Forum - Week 8 - Mass Debate 4
The final week of 'Gender in Music Technology'(1), and the presenters once again amuse and bemuse. Bradley Leffler was welcomely direct in saying that the reason for different interests between genders is because the genders are different, so they would have different tastes. I'm glad somebody finally pulled out the obvious stick and beat the topic to death with it. He also made an interesting segue to Kraftwerk and their replacement of gender and indeed humanity with technology. (Not intentionally ripping off Dave's blog) I found the aspect of live performance in the Kraftwerk video he played to be a humanising of technology, where the humans walked the line between organic and mechanical. NB: Brad, don't ever quote Wikipedia as a research source, even if you use it. Every time somebody does, I hear a toilet flush.
Laura Gadd expanded on Amy's presentation last week. I just noticed that two of the three (two?) girls doing this course were given this topic- a gender-based selection? Surely not... Laura used Eminem and Pink to examine the different approaches to anger in music between genders, but I think everyone already knew that men are generally more violent than women. Before you all start at me, I didn't say all men are violent. Calm down, before you prove my point. During the Eminem spiel, I couldn't help but think of Barry White, rest in peace, and his contribution to (respectable) masculine love songs, along with Marvin Gaye, Burt Bacharach et al. Surely such crooners help to establish the possibility of some men being caring, non-violent people? Interesting side note, my sister just got married and her initials are now M.M.
As you probably already know, anyone who has the same name as me is instantly my enemy, so Ben Cakebread wasn't off to a good start. Ben presented more of a generalised 'Sexuality in Music' topic than anything to do with gender or music technology, which was a still nice change from the last six presentations. Uh, five, not including myself. The band Queen was used as an archetype of the discrimination towards homosexuality, with several specific instances of discriminatory behaviour by the general public being brought to light. In fact, the entire presentation was more about how they were originally persecuted for their outwardly homosexual lifestyle, then 'got back' at all the nay-sayers. I fail to see the link between this and the given topic, and I found it to be more like a seized opportunity to express one's view instead of a researched and learned opinion.
Lastly, Peter Kelly shed some light on all things already illuminated, and some things that are supposed to remain in the dark. I was constantly waiting for the connection between raised topics and gender in music technology, but to no avail. What on earth do the drug smuggling scum in Indonesia have to do with gender, let alone music? Keep your clichéd anti-government bullshit for when it can be used in context, maybe then you won't get so many furrowed brows.
1. Stephen Whittington “Music Technology Forum Week 8: Gender in Music Technology” Workshop presented at EMU Space, Level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 3rd May 2007.
3 comments:
woo hoo, i got the lowest squiggle (that is if time is left to right ?).
just so you know, clichés are cool, ok !! And as Jesus said, "let him who is without cliché furrow the first brow !" [1]
It wasn't really anti govt, it was just highlighting stereotypes as programming, as ruling our lives and justifying dumb behaviour :)
[1] Jesus. 29 AD.
What's the stereotype in smuggling drugs in a country that has the death penalty for doing so? As Pauline Hanson would say, "Please Explain?"
I chatted to Edward after his presentation about some of the points that he raised, and though I didn't necessarily have a problem with ideas (as esoteric as some of them were), what the presentation really needed was a clear introduction and structure. I.e. How are these points associated each other? What do they have to do w/gender in mus tech? That said, the last point to do with memes did brings things into perspective, but it may have been too late for a majority in the room. The presentation reminded me a bit of Stephen Whitto's impressive ability to go off on bizarre tangents from time to time...but that takes practice.
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