why is ambient so popular now

Trillhouse

Well-known member
I mean therapeutic as in gentle, a beautiful nest to curl up in.

I think this is a major factor in why is ambient so popular now. People are increasingly looking at music as a form of mood enhancer. Sure that's always been it's end function to some extent, but now with 24 hour utube streams 'for relax and study' such an escapism fix is instantly available and accessible. BGM moved from capitalist manipulation to self medication.
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
is ambient on some level philosophically or spiritually opposed to ideas like progression, innovation, linearity of time?

it seems to be about suspension from time.... the dilation of the now.... or it can be elegaic and memoradelic (as with On Land or The Caretaker or whoever)

perhaps to evolve would be to go against its fundamental nature, or its deepest drives
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
there is an interesting fissure in Eno's thinking if you read his old interviews of the 70s going into the 80s

on the one hand, he will espouse ideas of innovation, talk about operators on the margins who explore unknown frontier zones and that's cool because they bring back ideas that other later artists will convert into something palatable to the mainstream, thus changing everything .... he'll enthuse about new methods, new procedures.... a Sixties art school outlook, which he then enthusiastically encourages and supports when it manifests it through No Wave, or Talking Heads.... and generally he often presents himself as an early adopter, the first person to achieve a breakthrough, ahead of his time etc etc, indeed eager to get his credit as such, and annoyed when he doesn't (as with the reception of My Life In the Bush of Ghosts, or critical neglect of what he achieved with On Land)

BUT then at other times he downplays the importance of innovation drastically in favor of ideas like remixing or composting of old ideas ... talks about how he likes the Chinese idea of time (something along the lines of we are facing the past, stepping into the future with our backs turned to it)... generally is steeped in John Cage's ideas and thus the Eastern thought that informed Cage...

musically as Eno's own music develops, it gets more placid, lacking in thrust and dynamism - in a sense that IS its innovation, but one that breaks with a speeding-into-the-future, progress oriented worldview

that process starts with the song-based parts of Another Green World and Before and After Science.... where they feature listless, demotivated characters - washed out and washed up at the End of Time.... castaways, half-asleep daydreamers sinking into inertia

meanwhile the instrumental stuff is like becoming circular and self-generating: the author has set things up but voluntarily ceded his agency
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Eno is a chancer imo. He was lucky to be there at the right place and the right time. Got associated with the right people and ran with it. I don't find much of what he has to say all that special. I agree with certain things he says, but they're mostly just rehashed spiels other people said long before him. He plays the oh wow isn't it so exciting to be at the forefront of all of this tech and hey how about this idea?! Shtick pretty well. And because people long bought into him he manages to get away with it and will do forever. An yea I mean, sure he made some good music but he's so far from being the genius people love to call him. He's a tedious hack at this point.
 

droid

Well-known member
It think that's a fundamental misreading. Unlike a lot of artists I don't think he's ever been shy about admitting that his primary mode of operation is synthesis, and that is how culture evolves - by accretion, recontextualising other people's ideas to produce something new, or delivering something old in a new context.

He's quite like Bowie in that respect, chameleon, corinthian, comedian and caricature. He's the chancer, the gadfly, the dilettante, the salesman, the faker, being in the right place at the right time... but he's also, simultaneously the innovator, the autodidact, the propagandist, the risk taker, the instigator.

His current status doesnt matter. His body of work stands up for itself, and its one of the most influential and consistently brilliant of any 20th century artist.
 

droid

Well-known member
is ambient on some level philosophically or spiritually opposed to ideas like progression, innovation, linearity of time?

it seems to be about suspension from time.... the dilation of the now.... or it can be elegaic and memoradelic (as with On Land or The Caretaker or whoever)

perhaps to evolve would be to go against its fundamental nature, or its deepest drives

It depends if we're talking about sonic evolution or functional evolution. If the former, I think we can point to plenty of examples, countless sub genres, phases of development.

If the latter, the question Id ask is why would we expect it to? Has dance music evolved beyond its core function? Jazz? Rock?
 

luka

Well-known member
is ambient on some level philosophically or spiritually opposed to ideas like progression, innovation, linearity of time?

it seems to be about suspension from time.... the dilation of the now.... or it can be elegaic and memoradelic (as with On Land or The Caretaker or whoever)

perhaps to evolve would be to go against its fundamental nature, or its deepest drives

Isn't this the Ben Watson line? The reason he thinks it is evil and must be destroyed (strongly suspect it is tied in with his violent loathing for David ocean of sound Toop as well)
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
What bliss bloggers comments make me think about and question is what we mean when we say art "evolves". I'm not saying it's wrong to say that, but when you start thinking about what evolution is, scientifically, it seems like a trickier concept than you might assume. Probably a different thread there, though
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
And also the word "progress", it's a loaded term, isn't it? It doesn't just imply change or movement.

I use these words all the time myself. The other day I was saying that drum n bass was a regression from the extremity of jungle.
 

luka

Well-known member
We've done that at some length at least once recently. It's largely about mapping the possibility tree
 

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
Very interesting thread peoples

Just to jump back on that question of why ambient has become so popular now

Firstly, the rise of internet radio, which prioritises the drift of the mix and the curation of the DJ, as opposed to the stop-start quality of conventional broadcasting and its aspiration to journalism, of some sort at least. Basically, internet radio encourages radio shows which are just one or two hours of textural immersion, no track IDs, no intervention from the DJs. Partly this is because people are submitting shows from all over, sometimes with no microphones, maybe just sequencing tracks together on a laptop; also people may be operating in different time zones so the sense of place is lost; also the audience may often be diffuse and listening at work, in shops, etc, where the music works best if it is 'secondary'. Also, there's surely an element of fetishism of the DJ as the creative force in such platforms as NTS, Rinse, etc.

Secondly, streaming platforms like Spotify etc, which in turn often function to provide music for people to work, concentrate, revise, block out the rest of everyday life, to help ease insomnia or anxiety, to much greater and more formalised degrees that previous platforms for music. Basically, Spotify desires an endless ever-changing amount of this kind of stuff. And, because of the Jukebox Jury effect of Spotify – it encourages instant skipping, liking, rather than taking time to listen – it encourages a certain bland, smooth, regular quality to background music

That's not to say I don't love some of this stuff – Joe Muggs's idea that ambient of the 90s was his punk resonated strongly with me, the idea that it was multi-function, full of possibilities, a frame in which everyone could do it, etc.
 

other_life

bioconfused
some thoughts on the piece (first two from twitter)

not sure if this is a joke but - "Matthewdavid likewise is a seeker who's explored the *full spectrum* of esoteric thought: Robert Anton Wilson, Alan Watts, Aleister Crowley, Gurdjieff and the theosophist movement."
(emphasis mine)
[the implication being that these are actually all very proximate on the spectrum of esoteric thought and, imo, not even good or interesting]
"Like power yoga or microdosing, it is taking an agent of change that was originally part of a culture of liberation and discovery, and putting it in service of the status quo."
but 'psychedelia' and orientalism for the (broadly) vedic were always Ops ready to be recuperated...
[the piece ending w a quote from joni mitchell and marking her out as a Laurel Canyon person is very apt on this point.]
two more things:
the Not New Age thing that grew out of u.s. noise is briefly mentioned but that honestly deserves its own piece. it's completely different than Spotify Wallpaper Ambience. usually does not fly in that environment/with that crowd.
this piece felt more like an advertisement for the labels and club nights mentioned than a criticism of a broader trend, unlike the conceptronica piece.
 
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