Well… this is coming in about 18 days late!

Nevertheless, I thought it might be interesting to do a big round-up of the most popular music posts on Sophistefunk for the entirety of 2012.

Considering over 1,000,000 people visited Sophistefunk this year (according to Google Analytics), there were a lot of popular posts to choose from, but I narrowed it down to the 20 most viewed.

Let’s dig in!

1.) Seven Nation Army by The Glitch Mob

This one almost isn’t even fair… because it was posted in 2011!

Regardless, it still made the #1 spot of the year this year, likely due to the song blowing up after it was featured in the GI Trailer (which was posted Dec 11/Jan 12, essentially the beginning of 2012)

I never thought to see this one here, but hey, gotta go by the numbers, and this was the most popular post of last year.

Visit: Seven Nation Army Remix by The Glitch Mob

2.) Heart Anthem Remix by Cryptex

This showed up around March 2012, a big dubstep release by Cryptex and one of the many tracks that catapulted him further this year.

Although not the usual serving of what I post around here, this was a great release nonetheless.

Visit: Heart Anthem Remix by Cryptex

3.) Monolith Code by Break Science

Although Break Science had some great collaborations with Michal Menert this year, their solo EP was also a smash.

Above was the most popular track from YouTube, but I encourage you to check out the WHOLE album, it’s great.

Visit: Monolith Code by Break Science

4.) Digital Freedom by Gramatik

This was a BIG release for Gramatik this year, and it shows by being the #4 most popular post of the year.

The album definitely hinted towards a slightly new sound that seems to be his focus nowadays, good stuff.

Visit: Digital Freedom by Gramatik

5.) Beatz & Pieces Vol 1 by Gramatik

This one is actually from 2011 as well, but I only posted it recently to showcase it to a new audience.

Apparently that was a good idea, because a TON of people viewed this post for the first time.

It’s a fantastic album, so I encourage you to check out the full thing.

Visit: Beatz & Pieces Vol 1 by Gramatik

6.) Nocturnal by Big Gigantic

Big Gigantic is one group I get to be all “hipster” about, as I was jamming to them back when Wide Awake was released, but I’m glad to have seen the duo take off recently.

Dom especially is killer with that signature sax, I expect more big things from them this year.

Visit: Nocturnal by Big Gigantic

7.) Smash the Funk by GRiZ

It’s hard to deny that GRiZ had a big year this year.

Funnily enough, I only started posting his stuff recently, thank you to the many people who emailed me about him and got my head out of the sand!

Visit: Smash the Funk by GRiZ

8.) Seychelles by Perseus

This one definitely got a lot of help due to the fact that this track just seem to have taken off about 2 weeks after release.

That Toni Braxon sample is definitely legit though, great job by Perseus as usual.

Visit: Seychelles by Perseus

9.) Binary Suns Jedi Theme Remix by Coyote Kisses

Certainly reveals how riding off of the coattails of something successful can be great for exposure (not trashing them at all, great group, just pointing it out).

Fortunately, Coyote Kisses always delivers on quality as well, so this turned out great.

Visit: Binary Suns Jedi Theme Remix by Coyote Kisses

10.) Soft Focus by Vanilla

This almost feels like a “beat tape,” but it’s so much more, definitely an undiscovered gem of the year.

Not that Vanilla doesn’t have a bit of a following, just that it deserves to be much larger!

Visit: Soft Focus by Vanilla

11.) The Future is Now by GRiZ

Another appearance by GRiZ on this list, again, thanks to all those who emailed me about the guy.

This was a single release but still made a big splash on both SoundCloud and YouTube.

Visit: The Future is Now by GRiZ

12. Spring Forward Vol. II

I was glad to see this here, as it was one of my favorite releases this year, and one that I consider very underrated.

It was a group effort that I gladly laid down a donation for, show this whole album some love!

Visit: Spring Forward Vol II

13.) Alone in Kyoto Remix by SoundFow

Very notable for being one of few entries that didn’t benefit from a YouTube upload.

Definitely an interesting track that hits hard, I know I had this on repeat when it was released.

Visit: Alone in Kyoto Remix by SoundFlow

14.) You Get High by Pretty Lights

Unfortunately for my upload, people seemed to be more concerned with the picture than the actual song (lol).

This was obviously a huge track from a big artist, definitely expected this one to be here.

Visit: You Get High by Pretty Lights

15.) Vision Vision Remix by R/D

Back when this blog started, this was the artist that the most people thanked me for introducing them too (he gets a lot more features now).

Click play to find out why!

Visit: Vision Vision Remix by R/D

16.) The Great Divide Remix by Seven Lions

Seven Lions had a huge year this year in terms of gaining traction with the electronic music community.

Tracks like this definitely show you why, the vast sound and unique choice of songs to remix help Seven Lions make an incredibly strong showing every time.

Visit: The Great Divide by Seven Lions

17.) Don’t Let Me Down Remix by Gramatik

How many appearances can a single artist make in a list like this, heh.

Gramatik is back with another track, and although most people should stay away from source material like this, Gramatik turns up with another classic.

Visit: Don’t Let Me Down Remix by Gramatik

18.) Birdland Vol. 1 by Bird Peterson

Although hip-hop tracks tend to be pretty popular here (especially if they have an electronic flavor), this was the only hip-hop style post to crack into the top 20.

Glad to see it though, I had this on replay forever this year!

Visit: Birdland Vol 1 by Bird Peterson

19.) Mountain Legends by CloZee

Although CloZee got a few mentions this year, the video for this post really took off and contributed to it’s high view count (not as many social shares on this one).

Super excited this got some traction though, definitely an artist that deserves more of the spotlight.

Visit: Mountain Legends by CloZee

20.) The Way U Do by Shlohmo

First song that got me hooked on TammySzu’s channel!

This was a hugely popular track this year, I think The Weeknd shared it and it just snowballed from there.

