Post Music?

[DrewTheXenocide]

I've been listening to a lot of Post Rock lately, from Explosions in the Sky to Sigur Ros, to A Silver Mt. Zion, and I was wondering what people thought on the validity of the word "post" when referring to a genre of music.

I've always defined post (like post rock, post punk, post hardcore) as having the original genre as a base, but drawing from other, outside sources to influence it. Like classical influence on a lot of post rock stuff, disco beats on post punk. I admit, it sounds really pretentious, but it does make sense. Post rock is the next step in the evolution of rock, one assumes.

But then my friend asked me "So, where do you go from there?"

4:33 of silence, I suppose.

[Sanagi]

Well, we've already had atonal music, which would probably fit the definition best. The furthest fringes of experimentation these days seem to be alternate tuning systems. So far most of what I've heard of that ilk is freaky anti-muzak, but if anything is going to open new vistas in music, that's it. Twelve-tone equal temperament, brilliant and beautiful though it is, has been very thoroughly explored.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Post rock is to rock as third stream is to jazz. In which case the next step, obviously, is classicism, followed by stagnation and irrelevance while the really interesting stuff happens elsewhere.

(Experimental hip-hop: where it's at.)

[Mladen]

(Experimental hip-hop: where it's at.)

in agreement with you there

[mattx110]

Post rock is to rock as third stream is to jazz. In which case the next step, obviously, is classicism, followed by stagnation and irrelevance while the really interesting stuff happens elsewhere.

(Experimental hip-hop: where it's at.)

So... More Medeski, less Martin and Wood?

[DrewTheXenocide]

Post rock is to rock as third stream is to jazz. In which case the next step, obviously, is classicism, followed by stagnation and irrelevance while the really interesting stuff happens elsewhere.

(Experimental hip-hop: where it's at.)

For some reason, I don't see post-punk going that way.

Any specific experimental hip-hop recommendations?

Either way, what I was originally trying to ask was if the "post" prefix was a valid one. Is Sigur Ros really what comes after "regular" rock? (Which would be what, Foo Fighters?) Or is it just an off-shoot, eventually leading to the dead-end that Bogart described?

Actually, now that I think about it, it does worry me.

[Jonathan Bogart]

For some reason, I don't see post-punk going that way.

Post-punk? To my mind, post-punk rock is analogous to post-bop jazz, splintering into various movements characterized by distancing stylishness (Miles Davis's "cool" period; the New Romantics) or noisy anarchism (Ornette Coleman's free jazz; PiL; Sonic Youth, etc.) Third stream (and post-rock) come afterwards, as an attempt at a classical synthesis that fails on a popular level, however fruitful on the artistic level.

As to experimental hip-hop, I'm still on the outer fringes. DJ Spooky and the Stones Throw roster is about as far as I go. I'm sure others here know more than me.

(N.B. I've been using "hip-hop" as a catchall term for the evolutionary step after rock, but "electronic" might be better. The difference between hip-hop and techno is the difference between rock & roll and soul: they inform each other tremendously, and mirror each others' development, but remain distinct.)

[mattx110]

Post-punk? To my mind, post-punk rock is analogous to post-bop jazz, splintering into various movements characterized by distancing stylishness (Miles Davis's "cool" period; the New Romantics) or noisy anarchism (Ornette Coleman's free jazz; PiL; Sonic Youth, etc.) Third stream (and post-rock) come afterwards, as an attempt at a classical synthesis that fails on a popular level, however fruitful on the artistic level.

As to experimental hip-hop, I'm still on the outer fringes. DJ Spooky and the Stones Throw roster is about as far as I go. I'm sure others here know more than me.

(N.B. I've been using "hip-hop" as a catchall term for the evolutionary step after rock, but "electronic" might be better. The difference between hip-hop and techno is the difference between rock & roll and soul: they inform each other tremendously, and mirror each others' development, but remain distinct.)

This is ridiculous. The New Romantics are cooler than cool!