Results of the TrIp-hOp survey

Nicolas Bamberski (nib@frame.com)
Tue, 13 Jun 95 11:44:24 CDT


Eleven persons have answered the trip-hop survey (Should we call it
"trip-hop" when we don't really know how to call it and are tired of picking
our brain for an alternative definition?), and the results are:

YES: 6 NO: 5

but that's without my vote :) and my vote is... NO :) so we have a tie, and
we officially can keep flaming the users of the tr*p-h*p word.
Yeeeeeeeeeeeh-hah!

I am now deleting my tr*p-h*p folder so I won't accept any more votes.

peace & out
dj bambi
nib@dlogics.com

ps: tonite in chicago at club elixir (325 n. jefferson) from 12am to 3am is
Azureduece with djs daniel, g-most and the excellent heather. email me
a.s.a.p if you wanna be on my guest list. it's a wonderful place with a big
balcony to enjoy a beer outside when it's nice. I have no involvement in the
promotion of this weekly night, I just think it's the shit...

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following are some comments that I got with the answers to the survey:

* I kind of like the ring of it. Distances me from the stuff my 16 year old
son listens to
(some of which I like/buy) but, hey that would be sooo uncool!! Although, I
like the
sound of "abstract" too.

*Bambi... I vote YES with a massive disclaimer:

Like someone else on the list said, I don't care what you call it, if it
sounds good I'll listen to it. I wasn't involved with the previous
debate about acid jazz but it sounds like the same problem has been
propagated to trip-hop.

As a promoter I have a hard time describing what type of event I'm doing
if I don't use the term acid jazz. Acid jazz is such a limiting term for
a very diverse range of styles. I try the route of hyphenating about six
or seven different variations and break down saying 'well you know what I
mean' and I find people do have an intuitive understanding of what I'm
trying to describe. If I say 'the format is acid jazz' some people
identify the term strictly as refering to the earlier stuff if they are
unaware of how it has evolved and if they know only a little bit of the
style think of the AJ pop/r&b material.

But what else are you gonna call it? People put down journalism and
record companies for pidgeon-holing (sp ?) music but I don't want to
run around six or seven sections of a record store to find what I'm
after nevermind the fact that I'm hitting three or four stores at a
time. Categorization is the foundation of organization the fact that
artists rely on organizations to distribute their creation is an
unfortunate fact of operating a business with artistic pretensions.

After having said all that, I'm into music because I love it, I recently
had the pleasure of helping to name my daughter. It took us the whole
nine months and only came up with the name because time was up. I love
her as much no matter her name. So I say to anyone with hangups over
labels either 'fish or cut bait' come up with a better name or stop
dissing those who are forced by deadlines to come up with one for you.

In the meantime release your sphincters and dig the vibes!

* Call it hip-hop
Peace out.

* DEFINITELY FUCKING NO! It's not "trip" and it's barely "hop".

* There are so many different choices for what to call this style of music. I
mean, you could go on forever trying to describe it as a genre as opposed to
describing a certain artist. Sure the name "Trip Hop" sounds stupid when you
think about it and so does "Acid Jazz", but they are names that have stuck
and are widely accepted (or getting there).

We could start using the true definition, by calling it something like
Experimental Ambient Hip Hop. But does that really flow? I don't think we'd
be seeing something like that on the record bin cards anytime soon.

* It's the music that counts not the name.

* No - Call it chip shop

* More important than the name we give this astract music is the creativity,
talent, and energy that is brought to the music. As you yourself mentioned,
the words acid-jazz do not represent everything that we now think of when we
hear them. We no longer look at the words themselves, but rather at the icon
we have made out to be "acid-jazz".

A person may not like the name they are given, but that doen't mean their
fate has been set.

Although, I used to know this guy named Eugene...

("This is a "yes" vote by the way. I believe that the media and the industry
already has too much momentum and familiarity with the term to let it go.)