Visit: The Way U Do by Shlohmo

Honorable Mentions

Have to throw a few quick honorable mentions out to posts that were just shy of the top 20.

Find them below…

Screw Loose EP by heRobust

Wavesight EP by Paper Diamond

Hollywood Remix by R/D

Even If It Isn’t Right by Michal Menert

Jetstream by Minnesota

Entered Apprentice by Outlet

Song #2 by Madeux

Digidrop by Rameses B

Le Rondo Des Sirenes Remix by CloZee

Flocyde by Break Science

Shades of Funk by Kill Paris

Never Love U by Imprint After

Be Serious Remix by Benny Loco (also the first post of the year, Jan. 1 2012)

Most Popular Articles

As you guys know, from time to time I post longer posts (like this one!) that either includes thoughts or a unique round-up of some kind.

They tend to get into a bunch of different topics, all music-related, and are actually pretty popular (fun fact: if I did a site-wide list, 3 of these articles would make it into the top 20!)

Below you can check out the most popular “non-traditional” posts on Sophistefunk this year.

1.) 10 Greatest Video Games Remixes

Ha, so awesome to see this make #1, one of my weirdest posts to date, but you gotta love that nostalgia.

2.) The Psychology of Music

I’m pretty proud this piece made it here because I spent a fair amount of time writing it, and it’s one of the more “serious” articles on the whole site.

3.) The Psychology of Concerts

The call-to-arms article for concert lovers, all backed with science!

4.) On Splintering Music Genres

A very early article that resonated with a lot of people.

5.) How to Start a Music Blog

My answer to the 1,000,000 emails I get a month on this topic!

Interesting Site Statistics This Year

Here are a few weird stats I noticed this year from my analytics…

1.) Everyone searching for “Lindsay Lowend” had already been to the site

Nearly every single person who ended up on the site by searching for “Lindsay Lowend” related terms had seemingly been to the site before.

For instance, every single person of the ~1,000 people who searched “lindsay low end” had already visited the site in the past… not a single person was a new visitor!

Weird!

2.) Sophistefunk readers do NOT use Twitter

Twitter, despite being the #2 most popular social network of the year, sent the least amount of traffic in comparison to other popular sources.

The most popular for this site seem to be YouTube (the channel), Facebook, StumbleUpon and other blogs (thanks homies!).

3.) 85 people found the site by searching for “sophist e funk”

I thought that was cute, lol.

…conversely, 71 people found the site by searching for “sofistefunk” … ಠ_ಠ

4.) Sophistefunk reached the #1 result in Google for “electronic music blog“

Thank you for all of the readers who linked to me!

As you know this blog is just run for fun, but I do have a competitive streak and like the fact that I’m #1 for that term.

Suck it Gotta Dance Dirty!

5.) Outside of the US, the country with the most visitors was France!

Go France!

The other top countries were Germany, England, Poland and Spain.

This was my favorite fact of the year, really cool to see such a varied audience!

That’s about for this year…

Be Excellent to Each Other

… and enjoy your 2013!

Note: I’ve currently removed those obnoxious social media buttons (gag) from the site, but if you enjoy the music, do your best to help it spread!

The post The Most Popular Music on Sophistefunk (2012 Edition) first appeared on Sophistefunk.

All of my regular readers know that from time to time, I’ll go off the beaten music blog track and get into some deeper topics surrounding music.

Formerly I’ve written about:

• Why We Love and Need Music (The Psychology of Music)
• Why You Should Go to Concerts (The Psychology of Concerts)
• Are Splintering Music Genres Killing Electronic Music?

Bottom line: I like to mix it up from time to time, and today I’m happy to showcase this amazing video on the Scientific Power of Music from my buddy Mitchell Moffet of the ASAPscience YouTube channel.

If you’ve been a fan of any of the previous articles that branch out into the deeper issues in music, you’re going to like this video, I guarantee it (read that in the Men’s Warehouse voice, lol).

Shameless self-promotion time!

I also recently did a video collaboration with the team on productivity, which you can see below.

It was my first video-related project ever, so hopefully it doesn’t suck!

It’s about 5 days old, and it’s already been featured on Gizmodo, Lifehacker, and Business Insider… nice!

My Question to You…

Would you be interested in seeing more content like this, focused on music and the mind?

Let me know by leaving a comment.

Thanks!

–Greg

The post The Scientific Power of Music first appeared on Sophistefunk.

The following is an awesome… erm, “guest interview”? Yeah, we’ll go with that. The following is an awesome guest interview by my man Chase Sewell, who got a chance to interview Beats Antique and was kind enough to pass the final result over to Sophistefunk to publish (seriously man, you rock!)

Chase doesn’t have a site yet, but check back for more from him soon, he’s a fantastic writer and I hope to see more interviews from him in the future.

For now, enjoy this awesome first time guest contribution to Sophistefunk and show Beats Antique a little love!

—

Shortly after their performance at CounterPoint Festival outside of Atlanta, I was able to glean some insight into the rhythmic wizardry that is Beats Antique.

Hardly needing any introduction, these folks have been touring heavily and usually play to a packed out audience. Word about their highly unique blend of peregrine world music and dance-infused electronica is being passed around in music circles like some transformational currency.

As others will confirm, the music is almost co-created with their fans; crowds show up to their live performances toting their own energy – infusing the air with anticipation, exuberance, and those antsy, antsy feet.

True to form, the answers given in this interview were fairly playful, preserving their elusive mystique

Being that Beats Antique is an eclectic bricolage of many different styles, how would you describe your influences or precursors?

It’s interesting that the title “world fusion” is sometimes applied, despite the very modern integration with EDM and Ableton controlling.

We like the term “electro-acoustic”.

We feel that our integration of acoustic instruments and modern electronics is what defines our sound.

