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Post by VelvetDragonWitch on Jan 27, 2023 1:14:47 GMT -5
I am not sure if I had been blind to this and its always been there or something really off is happening. This past year has been almost unnerving in regards to what I see being posted as DS on bandcamp. Now I am fairly new to this scene have been only invested for just over 5 years now but in this short amount of time I have observed many strange things come about.
From what I have gathered there is a push towards more minimalistic sounds which inherently isn't bad. It can be done well its just how its being done today. Less and less effort and emotion and challenges are being taken. I think we can all agree there is something mythical, truly magical and invoking about this music. Its what has ensnared us, enchanted us. More often then not there is a primal emotion being touched that is why, I mean, I personally fell in love with it. Those days as a child on the synth organ playing for hours with the melancholic sounds and finding what resonates with you. Inherently playing something I would later discover to be considered DS. Aside from that there is many other things like vaporwave, shoegaze, stonerwave. Honestly anything ending in wave, core or haze. I don't know much about these other things (I don't fancy them) but I have a hard time understanding why they are being advertised as dungeon synth. Specifically in the last year and this may be me but it seems like it is getting to be a more extensive search to find music because of all these other things flooding in. I can only guess that there might be an influx of people who now listen and wish to make music. Its easier than ever for us humans to make music with these modern technologies. People coming from other genres wishing to merge and possibly create something new to them. Boundaries naturally are to be pushed to learn and grow that is apart of life. One of its few yet many truths is that everything is ever changing. But then that leaves me with, aside from here where does one find good music in a space that isn't being bombarded by clashing styles. I don't use social medias I gave that up years ago so I relied on bandcamps community to discover new things. Forgive me this turned into a rant rather than where I wished to list observations. These aren't all my thoughts but I wish to hear if anyone has more insights in relation to the developments of the genre and its future. Is it bleak? Will later generations continue to stupify what's already there? - (As is done with most things in life.) How do you think social media's involvement effect things of this nature? I read once in one of Vargs old blog posts that he made his songs to be spells and albums to be grimoires. I think that to be evident and true for most people whether they realize it or not. But is that the case with these lower effort releases with a lack of soul?
Regardless if you have read this far I hope you had a good day and if not I hope you have a better one tomorrow, watch the skies travellers.
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Post by crystallogic13 on Jan 27, 2023 3:20:35 GMT -5
Hey VelvetDragonWitch , always nice to see people appreciate DS and care of it as your post shows!! Now on to your concerns, I personally wouldn't worry at all about the future of one of my favorite genres.. Why, because essentially that's what has been happening all along the previous year after the genre was more known and subsequently many people misused it when using tags on bandcamp for more exposure (a common BAD practice for the end-listeners but "ok" to some artists/labels). As such I think the problem more lies within the not many/known available channels of the community to promote actual Dungeon Synth and related works. I, just like you rely for YEARS now on bandcamp foremost for exploring most/ALL new DS releases and the bad tagging/misusing is making me scroll through mostly bad-unrelated-low effort releases,making sure they're not relevant to eventually get what is actual DS and download/wishlist/buy. The genre is not so big and besides some great blogs (of members here) try to post round-ups and stuff, if you really want not to "miss" any hidden gem, the only route is the dragging through the bandcamp mud of bad tags, which gets tiring and time consuming but it's all worth it when you get to the gems that make you appreciate the genre and why all that is worth it.. The only "solution" for me too personally to drop the bandcamp digging would be to use the month list nahadoth (and others I think) put out on Facebook with the DS releases of the month, but the fact that it's mostly posted on DAMN facebook (I do have but everything gets lost in the endless noise there) makes almost forget when/if they post it.. Hope it could get posted on this forum too for the benefit of everyone's free time to be honest, let's see if Nahadoth reads it and starts reposting these monthly lists here too, hopefully ..
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Post by arillius on Jan 29, 2023 9:21:28 GMT -5
The answer is long and complicated. But to keep it short, I believe the overreliance on VSTs and DAWs has made it much more simple to not only write music, but to also make it sound good. Even with "low effort" stuff. Modern music technology and social media has created a whole new generation of aspiring musicians and composers who are pumping music out. Is this a bad thing? Well, no - more musicians is never a bad thing. But really, the end result is massive amounts of artists and releases and at the end of the day, it all depends on what your preferential sound is. Social media has also made it easy for everyone to share their music and ideas with others and has broadened this music scene to new horizons. Unfortunately, I feel like there isn't enough critical posts on DS social media. It almost feels like everyone patting each other on the back. Rateyourmusic's rating system says otherwise . As far as effort goes, there is most definitely a lot of "low effort" material, but in some cases, it's not bad. Some of the best music has had minimal time spent on it. As someone who probably spends too much time on my own music, hearing more simple stuff can be refreshing. I am always surprised at how there are many different sounds and styles which are now prevelant in this broadened genre. Some low effort stuff makes me laugh (sorry) but some of it is impressive when the proper emotion or ideas go into it. It's just harder for me to find something that scratches that itch when there's a constant flow of stuff. This influx of music under the DS umbrella has produced a lot of new ideas into the fold, but it depends on what the listener likes. Nobody enjoys the same stuff. Everything is subjective to the listener. Personally, it depends on what mood I'm in, but I think I prefer stuff with more composition and effort in the music. I like hearing musicians challenge themselves. I listen to more movie soundtracks and video game music than DS these days, admittedly... And have fallen behind on good DS releases in the last year or so, especially since deleting my main Facebook account. So I do feel that I am by no means an expert here. But, really, DS has broadened for various reasons, and I think the "true" DS sound will always be there.
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