[HN Gopher] Sounds of Cologne - The WDR Studio for Electronic Music
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Sounds of Cologne - The WDR Studio for Electronic Music
Author : ck45
Score : 125 points
Date : 2024-01-06 16:22 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (artsandculture.google.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (artsandculture.google.com)
| xrd wrote:
| The Herbert Weimart (inventor of the first vocoder?) referred to
| in this article. It immediately makes me think of the pioneering
| electronic music artist Herbert. I bet it isn't coincidence.
| flohofwoe wrote:
| Not to forget Herbert "Herbie" Hancock with the probably still
| best use of a vocoder in a pop song ;)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlKFeaeS1vc
| CrypticShift wrote:
| I admire two things here: the hardware aesthetic, which is just
| beautiful, and the pioneering spirit, which is extremely daring.
|
| That said, I've got a bone to pick with the standard narratives
| in electronic music history. They dwell on the origins like here
| but gloss over what I believe to be a cambrian Explosion brought
| about by DAWs/plugins from the 2000s. I get that it's 'history,'
| but this explosion deserves far more attention and analysis.
| diggan wrote:
| > They dwell on the origins like here but gloss over what I
| believe to be a cambrian Explosion brought about by
| DAWs/plugins from the 2000s
|
| That's a bit like saying history about CSS1 is irrelevant
| because now we have CSS3, they're just different parts of the
| same history.
|
| Same with electronic music from hardware and electronic music
| from software. They're a part of the same history, just
| different parts.
|
| Of course, the latter probably wouldn't exists without the
| former, most music software emulates what we already were doing
| in hardware after all, albeit a lot more flexible.
|
| It's also way more fresh, even I as a youngster (~30y) can
| remember that, compared to all this initial hardware innovation
| where I wasn't even around to experience.
|
| That said, I'm sure there are plenty of articles about the
| history of DAWs and plugins, is there not? If there isn't,
| sounds like the world is waiting for someone like you to put it
| together :) I for one would read it for sure.
| CrypticShift wrote:
| It is certainly not irrelevant, and it certainly is at the
| basis of most DAW/vst stuff. But, there are still a lot of
| new ideas around. And you do find some historical articles
| [1]. No books I know of, though; I wish I could write one :)
|
| I suspect the high complexity and decentralization of the
| community's evolution leave scholars disoriented. It is the
| same story for the music being made (with these same tools)
| itself; the genres exploded around 2000, and most popular
| music histories speak more of the Beatles than the last 25
| years.
|
| And a final point: these new tools (and again, the resulting
| music itself) are sometimes brushed aside as 'low brow' in
| academic electronic music circles.
|
| [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38864623
| zwieback wrote:
| Publicly funded radio and TV in Germany was a mishmash of
| entertainment, education, news reporting but also music
| production. Entire symphony orchestras and Jazz bands were part
| of the state-run stations. Private broadcasting didn't exist,
| maybe wasn't allowed then.
|
| Not surprised to hear about electronic music being funded as
| well, the public networks had a reputation of being somewhat
| elitist and high brow.
| nwellnhof wrote:
| > Entire symphony orchestras and Jazz bands were part of the
| state-run stations.
|
| They still are: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundfunkorchester
| ulrischa wrote:
| All financed with German tax money
| vocworker wrote:
| Well not directly from taxes, but still public money. It's
| great to see it that not all of it is spent on entertainment
| for old people ("Musikantenstadl") and sports.
|
| Kind of validates how well public funding works for art and
| culture.
| eternauta3k wrote:
| Not saying I agree or disagree with your conclusion (I'm
| undecided), but I disagree with your reasoning. The question
| whether the Rundfunkbeitrag is good is partly philosophical
| ("what is the role of the state?") and partly practical
| ("does the state provide better media than private
| enterprise?"), and I don't think this example sheds light on
| either aspect.
| naiv wrote:
| This is also pure insanity:
| https://www.swrfernsehen.de/eisenbahn-romantik/index.html
|
| They need to go to jail
| lionkor wrote:
| Isnt it the shitty Rundfunkgebuhr
| sgift wrote:
| No, it's the very good Rundfunkgebuhr. Makes sure we still
| have something besides garbage journalism here. And also,
| arts & culture like this.