We have a heavy influence from folk music coming from almost all parts of the globe and we also have a huge EDM influence.

Put those two in a blender and you get a beats antique track! Its easy!

How would you say your music has evolved over the years and what new direction has Contraption Vol. 2 taken the band since the release of Elekatrafone?

Beats Antique: Contraption vol 2 is an answer to our 2009 vol 1 release.

We have felt the need to trace our roots back and respond to ourselves.

Vol 2 follows a similar format to volume 1 with a track with lynx and a brass band remix!

We feel it differs from Elektrafone in that its more acoustic and balanced between our genres.

Can you tell me a little bit about the creative process for you guys?

Which parts are typically written first; how long do you typically spend re-working your songs; does Zoe practice a routine or is there room for improvisation?

We all write.

Zoe has become more involved as a composer over the years.

It’s always refreshing to have her perspective as a dancer and Choreographer!

We have definitely figured out a unique flow and way to work together over the years.

Similarly, how do you decide on a track to remix?

Two favorites of mine are the Filistine – Colony Collapse Remix and the (older, probably lesser known) Michael Jackson – MLK Mashup. So, what is it in a song that reaches out to you?

A remix has a life of its own.

Sometimes it just jumps out at us other times we respond to events.

The MJ/MLK mash up was a response to MJ’s tragic death.

We also like to use remixes as opportunities to work with our vast community of friends/producers that we are part of.

Do you guys find it difficult to make music while on the road? How does it differ from making music at home or in a studio?

Being on the road limits some of the recording process, which forces us to use different sources of sounds.

We’ll use our iPhone apps, iPads and field recorders to create the bed of a track which then we bring back to our studio for full integration…

…we find ourselves having more time on this tour since we have an axing crew that sets up our stage, giving us the freedom to be creative…

Electronic dance events, in many ways, resemble “antique” forms of ecstatic dance: rites of passage, shamanic rituals, and so on.

What Terence McKenna calls the “Archaic Revival” can also be seen, for example, in anything from the tribal fashion styles within modern sub-cultures to the use of entheogens at concerts.

Would you say the exotic rhythms of Beats Antique catalyze some kind of energetic awareness? In this regard, what kinds of feedback have fans given you regarding any spiritual undertones?

Yes, spirits evoke circuit-bending filter sweeps in an animalistic ritual of the fourth kind…

Do you have any predictions on the future trends of EDM? (E.g. what is on the horizon—or is there anything new under the sun?)

I feel the heaviness factor will need to give way to the dynamics of live musical interpretation bringing the revolution of the bass driven bloopy blips to a more organic synapse.

Are there any shows that you’ve performed which stick out as favorites, in terms of crowd response and the whole vibe?

The Fox Oakland was a very special show for us, we had the chance to play in a beautifully renovated theatre in our home town!

Also Red Rocks, Fillmore Denver…this far on this tour, our show in Columbus, Ohio had the most raucous crowd on the tour, and that was, surprisingly the 1st time we had set foot in the exciting city!!

Lastly, while we’re discussing shows, can you tell us a little bit about The Great Convergence concert on December 21 in Giza, Egypt? How’d this idea get started, and what can we expect to go down?

The do lab, who are the promoters of the event, were visited by a large UFO in 2009.

They were instructed to organize an intergalactic celebration for the UFOs return.

We have been invited to perform during this great convergence of interstellar beings and are honored to be a member of the future galactic federation!

—

Thanks for stopping by, be sure to do me one small favor: if you enjoyed this interview and want to see more, share this post! It gives me an idea of what’s good to follow up on. (Thanks again Chase for making this happen)

The post Beats Antique Interview first appeared on Sophistefunk.

In every genre of music, concerts typically play a huge role in fan enjoyment.

Not everyone is into concerts, but many are hooked, and today I’d like to look at the science behind why concerts are fun (and even give you reasons to justify going to them :)).

Specifically, we’ll be taking a look at why the research says concerts are a better purchasing decision than buying music.

As I did in my post on the psychology of music, we’re going to be dropping science like a kid from Catholic school, but don’t worry, I’ll break down each study into laymen’s terms and give you the “quick-and-easy” on why our brains love concerts.

Onward!

Why Your Brain Loves Concerts

So, why does your brain love going to concerts? (“Drugs” is not a scientific enough answer btw ;)).

Specifically, how can I make the claim that concerts may be a better expense than actual music? One answer may be found in the way that your brain reacts to spending.

There has been some pretty insane research that digs into how your brain perceives money, and the findings are quite scary:

• Your brain actually treats money like a drug, substituting it for social acceptance (our minds even subconsciously dull pain when thinking about money!)
• Thinking about money and making money makes you behave more selfishly, even when buying gifts for your mom! (You jerk!)

There’s another side to this money v. brain battle though, and it’s a bit more positive…

Turns out, your brain loves concerts because it classifies them as an “experience” and favors purchases of this type.

Now, putting concerts squarely in the category of an “experience” isn’t all that shocking, so what’s the big deal?

How Concerts Can Make You Happy

Recent psychological research by Van Boven & Gilovich shows us that overall, people are “happier” when they spend money on an experience in an area they like rather then spending money on a material purchase.

So a surfing trip creates more pleasure than a new board, entering a cycling race makes us happier than buying a new bike, and going to a concert is likely to make us happier than buying a ton of music.

While this is obviously not true for everyone, even when people were polled, they were more likely to state that they were happier with their “experience” purchases than with their material purchases [source]:

• 57% said experiences made them happier
• 34% said things made them happier

To take things further, when Stanford researchers conducted a “time vs. money” study that involved a free concert (and in a subsequent study, iPods), they found that people who were asked, “How much time did you spend on this concert?” had far more favorable ratings of the experience than people who were asked, “How much money did you spend on this concert?”.

Think about that: Even though the concert was free, people still rated the experience better when queued with a question on time!

