[NewMusic] WAS: Re: improvised music - gender & money NOW:Re:???

[Matt Davignon]

So many things to respond to.

cough cough cough wheeeeze cough.

I've had a theory that men were more likely to be taken in by "gimmicks".
Gimmicks being non-directly musical appeals that are involved in music,
whether it be extending one's level of "chops", increasing one's rate of
arpeggios per second, playing unusual instruments, the attitude and 'look"
of a band, having a bigger record collection than the next guy, using
electronic devices, making the weirdest sounds etc. The other side was that
I felt that women paid more attention to the actual music. Of course, while
I felt there was a correlation, I could easily name exceptions for both
sides. (I guess the point is that I could more quickly name cases that fit
in that statement.)

cough sniff

Like Kristin says, our little world of people who use laptops feels like
it's about 60% women to 40% men. But if you look at the looping world, it's
about 85% men. So I dunno. I may need to go back and look at that thinking.

What I do know is that when you get a lot of musicians in a room, the men
are more likely to turn up the volume to make their stuff heard. MaryClare
won 100 points in my book at a concert last year where she decided to "rest"
rather than add to the chaos.

wheeeeze cough

These days I don't feel that our music scene has the shortage of women that
we had a couple years ago. It feels weird to still be saying so.

cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough gasp  cough cough cough
wheeze

Regarding electronic instruments versus acoustic, I'd like to see some
discussion on that, but I think it might be hard without toe-stepping-on
happening. I've noticed in the past couple years that Phillip Greenlief has
been learning to "speak the language" of electronics. Part of the reason I
started playing drum machine is that I wanted to learn how to work with
instruments better, and to try to think like an instrument better. (Tape
recordings and turntable have more limited palletes.)