| eternauta3k wrote:
| With extreme-right parties polling >30%, I hesitate to give
| the state so much power for propaganda. See e.g. Poland htt
| ps://www.ft.com/content/1861164c-1e41-4640-95a1-5615a0e9b..
| . .
| naiv wrote:
| Right now it is fake news driven by left propaganda. The
| community notes on X are speaking for themselves.
| eternauta3k wrote:
| Could you link to the single strongest, most well-sourced
| example you can think of where the state media is
| biased/lying? I honestly want to find my blind spots.
| Please put effort into this, this is your chance to
| effect change.
| sgift wrote:
| That's the reason for the Rundfunkgebuhr instead of
| taxes. Keep it a bit further away from the state to limit
| its influence.
| eternauta3k wrote:
| Forcing all conservatives to pay for media made by an
| unelected clique with very different values is still not
| great.
|
| I know we want to avoid ending up with super-polarized
| media like the US, but I don't believe this is the way. I
| don't know what the way is, since you also don't want to
| give airtime to the crazies, and I feel the market for
| sane conservative news shrinks by the minute.
| naiv wrote:
| Why conservative? I am not a conservative.
|
| I made a fortune in the adult industry in the 00s, one of
| my business partners now is extremely gay and I love him
| from the bottom of my heart, the other one is black as
| the night and more against uncontrolled immigration than
| any of my extreme conservative friends.
|
| You are already called a right wing extremist if you
| believe that there are only 2 genders, that too many
| 'refugees' will destroy societies and value systems and
| that climate change has existed for millions of years.
|
| I just want a neutral, unbiased source of news. No gender
| language, no judging wrong or right, no support of
| climate terrorist organisations, no praise of leftist
| ideologies, no climate change scaremongering.
|
| But it will not change. At least not in Germany. The
| famous Kurt Beck incidents etc. It's over.
| Bewelge wrote:
| While I agree with your statement of not giving states
| too much power over the news, it overlooks the special
| organizational structure and paints a false picture. The
| highest controlling body of the offentliche-rechtliche is
| the Rundfunkrat which is structured so that it represents
| "a cross-section of society". It includes organisations
| like unions or churches.
|
| The Rundfunkrat appoints the Intendant who in turn has
| autonomy when it comes to programming.
|
| I'm not saying that there's nothing to criticize about
| the structure but it was especially created in this way
| to provide checks and balances and not giving politicians
| direct control over the news. When some tried that in the
| past it made the news [2].
|
| I think a right wing government would have an easier time
| defunding and replacing it with its own propaganda
| channels instead of using it for propaganda.
|
| [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundfunkrat [2]
| https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/zdf-anruf-
| wird-zu...
|
| Links are in German.
| naiv wrote:
| I love how you pointed out this one conservative
| involvement and leave out the thousands of leftist
| involvements.
|
| Also just quoting from the wikipedia article:
|
| "Dies sind z. B. Gewerkschaften, Frauenverbande, Kirchen
| und Fraktionen."
|
| "Vertreter von LGBT-Verbanden sind im Fernsehrat des..."
|
| It might not fit into your left agenda but this is so far
| from reality.
|
| Quoting the Wikipedia article you linked:
|
| "Er kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass weder die Rate ihrem
| Anspruch, die Vielfalt der Gesellschaft zu
| reprasentieren, gerecht werden noch dass benachteiligte
| Gruppen ausreichend anzutreffen sind."
| naiv wrote:
| Yes. WDR is the worst of the worst. The way that they are
| pushing the leftist woke agenda with people's money needs to be
| taken to court.
| InCityDreams wrote:
| >The way that they are pushing the leftist woke agenda...
|
| Could you clarify exactly what 'the leftist woke agenda' is
| (in this case)? I see so many accusations, but very few
| people are able to explain what they mean.
| amanaplanacanal wrote:
| I'm also interested in hearing this. It seems to be mostly
| code words for other right leaning folk. What they actually
| mean they never say out loud, because it's usually bigotry
| against people of color and lgbtq folks.
|
| Edit: downvotes but still no explanation.