Why?

5 Reasons Experiences > Possessions

If experiences are superior, we definitely need to look into what experiences offer that possessions don’t.

From the literature, there are 5 recurring reasons as to why our brains love experiences more than buying material things…

1.) Good experiences improve over time

Call it the “nostalgia effect” or whatever you like, but reminiscing about enjoyable past experiences only seems to improve over time.

Researchers have noted that physical items tend to get old quickly (novelty of the new item wears off), but great experiences can age like a fine wine.

Experiences can also take on new meaning as you age, whereas things stay the same.

2.) People revisit experiences more often

Going hand-in-hand with the above reason, research shows that experiences get “revisited” in our heads more often than past purchases.

This means we tend to think about “that one time” more than we do about “that one thing I bought”, and as a result, experiences tend to provide pleasure (dopamine) long after a material purchase can.

Concerts obvious fill this requirement beautifully, whereas music is labeled in our brain as a “material” purchase (despite the fact that listening to music is an experience).

3.) Experiences are more unique

So what? Well, there are a couple reasons as to why this uniqueness makes us happier.

First is that experiences are harder to compare, and as a result, unfavorable comparisons (and buyer’s remorse) are less likely to happen with experiences.

Your brain may hurt your own feelings by comparing your car with that other guy’s (or gal’s) ride, but your experience at some even is unique to you and your mind is less likely to compare it to anything else.

You also don’t have to make as many choices (typically) when purchasing an experience vs. purchasing an item, and since too many choices makes us unhappy, this has a big impact on your overall satisfaction with your purchase.

Things are easy to compare (especially mass produced things), but experiences are harder to measure with others and as a result, we get more personal enjoyment out of them without having the risk of running into “mine’s better than yours” syndrome.

4.) We adapt slowly to experiences

Habituation (repetition) is often called the “enemy of happiness”, because it is highly correlated with being unhappy.

Experiences are obviously very unique, as because of this, we adapt and evaluate them far more slowly than we do items and products.

Because of this slower processing of experiences, the research has shown that they bring us more happiness. (Think about a long trip you might have taken, it can often take a few days to get “back into your groove”, but your brain loves that change of pace)

5.) Experiences tend to be social

The most obvious of all, but perhaps the single strongest reason to spend money on experiences.

Human beings are social animals, and that’s not an opinion, it’s fact.

Did you know that solitary confinement has often been classified as “cruel and unusual punishment” by psychologists because of the incredibly destructive effects it can have on the human mind?

Healthy social interaction is intrinsically tied to happiness, and when you look at how important “remembering and reminiscing” play in the enjoyment of experiences, you can see how recalling great experiences with others could be even more powerful.

It’s Not Once Size Fits All…

Although experiences have shown to be the superior way to spend your money in many instances when relating to happiness, nothing in psychology ever truly seems to be universal.

You still need to buy “things” from time to time, and material purchases can make some people happier than others.

I’m also not implying that concert goers are “truer fans” or are necessarily having a better time than those people who’d rather just purchase the music…

I’m just giving a little ammunition for concert junkies to justify their spending habits!

…and to fire people up a bit, just because I can.

Do you know someone who has a strong opinion on concerts? Share this article with them, then leave your thoughts by commenting below.

The post Why you should go to concerts (the psychology of concerts) first appeared on Sophistefunk.

While technology has made accessing only the music you like far easier, the fact remains that humans seem to seek out music for nearly all of the same reasons.

Music grabs our emotions in a universal way that few other mediums can manage.

This isn’t just an opinion I feel inclined to wax poetic about either: In a study by Lonsdale and North (2010) in which the researchers gathered and analyzed the reasons for listening to music from a sample of young people, 6 universal functions of music were found.

In this post, I’m going to count down those functions as rated by the researchers in descending order.

6.) To Learn About Others (and the World)

Funnily enough, music seems to be able to “communicate” a lot about a person, both in terms of the music they create and the music they enjoy.

Psychological research backs up the importance of the information music sends out to others about our personalities.

In one study participants could broadly judge another’s personality solely on the basis of their top 10 songs.

Music also seems to reflect the current state of the society it was made in.

According to Dodds and Danforth, lyrics from many popular songs saw a trend of lyrics reflecting a depressed outlook on society in 1985, with a slow upturn around 1990.

The really interesting part? This change was seen across all genres.

5.) For Personal Identity

Researchers found that the type of music that we like is often a reflection of something that we see inside ourselves.

This thought process is a mix of the psychological processes of modelling and framing.

We also seem to discover ourselves through music.

Music often serves as an a form of expression to teach us who we are (or who we think we are/want to be) and where we belong.

One interesting point of note is that according to recent research of top 10 lyrics, the results indicated that popular music is becoming more narcissistic, with many lyrics focusing on anti-social & self-interested behavior.

4.) Forming Relationships

While music can be a private activity, there is often a very important social function attached to music and its many genres.

Music tends to be a point of conversation for most people, we’re often inclined to listen and share music with other people.

Love and music tend to relate closely with one another, in fact, much closer than you might think: researchers conducted an experiment to see if music had any effect on romantic interest (ie, would playing romantic music make women more inclined to date those asking?).

The answer was a resounding yes.

The percentage of women who agreed to a date almost doubled from 28% to 52% after they had been played some romantic music.

The song that the researchers played was Je l’aime à mourir, if you were wondering.

…ladies.

2/3.) Diversion & mood management

These two actually tied in the study, they are also closely related.

Mood management: Researchers found while music (obviously) has cues for all emotional responses, music was very closely connected to sadness and other “low” moods.

Music was found to relieve stress, tension, and aid in dealing with emotional pain.

I recall reading a very sad story on Reddit about a man who lost his wife to cancer, and he was asking for sad songs to listen to. When a user replied “Don’t dwell in your grief,”, his response was:

 This is art’s great moment for me.

