I'm gonna have to disagree on this one.

We are engaged in a music scene where there is tons of soulless, thoughtless crap for every one tune that engages us in any kind of thought process. Don't get me wrong, I love my DJ tools and tracky bits as much as the next person, but every once in a while, it's nice to know what someone was attempting to do with their music, especially if they took the time to do a longform album.

I tend to have an overarching concept when I do studio mixes. Whether I tell anyone what that is or not, there is a beginning and an end, all based on the idea and/or feeling I am attempting to get across. With two of my favorite mixes, I didn't necessarily tell anyone what those concepts were, rather I wanted to use the titles and the art and the musical choices to impart the idea. Whether I was successful or not, I will never know, because I left it up to the listener.

I think the issue that people seem to be taking, is that artists like Rob Hood, or Richie Hawtin, have attempted to explain the concept. I took a lot of flak a while back when I actually DID explain a concept behind a mix, because the person perceived the very act of explaining as "pretentious". I don't think there's a right or wrong to this. I think people explaining it want to know that the idea will get across, perhaps because they feel it has been lost on people before. Maybe people are somehow put off by the idea that they should perceive this music in a specific way. Maybe they just want to pretend that they "get it" and feel like that specialness is lost when there is actually a concept behind it. Maybe in explaining the concept, some of the most visceral reaction is lost?

I don't know. I don't have an answer. But I would rather discuss it than dismiss it outright.

I personally would rather see more people at least TRYING to bring ideas and intent to their music, rather than churning out track after track after track with no substance.

And this weird perception of "art" as something separate from music and life is, well...weird. I don't get it. I mean I get it from the angle of perception of the mainstream art: the pretention and the money stuff...but that's just a bastardization of something that is personal and important, in my opinion.