#sxxi

[…] Maybe for our grandparents it was World War II. For us, it's gonna be that, at a certain point, that we're either gonna have to put away childish things and discipline ourselves about how much time do I spend being passively entertained? And how much time do I spend doing stuff that actually isn't all that much fun but that builds certain muscles in me as a grown-up and a human being?

[…] Quizás para nuestros abuelos fue la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Para nosotros, llegará un momento en que tendremos que dejar atrás las cosas infantiles y disciplinarnos respecto a cuánto tiempo dedico al entretenimiento pasivo. ¿Y cuánto tiempo dedico a cosas que, en realidad, no son tan divertidas, pero que me fortalecen como adulto y como ser humano?

And if we don't do that, then as individuals, we're gonna die, and the culture's gonna grind to a halt.

Y si no lo hacemos, como individuos, moriremos, y la cultura se detendrá por completo.

What happened? They recommended the music Carpenter makes with his son now, which obviously sounds like him, his OSTs, and the past because the gentleman is a veteran. But I didn't like it as much as other of his compositions that have been filmed precisely for this reason, and I told you in that post that music is very much about having phantasmagoria that enrich it, vital memories, and intertwined emotions that its sound unleashes. This has led the blog to discuss the Synthwave movement, a retro musical style that recalls a past… in my opinion, too focused on Carpenter and mannerisms forged by what they understand as the 1980s. I'm not diminishing the value of its fans (I've posted some Synthwave stuff on the blog that I like) or the director who inspired the movement. I'm expressing my opinion to get closer to the nature of these trends that I once defined here as 21st-century aesthetics.

¿Qué ha pasado? Que me recomendaron la música que hace Carpenter con su hijo ahora que, evidentemente, suena a él, sus OST y a pasado porque es veterano el caballero. Pero no me gustó tanto como otras composiciones suyas que tienen peli precisamente por esto mismo y os contaba en aquel post que la música es muy de tener fantasmagorías que la enriquecen, recuerdos vitales y emociones atadas que su sonido desencadena. Esto ha dado al blog para hablar del movimiento Synthwave, un estilo musical retro que rememora un pasado… a mi juicio demasiado demasiado centrado en Carpenter y manierismos forjados con lo que entienden como los años ochenta del siglo pasado. No resto valor a sus fans (yo misma he puesto al blog alguna cosa Synthwave que me gusta) ni al director inspirador del movimiento, expreso mi opinión para acercarnos a la naturaleza de estas tendencias que un día definía aquí como estéticas del XXI.

I find that Carpenter sounds like Carpenter to me, but not like Synthwave when those in the movement claim to be inspired by him, but this is expected and understandable. These kinds of revival movements always contribute and distort. This happens because the tools evolve and allow for greater complexity or skill, because the artistic context of the time in which you create or for which you create the work changes, and also because this is done not so much by looking to the past as by recreating what you understand by it and how it was done then. I don't know what Carpenter himself thinks of Carpenter Brut. I reckon he'll find them very fast and melodically complex, despite paying him so much homage and referring to him in his name. But this is understandable, and what we call neoclassical art would be seen by a Greco-Roman brought from the time of imitation as something very meritorious in workmanship, but somewhat stagnant in ideas and strange because… in his time, sculpture and temples had colors! But since polychromes didn't survive to be displayed in museums, by imitating a Greece that was never like that, we falsify it until we create something different.

Me pasa que Carpenter me suena a Carpenter pero no a Synthwave cuando los del movimiento se dicen inspirados por él, pero esto es esperable y comprensible. Este tipo de movimientos de revival aportan y deforman siempre. Ocurre porque las herramientas evolucionan y permiten más complejidad o destreza, porque cambia el contexto artístico del tiempo en que creas o para el que creas la obra y también porque esto se hace no mirando tanto al pasado como recreando lo que entiendes por este y como se hacia entonces. No sé que opinará el propio Carpenter de Carpenter Brut, estimo que los encontrará muy rápidos y complejos de melodías a pesar de rendirle tantos honores como remitir a él en su nombre. Pero esto es comprensible y lo que llamamos en arte neoclásico sería visto por un grecolatino traído desde el tiempo imitado como algo muy meritorio en factura, pero un poco anquilosado en ideas y extraño porque… ¡en sus tiempos la escultura y los templos tenían colores! Pero como las policromías no sobrevivieron para estar en museos, al imitar a una Grecia que nunca fue así la falseamos hasta crear algo distinto.

Is this bad in itself? Not at all. Art itself is born as an imitation of reality; first it purifies it (idealizes) and then it invents it (abstraction), breaking rules and references that it must first understand. It's only natural that one music reminds you of another because it takes elements and imitates them. Artistic movements themselves are fashions in their own way, and every fashion is about repeating what has been established as cool at the moment. Join me for an exercise. This one here is a musical theme included in the OST of a film released in the mid-eighties. The budget was limited to buy song rights, and this one was so filling that I can't remember when it appears in the film (I suppose it was at the disco where it appears). It was created as a commissioned theme that imitated popular hits like those Blondie were making back then. It sounds a lot like them.