This is when art steps up. Listening to these artists makes me feel less alone in my grief. It reminds me that others have gone through what I’m going through.

That I’m really not as alone as I feel right now.

His entire response was truly touching.

It also reflects the healing power that music seems to hold: those who have underwent painful medical procedures were found to have positive responses to music during their most stressful post-op moments. Sad songs have been shown to be beneficial for mood, even though they are slightly depressing.

(One thing that stood out to me was that the line “It reminds me that others…” was closely touched upon in the study: music can be communal even when listened to alone).

Music also serves to divert us; it’s often used as an escape from the mundane or a haven for our when our minds don’t know “what else to do” at the moment. Be warned that music does decrease cognitive ability on difficult tasks.

1.) Positivity

Time to end things on a high note.

Music had the closest connection with having a positive outlook (even more so than “low” moods), and it’s really no wonder: it is intrinsically tied to positive mood management, helping us make our good times even better.

In fact, recent research has conclusively shown that music makes us more hopeful:

…participants were falsely told they’d done badly on a task.

Those who were played some positive music afterwards, were more hopeful about the future than those left in silence.

Funny that music would have such clear connections to the two ends of our emotional spectrum, or perhaps it’s not so surprising at all.

Thanks for reading!

The post The Psychology of Music: 6 Reasons We Love (and Need) Music first appeared on Sophistefunk.

Oh.

My.

God.

Excuse the pre-teen style formatting, but this is the cutest shit I’ve ever seen.

I’m not sure who’s idea it was to get a bunch of adorable British children to review a Skrillex track and give their honest thoughts, but I commend them.

Maybe it’s because I have a soft spot for kids because I’ve worked with them for years, but this video put a huge smile on my face.

Not really a fan of them eating candy made to look like they were taking pills, but hey, I’m a softie.

Favorite Quote

I think the drop is when you drop being sensible.

{Tweet this quote}

…Perfect.

The post Skrillex, Reviewed by Cute Kids first appeared on Sophistefunk.

Pin this thaaang on Pinterest!

Wanted to do something a little different today, so I put together a little quote post for all of you to enjoy/share.

This is one of my favorite quotes from Aldous Huxley, I believe it describes the way music is able to “speak” to us in those times where a song really leaves a lasting impact.

Hope you enjoy!

The post Quotable: After Silence… first appeared on Sophistefunk.

As you might have guessed, this one is getting filed under the “Thoughts” category, and it’s going to be an article of entirely my opinion, with no music.

If that didn’t scare you away, it might generate an interesting discussion between us, so let’s get started and I’ll see you down in the comments.

There is something going on in the world of electronic music that, to me, is nothing but bad news.

In fact, this is not something that is limited to the electronic genre, it plagues all forms of music and in mediums beyond, in basically any platform of art you can imagine.

It’s the dreaded “genre” style of artistic classification.

Before I break down everything I see wrong with what’s going on in the splintering of genres in electronic music, let’s give this system it’s due props…

What Genres Do Right

Classifying music in “genres” definitely has it’s purpose.

For instance, I’ve always defined this site as an electronic music blog, which in itself contains two forms of classification using genres:

1. This site is specifically about electronic music
2. This site is a blog, and updates as such

The benefit of doing things this way?

You know what you’re getting into right out of the gate.

This isn’t a Grooveshark or Pandora style site, and I don’t post about country music: the purpose and your utility & enjoyment of the site is practically spelled out for you just by letting you know what it is.

And that is a great time saver, you won’t have to slog through multiple posts only to find that it isn’t for you, if you like electronic music and you enjoy blogs, it’s a good chance that this is up your alley.

The other thing to consider is that there is great musical value in distinguishing.

Essentially, classifying music has helped us (specifically historians) to be able to track the evolution of genres and music as a whole.

People embracing certain genres (think about the effects all of the early “blues” players had) is essentially what leads to new forms of music, so it is a critical part of the evolution of music.

So…

Where Things Go Wrong

In the electronic genre, we have a few notable sub-genres, which, to a certain extent, seem to work pretty well.

Again, the classification process itself is a fundamental part of organizing things, humans need it to survive in a world overloaded with information.

Knowing that a song is of the “dubstep” variety is going to help you if you enjoy or don’t enjoy that style of music.

It’s also going to help you if you know nothing about that kind of music: if you find out that it’s for you, you are able to look up more dubstep, if not, you can avoid it like the plague.

The problem arises when you start to splinter an already diversified audience.

Michal Menert put it quite eloquently in our interview when we discussed how the internet was changing music consumption.

When asked on his thoughts about how the internet was diversifying musical genres (and if that’s a good or bad thing), he responded:

Yes and no. I think the scattering of tastes has led to really interesting styles and some amazing experimentation.

It’s given everyone a platform, because now someone from a small town, who may have had trouble finding 5 people in their home state that would appreciate their ‘artform’, can get thousands of fans internationally.

On the flip side, all these sub genres are getting ridiculous and are dividing an already fragmented audience base in many cases.

But then again, who doesn’t love progressive-indy-electro-post-psy-house-moomba-core-step?

The problem he highlights is this incessant focus on classifying every single piece of music that comes out.

Furthermore, the “genre snobbery” that is abundant among folks dedicated to an arbitrary labeling of their favorite style of music is pretty outrageous at times.

I see it first hand running a YouTube channel, and yes, although I realize YouTube is one of those places where people just don’t give a shit, you definitely pick up on this constant bickering about whether something is “electro, IDM, glitch, moobahton, dubstep, house, etc etc etc”, as if those classifications effected the quality of the music or someone’s potential enjoyment of it.

And yet, we need to classify things to a certain extent, how else would we consistently listen to electronic music (if that was our genre of choice) if there was no way to classify it easily?

How do we come to a reasonable compromise?

