The musicians are almost extinct

[maelstrom808]

Music is music. It does not matter if the the person who created it spent more time in front of a piano roll window than they did with hands on the keys. It does not matter if they put more hours in cutting and editing audio than they did with an instrument in hand.

The lines between producer, musician, DJ, engineer, etc. blur more and more everyday. Expression is not limited to those who fill the traditional role of a musician. Technology opens up new avenues of creativity. You end up with more hacks, but you also end up more options for the truely talented as well as inviting new artists in, and that is well worth the trade off.

If you are primarily concerned with the previously mentioned hack's commercial success, my advice is don't be. The same situation exists in every proffession, and it has always existed and will always continue to exists.

Creativity and inspiration will come through in the end product if it was there to begin with. It doesn't matter what tools were used to create it. A good song is a good song regardless of how it was made.

[Khazul]

Originally Posted by Monobeat

You'll have to pry them out of my cold dead hands.

This can be arranged

[LivePsy]

Originally Posted by teethofgold

still... this discussion of "people can't play keyboards" is seriously flawed in that some of the best electronic music (in my opinion) is not even physically possible to play.

This is true, and it is also true that the sound is far more important than the notes. We're treating music like its 600 years ago and musical scales somehow are relevant. Learning music LIMITs you incredibly, but learning to listen and eventually create something you hear inside is the real skill.

I've learnt piano passing all the grades in NZ and frankly had to unlearn a lot of crap to start appreciating and then making electronic music. Music is NOT about notes, its about sounds and silence. When we were able to create any sound imaginable, we left traditional music behind. Some of us just don't realise it yet...

B

[synthfiend]

my 2 cents;

even though a lot of electronic music is dependant on the sounds and their movement (rather than formal music composition), I think there is still quite a lot of underlying musicality to electronic stuff. Even if the composer does not realise it. Maybe a lot of electronic musicians (who are not formally trained in music) create tunes by ear...

[Ceri JC]

As a newcomer to this forum, would I be correct in assuming the debate about needing to play an instrument to be a musician is "one of those topics", which, like analogue versus digital or pretty much any "x sounds better than y" discussion, everyone has an opinion on and which always ends in tears?

[IamEvil]

Originally Posted by Ceri JC

As a newcomer to this forum, would I be correct in assuming the debate about needing to play an instrument to be a musician is "one of those topics", which, like analogue versus digital or pretty much any "x sounds better than y" discussion, everyone has an opinion on and which always ends in tears?

Wouldn't be much point going on the interweb if everyone hi-5'd each other and agreed though would it ?