|
Post by nicolas on Mar 16, 2017 2:58:26 GMT -5
I started to listen DS for a few weeks now, and the more release I listen, the more often I notice that there is a lot of bands coming out of the United States. And it got me curious. So I wanted to ask you, why the DS scene is so established in America? This is kind of stupid but I don't really related the country with the genre, actually.
|
|
Tyrannus
Verified Account
Knowledge is Night
Posts: 806
|
Post by Tyrannus on Mar 16, 2017 17:41:27 GMT -5
I feel like I was having a conversation about this with some folks recently...I think America just has a huge fantasy fandom culture and that's a big part of it. Plus I mean there's a lot of natural beauty here to take inspiration from, which isn't necessarily unique but it's a factor I think
|
|
|
Post by andrewwerdna on Mar 16, 2017 19:16:49 GMT -5
We got no castles so we have a void to fill.
|
|
|
Post by nahadoth on Mar 17, 2017 11:09:47 GMT -5
The castles are in our MINNNNNDD MAN
But in all seriousness, I think that it is true - America as a relatively young country doesn't really have much of the type of history that is usually associated with DS, i.e. Western European/medieval history, and most people are not making DS about indigenous Americans, so I think there are a lot of people here that are reaching into European history/myth, and fantasy influenced by that stuff.
|
|
|
Post by thekeeper on Mar 17, 2017 11:40:36 GMT -5
I forget who talked about this, but I recently read something about the difference between Europeans and Americans in terms of materialization of ideas and theories. Essentially, it was that Europe is rife with theory, philosophy, and concept, namely Western (obviously). Americans are different in that they actually materialize the concepts and ideas more immediately, that theory and philosophy are not enough and that a practical application or materialization must be included. If this applies to DS at all, the fantastical worlds and nostalgic escapism (medieval hauntology?) are given loads more life in the US. The most prolific modern DS artists are American. The Europe of the 90s gave birth to the DS most of Americans hadn't all discovered yet, but once handed those inspirational tools and reference points, the spawn of new ideas flowed directly into artistic products. Europe still has it's fair share of modern DS artists and important ones at that, the rest of the world less so, but America is the biggest DS producer at the moment.
|
|
Tyrannus
Verified Account
Knowledge is Night
Posts: 806
|
Post by Tyrannus on Mar 17, 2017 12:10:17 GMT -5
I forget who talked about this, but I recently read something about the difference between Europeans and Americans in terms of materialization of ideas and theories. Essentially, it was that Europe is rife with theory, philosophy, and concept, namely Western (obviously). Americans are different in that they actually materialize the concepts and ideas more immediately, that theory and philosophy are not enough and that a practical application or materialization must be included. If this applies to DS at all, the fantastical worlds and nostalgic escapism (medieval hauntology?) are given loads more life in the US. The most prolific modern DS artists are American. The Europe of the 90s gave birth to the DS most of Americans hadn't all discovered yet, but once handed those inspirational tools and reference points, the spawn of new ideas flowed directly into artistic products. Europe still has it's fair share of modern DS artists and important ones at that, the rest of the world less so, but America is the biggest DS producer at the moment. I think there's a lot of truth in this! Also I feel like dungeon synth is a great melting pot of a genre that kind of reflects our being a great melting pot of a country. A lot of American culture is like a distillation of various western influences, and I feel like dungeon synth as a genre is similar
|
|
Canrith
Verified Account
Posts: 524
|
Post by Canrith on Mar 17, 2017 18:11:33 GMT -5
ancestry. escapism. romanticism. longing. the grass is always greener.
|
|
|
Post by andrewwerdna on Mar 17, 2017 18:30:31 GMT -5
Don't forget about the Russians though, they produce a huge amount of this stuff as well.
|
|
|
Post by curwenius on Mar 18, 2017 7:35:05 GMT -5
Extremely interesting topic. It was not too many years ago that I felt surprised finding a US based DS project. I think the coming of Bandcamp triggered the spreading of DS projects, and then it happened that many of them were coming from the US. For some reason, I've always (unintentionally) binded DS with eastern and northern continental Europe. On the other hand, I'm from Argentina, so perhaps I should not be surprised by the origin of any DS project.
|
|
|
Post by jondexter on Apr 8, 2017 8:12:22 GMT -5
I think this has a lot do with the size of America. But to me it is Russia when it comes to the bs n es of ds scene. Bands like Kashmar and Voronmrak. These bands seem very close to their roots maybe?
|
|
|
Post by kaptaincarbon on Apr 8, 2017 8:37:23 GMT -5
I think it is also important to mention that this site plus Facebook are used by more Americans than lets say VK. I wonder what the overlap is with Russian artists using Bandcamp. Regardless the history of fantasy culture and writing is inescapably tied to the US as much as Europe. Robert E Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Edgar Rice Burroughs, L. Sprague de Camp and even before with Edgar Allen Poe all came decades before Tolkien and the invention of fantasy that we think about today. The history of fantasy is fantastic to read about and oddly there is a complete and sometimes exhaustive study of pulp fiction and medevil romanticism as a setting for for fantasy in this book on the history of role playing games. www.amazon.com/Playing-at-World-Jon-Peterson/dp/0615642047/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
|
|
|
Post by crystallogic13 on Apr 8, 2017 11:35:52 GMT -5
Nice, thanx for the book recommendation, bookmarked And since it came up, if you have any similar book suggestions OR about the history of fantasy you mentioned, they would be very much appreciated I am sure..
|
|
Alder
Magic User
Murky dungeon sounds: alderen.bandcamp.com
Posts: 228
|
Post by Alder on Apr 10, 2017 11:11:14 GMT -5
Where in the US is DS concentrated? I'm a strong believer that landscapes shape people. Is there any correlations with any specific environments, the way black metal has been strongly associated with wet temperate forests etc?
|
|
Tyrannus
Verified Account
Knowledge is Night
Posts: 806
|
Post by Tyrannus on Apr 10, 2017 11:35:57 GMT -5
Where in the US is DS concentrated? I'm a strong believer that landscapes shape people. Is there any correlations with any specific environments, the way black metal has been strongly associated with wet temperate forests etc? I think there is a spread all over the country but there seem to be pockets in the Midwest, parts of the south, and the northeast. The New York/New Jersey/Connecticut region seems to be spawning a lot of acts. The exact nature of the landscape can vary although for some reason I feel like suburbs really do it. Not sure if others agree.
|
|
|
Post by thekeeper on Apr 10, 2017 11:43:01 GMT -5
Where in the US is DS concentrated? I'm a strong believer that landscapes shape people. Is there any correlations with any specific environments, the way black metal has been strongly associated with wet temperate forests etc? I think it's pretty dispersed. There are popular artists from the cascades, some from sunny California and Arizona, some from down south, but I feel like I see a good amount from the mid-west area quite often, maybe the New England area. Europe-wise, I'd definitely say Germany and the Netherlands are big producers of new DS.
|
|