Have Your Cake… and Eat It Too

I think the main problem people have is that they declare their first encounter with a musical genre as the “true form” of the genre.

The other problem is how antagonistic people become when someone gets a genre classification “wrong”.

Let’s take a look at this video…

Things to ignore in this video:

1. Goofy hair
2. Snarky (and obnoxious) attitude
3. Very poor metaphor (the cat one)

The general point being made is that music evolves over time, but people focus on their first encounter too heavily.

It might be hard to embrace changes in your favored genres, but imagine if genres didn’t evolve.

It would be a scary world without the many different forms of music to enjoy, and yet people are so laser focused on classifying what is “true” and what “isn’t”, they miss out on the big picture: music must (and always will) change.

So what’s to be done?

Really, the only thing we can do is address how we approach our classification of music.

People fall back on what is “true _____”, relate this “true” form to their initial encounter with the genre, and label things that don’t “fit” as something else, and this is how we got to our ‘progressive-indy-electro-post-psy-house-moomba-core-step’ type classifications.

Is It Just Me… Or Does Anyone Else Not Care?

My take on genres?

I need large, encompassing genres to help guide me to certain areas of music that I want to listen to.

For instance, I need “blues” and I need “rock” to help differentiate between the two, but I care not about labeling things ” post-modern blues-rock”, even if I can’t place my thumb on which one a song “sounds” like.

Similarly, does electronic music need limiting genres that have now splintered into an uncountable mess in a desperate attempt to label every potential sound under the sun?

I think not.

Do we need to group music in a general sense to help with it’s progression, and more importantly, help us seek out more of something we like?

I think so.

…Just Kidding, I Want To Hear From You

In reality, I haven’t said much throughout this whole post, I guess that’s the curse of attempting to put forward an argument on a muddy subject, you can sometimes not go anywhere at all.

The real purpose of this post was to hear from you.

I really enjoy discussing in the comments, but posts on new tracks don’t often leave room for that type of discussion.

So, make this post worthwhile: tell me what you think by leaving a comment (you can click here).

Are splintering music genres killing electronic music, or… not?

The post Why Splintering Music Genres Are Killing Electronic Music first appeared on Sophistefunk.

There’s really no reason for me to introduce this amazing interview, but it’s not like I can feature the whole thing on the homepage without a “Read more…” link, because it’s over 2000 words of awesome, so here it goes:

This interview…

Is awesome.

Well shit, that didn’t go so well.

Seriously though, if there is ever a single post on this site I don’t want you to miss, it’s this one.

So don’t miss it.

Note: All links in this post were added by me and not Michal.

What’s going on Michal? Really excited to have the opportunity to talk with you a bit about the industry, I’ve been a big fan for quite a while of both your work and the entire Pretty Lights Music label. People following the blog will know that I touched on the “free music model” in an earlier post where I asked for opinions, but today I’m glad to be able to discuss this with an artist who is out there getting shit done.

1.) So, to start off, how were you influenced into this whole “give my music away for free” idea, was this something that you always intended for a majority of your music or were you influenced by others (possibly Derek)?

Preface: I have been up all night working in my new studio. This may get long winded and off topic reeeeeaaaaal quick… but I mean well.

Derek and I started by giving the album we did together (“Taking Up Your Precious Time“) away for free. At the time that wasn’t something bands did. Bands (including the one we were in at the time, called Listen) pressed albums and hoped that they would sell, having to convince people to spend money on something they may have never heard of.

This was 2006, and I had been downloading most of the music I wanted off of pirating sites like Napster and Limewire for free since 2000… even if I LOVED the artist who’s music I was stealing.

I was a broke musician. And CD’s were extremely easy to scratch, crack, or lose, plus they cost money to press if you were an independent artist. Since Pretty Lights at the time wasn’t our primary touring group, there was no pressure to make money on the music.

All we wanted was for people to hear the music. The idea was simple: put the album up for free. If people don’t like it, all they lose is a little time, and they can delete it from their hard-drive.

If they like it they can share it with their friends without feeling like they’re stealing from an artist they like. It also helped the album grow beyond geographical boundaries, which is near impossible as a traditional independently released album.

This was before Facebook or Twitter (or atleast before they became HUGE social media tools), and you could reverse search people’s musical interests on Myspace.

So I would spend hours each day searching for people who liked DJ Shadow, Bonobo, etc. and sending them a short, unique message touching on their taste in music and letting them know that there’s a free album they might really like.

Some people wrote back thanking us, puzzled at how we tracked them down. Some people thought we were spammers and wrote us nasty responses, so I’d send a polite response showing them I was just trying to give them free music.

Eventually the word spread and we realized that we had built something with incredible potential.

2.) Certainly there can be expected results when releasing one’s music for free. I have to say that it definitely hasn’t impacted the quality of your works, there’s definitely a passion there that isn’t stifled by the fact that you know your music won’t result in direct sales. You also get to avoid the whole “piracy” issue altogether with free albums, and it is very rewarding for fans such as myself.

Overall though, how do you think this free music model has faired for you personally and the members of your label? Do you feel like releasing music for free is something you are forced into due to expectations of fans and music piracy? Do you feel like new artists are obligated to put out free tracks for promotional purposes?

There’s really very little money for artists at my level charging for CD’s of their music, and paying for mp3’s is fine, but if it’s digital, it’s up somewhere for free anyway.

I think the key to selling a physical release lies in pressing something limited, something special. Something similar to how artists sell limited edition prints.

I personally still buy vinyl of albums/artists I follow because they’re often limited pressings and the look/feel of a 12″ sleeve really lets you dive into the artwork.

The ritual of putting on a record and having to flip it tends to make people better listeners, and records have such a full, warm tone that engulfs the listener.

I usually discover an artist by getting their work for free on the internet. If I like the album, I support the artist by buying it on record, buying merchandise, following their online presence, spreading the word about them, and taking people I think would dig the sound to the artist’s shows.

