ENVELOPE FILTER
Jun 1, 2005 12:00 PM
LETTER OF THE MONTH
A VALID POINT
If I never read another letter about the virtues of sampled/electronic music versus instrumentally performed music, it will be too soon. What is being created is art. That fact really cannot be debated. What is being debated is the validity of this art. Why are electronic artists looking outside themselves to have their work validated? The Impressionist painters were misunderstood in their time. Opera was originally scoffed at for using words with music. (It was looked upon as dumbing down music for the masses.) In fine-art circles, photography still isn't accepted as a valid art form — and digital photography is even more scorned. I really don't think Ansel Adams is spinning in his grave. He created his art without regard for the good opinion of others, and, yes, there are still people who think he took pretty pictures but did not make actual art. These are all radically different artistic media, yet the common thread is that they didn't, and sometimes still don't, have some sort of valid stamp of approval. Guess what? Who cares.
Remix magazine is a great forum for artists to share artistic ideas and resources. But artists (yes, no matter what your father-in-law says, you're an artist) need to stop looking to a magazine, or anywhere else, for approval of how they create what they create. You need no further validation of your art than a mirror. I'm not talking about sales or a massive crowd of fans throwing money at you; that's an entirely different discussion of whether the art is any good. What keeps getting rehashed is if this art form itself is valid. Artists, no matter what the medium, create because we need to, just like we need to breathe. Can we agree, once and for all, your breathing is valid?
Ken Janssen
Chicago
For sending in the “Letter of the Month,” Ken Janssen receives an E-mu Proteus X ($199.95) desktop sound module. If you send in the most inspired correspondence next month — or simply the letter we like the best — you will win one, too. All you have to do is drop an e-mail to us at remixeditorial@primediabusiness.com. Please include your full mailing address.
LOOKIN' FOR LADIES
I've been tuning in to your magazine a bit lately, and I can't help but notice a gross omission: women musicians! You don't have to dig too deep to realize there are some amazing female electronic musicians and DJs. Is there a reason or a general lack of awareness?
Liv
San Francisco
Liv — Two of the three Remix editors are female, so believe us when we tell you that it's not for lack of awareness. We strive to have balanced coverage each month of genres and sexes. But, apparently, we need to do better. Be sure to check out our coverage of DJ Rap and Colette next month. — The Editors
DO IT FOR THE KIDS
I have a nonprofit after-school program for underprivileged and troubled youths. It's called Kick Drums 4 Kids. Its focus is taking kids and putting them in a studio environment. I decided to start the program for two reasons: Many of our youth programs are physically based (and some kids are not athletically inclined or just not interested), and I realized how many kids love the entertainment industry. This is just another avenue to keep kids off the streets, away from drugs, gangs and violence — more important, learning something they can use in the process. I have a curriculum, but I use Remix for real-world examples for where my students can go. Also, you have the latest gear and show a lot of tips and tricks. I try to remind my students that this is an art, and there is an infinite amount of ways you can reach your goal. Believe it or not, your magazine helps illustrate that point perfectly.
Mike Camp
Macon, Ga.
I run a mobile mechanic service exclusively in the streets of the inner city. I see a lot that happens, things that provoke a silent scream coming from the immeasurable depths of my very core. Kids, their future lies within their hearts and minds. I see so much misery, so much struggle, so much opposition everywhere they go.
Remix, you're all about music, and music is all about change. I'm on a mission of healing — healing of our inner-city streets from guns, drugs, divorce, pain and loss. I'm building a professional, urban mobile recording studio, and I represent a nation of young black future artists whose voices may not be heard otherwise. I just want to let the world know I'm coming, and I'm bringing an army with me, an army of love from the battlefields of our inner-city streets.
Monti Christopher Keeton
Davie, Fla.
PEOPLE WHO NEED PEOPLE
No matter where we fall in the great music-industry spectrum, we still need the other guy. Whether we be pure instrumentalists or digital or analog DJs, we still need what the other guy brings to the table. Musicians need engineers to bring their vision to the ears of listeners. Engineers need musicians to play. DJs need musicians to make the records they play. Even sample-choppers still need the guy who sat down and made that sample. The magic happens when those people get together and jam and create something no one has heard before.
I'm a self-confessed technoid. I love gear, buttons, lights, everything. I love the sound of electronic music and the process of making it. But I also love listening to something unprocessed, acoustic. I learned to play the guitar for that reason, and it has added another dimension to my music that a computer couldn't. Granted, there are people who can't grasp technology and others who can't grasp the dynamics of the guitar, but if you get those people together, the end result could be amazing. I know this is a rosy view of the music process, but it doesn't have to be as overwhelming as some make it seem. If you just relax and let your sound flow, the music is always pure. It's all a means to an end, and the end is music — however you create it.
Nikki Heyward
West Palm Beach, Fla.
TRUE PROPS
I came across your column on “Respect” while looking for a definition of respect to teach some students of mine who have been harassing me. I don't believe their parents have ever used the word — certainly not to teach it! I like your explanations of how it encompasses all those in a scene. Kudos to you, editors. I really respect you.
a 70-year-old teacher
via e-mail
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