| AlecSchueler wrote:
| I grew up on '60s and '70s WDR electronic music; it was super
| important for me in my teens, not only musically, but also as a
| gateway to my interest in computers, signal processing and
| European history.
|
| They mention in the article a bit about the political push
| against experimental music in the 1930s, but it's interesting to
| consider that the re-surfacing of such music was also very
| political: the West were very happy to broadcast free and
| progressive music across the wall. I definitely have a feeling
| that experimental music has become a lot more niche since
| relations softened, the extra funding and promotion has dried up
| a bit, and now the world of that music has moved almost entirely
| to the back rooms of various universities.
| Theizestooke wrote:
| Yes, it was a way for western powers to show their support of
| free speech and liberal values. Now that the communist block is
| gone, there is less incentive to support the arts and claim
| cultural victory.
| LanzVonL wrote:
| Actually, communism controls our own movie industry. Take the
| famous case of the remake of Red Dawn where they changed the
| antagonist from China to North Korea. That was done at the
| TOP levels, communist pressure on Obama, who then exerted
| pressure on the studio. On behalf of Xi.
|
| John Cena learning Chinese so he could apologize for
| supporting pro-democracy protests in Taiwan is another one.
| Our bland culture is partly designed by communism.
| yorwba wrote:
| > That was done at the TOP levels, communist pressure on
| Obama, who then exerted pressure on the studio. On behalf
| of Xi.
|
| Source? All I can find is https://www.npr.org/sections/para
| llels/2015/05/18/407619652/... a producer named Peter Shiao
| claiming that "Chinese diplomats asked him to arrange a
| conversation with the makers of Red Dawn" but by then they
| "were already erasing references to China in post-
| production." Which seems to suggest they were persuaded by
| some other means, but doesn't tell us how.
| nerdponx wrote:
| I think some of this has to do with the people making
| experimental music. All the noise artists I know would be
| pretty averse to the idea of government grants to work on their
| music, it's just against their whole ethos.
| squarefoot wrote:
| > All the noise artists I know would be pretty averse to the
| idea of government grants to work on their music, it's just
| against their whole ethos.
|
| I'm sure their government isn't buying their music but simply
| letting them put something on the table while they spend
| their life making music. I would totally love the same
| applied to other forms of art, except of course those that
| already have a market.
| AlecSchueler wrote:
| I get you, though I do think of the noise scene as having a
| somewhat separate lineage to the more academically focused
| dialectic of the WDR and places like IRCAM which still
| operates.
|
| I can see both sides of the argument about publicly funding
| music but for me the big differentiator is that something
| which is publicly funded will inevitably be publicly debated,
| and I think that critical attention can be very important in
| creating cohesive schools of thought in art that can have
| enough appeal to make a difference.
| internet101010 wrote:
| That was interesting but I have to admit that the parallax
| scrolling effect was very distracting.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I was thinking as I was scrolling, is it a film they want to
| create?
|
| Interesting anyway -- I kind of dig it.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| The more recent news in October on the studio since this page was
| produced is the city of Cologne continues to take an interest in
| preservation going as far to take ownership and plan to promote
| and use the space for education and culture centre.
|
| https://www.stadt-koeln.de/politik-und-verwaltung/presseserv...
| fab1an wrote:
| if you're into these sort of things, check out "Hainbach" on
| Youtube.
| grecht wrote:
| I once visited the remains of the studio in that cellar in Koln-
| Ossendorf as part of an excursion at university. I felt it was
| quite sad how it was just parked there, you wouldn't have assumed
| its historical importance.
| billfruit wrote:
| Why isn't Google Arts and Culture not available for smart TVs. It
| really would be a good app to have on the TV.
| quink wrote:
| In the immortal words of Hugh Greene, responsible for WDR's
| predecessor organisation NWDR until three years before the
| founding of the Electronic Music studio here:
|
| > We are going to use this organisation to change the way the
| rest of the country thinks. We want them to see stuff they don't
| like. We don't really care if they complain.
|
| Granted, it's what he said about the BBC, but he did it in
| Germany too, to a level of success that deserves greater
| recognition.
| LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
| Nur Kolnisch Wasser macht Euch Nasser! Kolle Alaaf! Yeah!
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(page generated 2024-01-06 23:00 UTC)