Touching on the rest of the question, I think the ease of putting up free content has opened a floodgate of shitty music.

Anyone can have a ‘label’, anyone can be a ‘producer’… and I’m not bitter in any way or hating on it, but I think what a free album meant when we release our first record was more about trying to share something you’ve crafted over time and didn’t want to charge people for, whereas now I think a lot of kids post music because they want to blow up in a scene that now has virtual ‘how-to’ guides for producing generic versions of existing styles.

I’ve met very talented kids who have a vision and are able to get it to people through the internet.

But I’ve also met kids who ask me how they can become a dubstep producer and how they can make a tracks that sounds like so-and-so, because these kids see producers and DJ’s on stage and want to be that, not because they have this desire to express themselves but because they think it’s glamorous and easy.

They don’t realize the effort that went into it or the hurdles that each of these artists and genres had to leap to become so ubiquitous. And that’s been happening for years; kids have been buying guitars to emulate their favorite musician.

There’s nothing wrong with that, and I think people SHOULD try to express themselves and give it a go. But now that anyone can upload a track, make up a name, and saturate Facebook, it’s harder to weed through the bullshit.

I guess part of the reason I don’t post a bunch of remixes every week or try to over-saturate the internet is because I want people to be excited about my releases, and not feel like, “Oh, I can skip this one, he drops tracks every week.”

That approach works great for other artists, especially those who’s performances are more DJ oriented, but for me, I want to keep the vision that i’ve been following as clear as possible, by playing sets of my own production (or collaborations) and by making my releases reflect what I feel, and not a remix of what the charts are feeling that week.

Again, not hating, just explaining my personal outlook on it all :).

3.) Outside of electronic music, I’m a student of marketing and I happen to particularly love the works of Seth Godin. One thing that he advocates is that technology is pushing us to an age of dominance of the “weird” and away from a “mass market” culture.

In a nutshell, he means that the internet has allowed people to divulge in more specific tastes, and not just the ones that are somewhat “forced” onto them by mainstream channels, such as the music on the radio. Do you feel like this scattering of tastes is beneficial for music in general, and specifically for electronic music?

Yes and no. I think the scattering of tastes has led to really interesting styles and some amazing experimentation.

It’s given everyone a platform, because now someone from a small town, who may have had trouble finding 5 people in their home state that would appreciate their ‘artform’, can get thousands of fans internationally.

On the flip side all these sub genres are getting ridiculous and are dividing an already fragmented audience base in many cases.

But then again, who doesn’t love progressive-indy-electro-post-psy-house-moomba-core-step?

Here’s where I get deep and people are going to assume I’m a glorified smartass: I think as a civilization we have been torn since the dawn of time over different names for the same thing.

Whether it be God, government, sexuality, eating habits, traditions, or music, we find a way to divide ourselves far quicker than we align.

As the world moves faster and faster, and our futures spin out of our grasp, and our planet erodes around us, we seem to find comfort in having enemies to blame, even if they’re imaginary or subconscious.

All these dividing lines, all these statements of ‘individuality,’ all these faux rebellious movements of youthful ignorance and ‘no one can tell me what to do because I’m being myself, just like the Levi’s commercial told me I was’ mentalities just become bullshit that we use to seperate ourselves from the ‘masses’… guess what?

We ARE the masses, and I hope that we can one day be confident enough in our own skin to come together and not be threatened by the idea that other people have the same feelings, fears, and dreams as us.

Everybody farts and has to go poop. Even pretty girls. (my friend Ben taught me that valuable lesson)

4.) Lastly, I have a question from a reader, asked on this topic about you on Reddit: “What is your most favorite and least favorite thing about touring?”

My favorite thing about touring is getting to make strangers happy by sharing a piece of myself with them. Getting to do that for several weeks straight can be both draining and rejuvenating at the same time.

Waking up in different places all the time is amazing… getting to try different food, getting to meet people that make everything that feels fucked up sometimes make sense all of the sudden.

I’ve been fortunate to make great friends all over the country. People that will be in my life even if i wake up tomorrow and everyone thinks my music is garbage.

My least favorite thing is not being able to make music the way I like to. It’s virtually impossible to sample records on the highway. Not having the gear/monitors/space to do things the way I love doing them is probably what’s held up my work flow the most.

I still produce on the road, but it’s having to work around obstacles and having to make compromises. It’s like masturbation vs. really great sex. It gets the job done but you know that there’s a better way ;).

I also miss being able to cook. I LOVE cooking and being pressed for time it’s often a toss up between subway and the dollar menu.

Now time for some well deserved promotion and name dropping: what can we expect from you in the future? Any albums or tracks we should be on the lookout for? What’s the best places for fans to connect with and get updates from you?

You can expect a long awaited 2nd solo album soon, as well as a Half Color album with Paul Basic.

I’m co-headlining a 6 week tour with Gramatik, supported by SuperVision and Paul (select dates) starting in November.

You can check out the dates with links to tix and event pages at www.mmgramatik.com.

I’m really excited to go out on the road as a headliner, being able to bring our own stage and have full lights and a nice, long set.

I’m sure that Paul, SuperVision, Gramatik and I will all be making tracks together on the road.

I’m also working on some tracks with friends like Eliot Lipp, Dominic Lalli, Alex (PAPER DIAMOND), Derek VanScoten, Outlet, Prepschool, Cherub, TwoFresh… I’m really lucky to have a solid set of friends to collaborate and have fun with.

If you want to contact me, follow me on twitter (@michalmenert).

Or go to my website (www.michalmenert.com).

Or find me at a show and talk to me.

Or harass me on Facebook.

Or find out where I live and send me cookies or a nice cake (I don’t like raisins or baked fruit FYI).

Oh, and one more shameless “Im pretty cool” drop: I painted my own album cover. That’s right. I’m artsy.

