what strikes me is that he only asks
more or less established artists and other players to play the manifesto game.

Obviously they are gonna voice their genre-specific worries. I’m sure if he had asked people on the other side of the DJ booth, answers would have been more positive overall (but with less depth probably, but in the case of average Joe clubbers does their weekly dance music consumption demand profound reflexions require profound reflexion and engagement? probably not!)

I was surprised how elitist and close-minded some answers from DJs, producers and other players could be: most of the technological advances which have undoubtedly enabled broader diffusion of their music (be it an mp3 on myspace, or an impromptu laptot liveset at an afterparty) are not given the credit they deserve. Instead they are systematically put down and their negative aspects emphasized. Of course over-compression sucks, virtual synths are never on par with the real thing, and improper mastering is very very annoying but come on DJ and producers, amongst these people bouncing to your set in the club or the techno stage, how many people do you think give a damn about these details? Not many at 02:42 am!

So overall the manifestos could be seen as subtle indicators of the fears and concerns of the happy few which make a living from e-music. Obviously their outlook will be different that an average clubber. But it seems like these existential problems are recurrent within the scene: when it’s not minimal, it’s digital downloads, laptops or compression , soon it’s going to be the house revival and the deep vibe, etc etc.

I guess its natural to have concerns and it makes said group stronger and united to collectively put down the same things…

Sherburne’s comment here saddens me, mostly because I like a lot of his criticism. What right does he have to pass moral judgment on the people who help pay his bills? Granted, I’ve only seen a microscopic corner of the dance music world (by comparison, that is), but the all-night parties I’ve been to were more refreshing than jading.

In high school, Basement Jaxx were just as fun for dancing as any of the punk records I loved at the time. As long as my friends show up at parties with mp3s or turntables or drum sets, I’ll keep dancing. Blog-house, frog-house, whatever.

Oh, and maybe this is a credit to Mr. Fitzgerald more than anyone else, but the comments on this blog (and, in dance music blogs generally) tend to be more carefully crafted than any I read on the internet. Everyone up there above me: you have said some wise things.

Also–if any of the producers responding to Mr. Sherburne’s call for manifestos would like to hear of some DJs still using wax and decks, I would be happy to mail them a long list of blogs and names. For Pete’s sake, guys, you’re on the internet. Reality shouldn’t be THAT far away.

I *think* there’s less kids getting into clubbing than when I did (see above). But, of course this could be an illusion of getting older.

I shall predict, if I may, that as the kids who are listening to Razorlight, the Klaxons, (or whoever the hell they are all listening to these days! get further towards their late teens in the coming years that Clubbing, in the broad sense, will grow fast again. The music that they latch onto, or the artists which are the catalyst for the change remains to be seen. (in the late 90s it was the Chemical Brothers, Prodigy and FatboySlim that provided the conduit from indie to electronic).

This applies to the UK in my opinion, but perhaps not right round the world.

I try incredibly hard not to get sucked into the vortex of paralysis by analysis that seems to exist within the electronic (and many other) music communities. The more you analyse music or the context within which you experience it, the less musical it inherently becomes. When you move past enjoying the experience to analysing the experience itself, the clarity and power is diminished.

I’m all for quality critique and reflection, but never at the expense of the enjoyment.

Dance jaded bitches, dance!

In fairness, I remember people saying the same thing 5-6 years ago and they were pretty much right because at that time the dance scene (at least in Ireland and the UK) was imploding. Just remember how bad things were in 2002 and 2003. In some ways the way things are today reminds me of just before that time but then again a crash may not be a bad thing, a lot of good came from the last one.