.

The advent of personal computers has made it possible for artists to create music in entirely new ways - electronic music. Some of them make music strictly from samples, with no instrumentation of their own, or at most a keyboard. Others will modify the sounds they make with their own instruments, both after its been recorded and during live performances. Most of what results can arguably be described as "electronica", meaning created or modified with personal computer software.

My son John does both, he records tracks with his acoustic guitar, then mixes and modifies them using Ableton Live software, adding in percussion from samples. With the right equipment, he can do it all live. Much of this trend towards computerized music has gravitated toward popular forms associated with "dance parties" or raves, resulting in the common DJ type musician a la TCM, Sasha, Krush and Chem Bros. Others have strayed into idioms like jazz, pop and ambient. Its amazing how many of these artists work alone, something that was not very practical before electronica.

The variety is bewildering, but the common thread is computers and as a result many of these new-music makers describe their product as "electronica". Myspace cleverly allows each musician to describe her/himself by selecting up to 3 genre names from a fixed list. Most of them try to be as accurate as possible - electronica, electro, house; or trance, trip hop, electronica. Out of about 2.5 million musicians on myspace, approx 90,000 select electronica as one of the names

For simplicity, I search for any and all that use the broader term "electronica" among their 3 descriptors. I find if I search on psychedelic, electro or trance, the amount of variety shrinks dramatically. After all, I'm not trying to split hairs, but rather to find music I like. Because its new, this new field of computerized electronic music is extremely fertile. Older forms like smooth jazz and indie rock are almost moribund in comparison. - CW

[elektro80]

[opg]

Well, you've got quite the Friend's List at your MySpace site!

I knew that industry-successful artists are putting up their own MySpace sites (well, probably by someone else, like a producer's brother's son, etc), but that was a pretty interesting trip through the friend networks.

The only problem I see with the genre listings is that because of how music evolves and how quickly people can network because of the internet, artists will probably abandon the MySpace route for publicity sooner or later. For example, how would a Micromusic artist be able to get attention from fans or artists that are into that kind of electronic music?

Check out www.micromusic.net.

There are only so many genres you can list for artists to pick from, and the electronic music genre is so vast that people who like one sub-genre could absolutely hate another subgenre.

Here at electro-music.com. we've recently had forum threads where we (often reluctantly ) posted links to our MySpace site. It's fun, but I still like weaving through Friend List to Friend List to find old friends or who knows who. A guilty pleasure, I guess.