Pet Theory IV: The Bounce

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Pet Theory IV: 'he Bounce' Before any new style hits the mainstream in a big way, it must 'shoot out' at least once out of its regular context and be 'bounced' back. Example: Lets imagine somebody invents a style of music called Foobar. If this proto-Foobar artist is a (Black|White|Hispanic) guy from (America|Canada|Germany), then Foobar will not catch on in (America|Canada|Germany) but will begin to have a following in (Britain|Sweden|Japan). These 'Underground' Foobar artists will build up plenty of underground buzz, but can't get any real mainstream airplay. Eventually some other (Black|White|Hispanic) guy from (America|Canada|Germany) uses the altered Foobar to create a completely new style of music, MetaFoobar, and *that* is what gets into the mainstream, But only after "Foobar" gets reabsorbed by the culture that initially created it.
Example: Black Bluesmen sweat and toil creating "Electric Blues" and got nothing to show for it but calloused fingers and empty pockets. It becomes an underground hit in Britain under the name "British Blues"; but only after a BLACK AMERICAN named Jimi Hendrix took "British Blues" and bent into swirly lysergic shapes did we have the roots of "Heavy Metal." (And ironically it wasn't until Brits like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath did something a little less weird with it did Metal reaaally take off.)
Example 2: Straight White German synthpoppers Kraftwerk never really got anywhere until black americans like Melle Mel and Afrikka Baambataa and gay disco dancers starting creating an underground scene...and shipping their records to Germany...then all the German Techno bands starting popping up. (But it didn't go supermegamainstream until Americans like NIN came out.)

So there you have it. It has to 'bounce' from Race 1 -> Race 2 -> Race 1 (or vice versa) and america -> europe -> america -> europe (or vice versa) before it gets mainstream acceptance.
Question: Are there any other pairs of factors a style must 'bounce' between before it gets taken seriously? And does *all* forms of music start as 'poor-mans music'?

― Lord Custos, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Example 2

I think Example 2 is a touch facile...

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well that's the only way it fits the template Ned, whaddya expect!

(LC: I think a better tack for this stuff might be: follow the money)

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

So according to this theory the biggest supernova in the musical firmament should be Lenny Kravitz.

― Curt, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'd pay money to see that happen. Wrap him with enough nuclear material, sure.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

re: "poor man's music" - it has looong been the case that rather than commit to unproven acts or sounds, record companies will keep an eye on what they see as "testing grounds" for new stuff - clubs and the UK scene in particular. they will let small labels and artists themselves shoulder ALL the risk for developing new sounds, genres, scenes, etc. and then swoop in with a contract and tons o cash.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

listen you;re only allowed to post one question per day sir

― g, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, I'm afraid we have to impound those other questions, sir. Now move along. Besides example 2 = bollocks (counter example: D.A.F. didn't need Afrika Bambataa).

― Omar, Friday, 11 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

So according to this theory the biggest supernova in the musical firmament should be Lenny Kravitz.

Naw, he only stole 3 micrograms from each genre. Its not enough. He even lost most of his Stevie Wonder extract to Jay Kaye of Jamiroquoi.

― Lord Custos, Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Okay, Okay. I admit it. Example two is a bit of a stretch. But you must admit Example one is absolutely rock solid. (I just wanted to do a 'popist' example rather than a 'rockist' one. But I suspect I have my facts mixed up. Besides the "Planet Rock"/Kraftwerk connection hide the fact that 70% of the time its whites stealing from blacks, and only doing something truly new when some black dude [like Hendrix or George Clinton] showing them something new.)

― Lord Custos, Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If things bounce fast enough they start to generate fields, then you need a really advanced cyclotron to register all the bounces. Funkadelic's 'Cosmic Slop' has an African-American who has returned from a mission to kill Asians integrate Anglo-Scottish tattoos into drum patterns derived from second-line Bourbon Street patterns, and those alone would require 20,000 pages of detail. Not to mention Funkadelic's predominantly African-American personnel were influenced by those second-generation Northern Europeans whose gathering in the Michigan peninsula was determined mainly by economic forces, the novelty and centralized location of which developed a class- consciousness that overlapped with influence by earlier African- American/ Hispanic sounds/ styles, and so on.

― dave q, Saturday, 12 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And THAT my man, is WHY P-Funk is soooo damned coool.

― Lord Custos, Sunday, 13 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm sure there must be a Black American Meta-Gustav Mahler out there to prove this Theory BY SCIENCE...

― Jeff W, Monday, 14 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

G. Clinton didn't drop enough science?

― dave q, Monday, 14 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

He dropped enough stuff MADE BY SCIENCE. Specifically "recreational biochemistry." This explains how he could see the mothership.

― Lord Custos, Monday, 14 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three months pass...

No no, it is race 2 that both alters race 1's sound and popularises it in country 1. eg:

Blues & Berry -> Beatles, Stones, Kinks etc. -> British Invasion of America

NY punk -> UK punk -> US New Wave?

Chicago house/NY garage/Detroit techno 1986 -> UK rave 1988 -> finally British electronica big in USA 1997.

― Keith McDougall, Wednesday, 17 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Lord Custos is busy writing his first book, "What is Rock? This is!"

― Jeff W, Wednesday, 17 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

And the funny thing is, the book started out as a Mexican cookbook.

― Lord Custos II, Wednesday, 17 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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