Lastly, I also want to ask why you don’t have a million followers on Twitter, since you are clearly the funniest electronic producer out there.

I think the primary reason is people can’t spell my fucking name right.

There’s probably a few million people looking for Michael Merneret right now on Twitter.

You should see the collection of misspelled marquise signs I’ve photographed: Michel Minert. Michael Mehnert, Manert, Maynart… the possibilities are virtually endless!

And people ask me if it’s my real name. If i had a stage name it would be Troublemouth Clapperslad, or Pants Vermillion.

But probably neither of those.

Can you tell I’ve been up all night?

BONUS!

How to spell/say my name:

1. Michal (no E, but pronounced the exact same as Michael)
2. Menert (pronounced like the word men, followed by an ert like the -ert in inert)

Welp, that’s all for now (as if that interview wasn’t fucking awesome).

Please note, if you didn’t enjoy that interview, get the fuck off my site, because I no longer want you here ;).

But seriously though, that was an amazing read for me and I can only hope it was for you too.

If you enjoy Menert’s music (and maybe even share some of his perspectives), show homie some love the very free way by supporting him on any social network you use, and sharing his tracks to Limewire… I mean sending them to your friends!

Both myself and Michal would be very appreciative if you could share this post with your friends so that they might get to check out the interview. Thank you very much for reading!

The post Michal Menert Interview: Get Ready To Learn A Lot, Including How To Pronounce “Michal Menert” first appeared on Sophistefunk.

As I’ve mentioned before on the site, I wanted to write some longer articles from time to time where we can discuss some of the other aspects of electronic music, outside of the music itself.

Previously I’ve discussed whether or not a mainstream audience will ever accept music without lyrics and how this might play a role in the future of electronic music.

Today I want to talk about the “free music” business model that is practiced by many electronic artists, and I want YOUR opinion on whether or not you think this is a good business model for artists to follow, or whether it is done out of necessity.

A few of you are starting to get to know me outside of the music posted on the site, and so you may know that I’m a young aspiring entrepreneur who likes to work for himself, and enjoys things like understanding marketing and business management (fun fact: I’ve only ever had one job throughout college, the rest of the time I worked for freelance and ran a very small business).

I only wanted to start this post off like this not to give you my life story, but to show why I take an interest in this side of the music scene.

You may not care as much, but I can tell you one thing: the artists that you enjoy sure do.

And so I wanted to discuss whether or not this “free music model” of business that you find in practice is a good way for artists to make a living, or if its simply something that they’ve had to adapt to due to the availability of downloads for their music; whether they intend for them to be free or not.

What Is The Free Music Model?

The free music model, in many ways, is tied to the “freemium” model that many web 2.0 businesses have taken in the few years.

In a nutshell: release (much) of your music for free, make money from concert tickets, merchandise, and donations.

I have to add that in some instances, songs have to be released for free, if they include samples that the artists could not attain rights for in order to sell, but did obtain rights to use.

Are Artists Using It Successfully?

This may surprise some people, but yes, a few notable artists have been using this model for years and continue to thrive and make music.

For the sake of this post, I’m going to focus on the most obvious example in electronic music, the Pretty Lights Music label.

I respect Derek not only as an artist, but also as a businessman. Think about this: what kind of confidence does it take to release all of your music for free, with no exceptions, with the hope that the music will be so well received that you will no doubt have people begging to see you live?

I’m not the accountant for PLM or anything, but with the recent signings of new artists, the fact that Pretty Lights is always on tour and a headliner everywhere he goes, and the huge growth in fans that all of the artists on the label have seen has me thinking that Derek and crew are at least able to make a living doing what they love: making music.

Are Artists Forced Into This Model?

However… I have to ask, do the many artists you see using this model enjoy working in this way, and see it as the optimal way of creating income so that they can continue to make more music, or are they forced into this model out of necessity?

If you follow the music industry even slightly, you’ll know that most mainstream artists these days are making most of their bank on tours and not through album sales, but this is also attributed to the huge chunk that labels take out of each album purchased.

With independent artists, the main culprit might be seen as illegal downloading, since many artists either found their own label or release their music independently until they’ve reached a point where it is no longer reasonable to do so.

While download has an effect on everyone that creates music, many artists have been able to create buzz for themselves by purposely releasing music for free, something that just wasn’t done before the days of the internet.

Now, however, people have come to expect as least something for free (I am guilty of this; if I see a new album coming out, I immediately expect for there to be a free “preview” track of some sort).

Now, many artists are fine with giving away a few free tracks to generate buzz, but certainly they shouldn’t feel obligated to do so, however, the state of music in the year 2011 almost demands that every artist who doesn’t have signifcant buzz already at least release a few free tracks, no exceptions, to grow an audience.

The Typical Solution

The general solution for most artists is to release tracks that are remixes or feature another aritsts work, as I’ve mentioned above, these tracks usually have to be released for free due to copyright issues.

The Glitch Mob did this with their “Seven Nation Army” remix, and were able to massively build their email list by giving away the song to anyone that subscribed to their mailing list.

If you are an independent artist, you recognize the power of a large email list hopefully: whenever you release a larger project, such as an album, you can instantly email a list of thousands (perhaps tens, and even hundreds of thousands) about your new work, which is critical for sustaining yourself in the music biz.

What Do You Think?

If you’re an artist or even just a fan of music, I want to hear your opinion.

Do you think that artists releasing their music for free are following a good business model?

Do you feel like artists are forced into releasing free music due to the demands of the current music market?

Is it better or worse for artists to make most of their income from sources associated with their brand & music (merch, etc.), rather than the music itself?

If you found this interesting, please give this post a share so we can have more input on the subject. Thank you for reading!

The post Is the “Free Music” Model a Good Business Model, or Done Out of Necessity? first appeared on Sophistefunk.