¿Es esto malo en sí? Tampoco. El arte mismo nace como una imitación de la realidad, primero la depura (idealiza) y luego la inventa (abstracción) rompiendo unas reglas y unos referentes que debe primero conocer. Que una música te recuerde a otra porque toma elementos e imita, es natural. Los propios movimientos artísticos son modas a su manera, y toda moda es repetir lo que se ha establecido como cool del momento. Acompañadme en un ejercicio. Esto de aquí es un tema musical contenido en la OST de un film estrenado a mediados de los ochenta. El presupuesto era limitado para comprar derechos de canciones, y esta era tan relleno que soy incapaz de recordar cuando aparece en el film (supongo que en la discoteca que sale). Nace como tema de encargo que imitaba éxitos populares como los que hacía Blondie entonces. Suena mucho a ellos.

A few years later, with the film becoming an institution in the home video format (once again, we have repetition as an important factor), Bubblegum Crisis was born: a futuristic Japanese cyberpunk animation (another thing born in the early eighties that never left us). BG used the film Blade Runner as one of its references to generate its concepts (I myself knew it existed enough to be able to look it up precisely because I watched this anime in the 00s, when it was considered a classic). But the mix needs to be spiced up. BG also borrows elements from Terminator, and, in addition to its killer robots, this is evident in its main theme. Doesn't it remind you a lot of the previous one?

Pocos años después, con el film convertido en institución desde el formato doméstico (otra vez tenemos la repetición como importante), nace Bubblegum Crisis; animación futurista japonesa de corte ciberpunk (otra cosa nacida a principios de los ochenta que no nos abandonó nunca). BG tomó entre sus referentes para generar sus conceptos al film Blade Runner (yo misma conocí que este existía como para poder buscarlo precisamente por ver este anime en los 00 cuando era considerado un clásico). Pero hay que aliñar las mezclas, BG toma también cosas de Terminator y, además de en sus robots asesinos, esto se nota en su tema principal ¿No les recuerda mucho al anterior?

This is as legitimate as it is established in art. It's part of the very functioning of culture; it isn't born or created from nothing, but rather continues from what was done in previous decades, focusing on certain elements or works, and actively denying or forgetting other things. Thus, a "fake" pop hit created in the style of Blondie for a US film beats in a Japanese direct-to-video product born five years later. I worry about Synthwave, though, that they think too much they're making music from the eighties when that's how they remember it, and that this era is reduced in the imagination to the simple and effective melodies of Carpenter. Our director saved money this way and created recognizable and catchy themes that would do well for his films, in a style that, when continued today, is somewhat stripped down without dressing it up with images, and us with memories of them. But that's just my opinion, and I'm just a girl, as the meme goes.

Esto es tan legal como instaurado en el arte. Es parte del funcionamiento mismo de la cultura, esta no nace o crea desde la nada, sino que continua desde lo hecho en décadas anteriores poniendo el foco en ciertos elementos u obras, y negando activamente u olvidando otras cosas. Así un 'falso' éxito pop creado a la manera de Blondie para una peli en EEUU late en un producto japonés directo a video nacido un lustro después. Me pasa con el Synthwave que me preocupa que se crean demasiado que hacen música de los ochenta cuando es cómo la recuerdan, y que esta época se reduzca en imaginario a las sencillas y efectivas melodías de Carpenter. Nuestro director ahorraba dinero así y creaba temas reconocibles y pegadizos que hicieran bien a sus film, en un estilo que cuando lo continua hoy queda un poco desnudo sin vestirlo con imágenes él, y nosotros con recuerdos de estas. Pero es solo mi opinión y solo soy una chica, que dice el meme.

What really worries me is that in these revivals of new things that sound old, we forget the rest of what existed in that past during the exercise of hauntological nostalgia until it remains known only to connoisseurs and scholars. I've already talked about what I find in electronic music when I delve into its past. I recently listened to a band called Tangerine Dream, who also made soundtracks for films during that era. And while Carpenter intended this to provide soundtracks with melodies that have endured because, in their own way, they are jingles to sell his films, Tangerine Dream seems to do so with more thought about generating atmospheres with soundscapes than forging distinguishable recurring melodies. It's as if they were two different conceptions of an art as limited as scoring films. Just as not all music is conceived to be danced to, there are other worlds in the electronic music of the past and that made for films. We shouldn't get stuck in what Carpenter did or what we now understand Carpenter to be recreating.

Lo que realmente me preocupa es que en estos revivales con nuevas cosas que suenan a viejas nos olvidemos del resto de lo existente en ese pasado durante el ejercicio de nostalgia hauntológica hasta que quede solo conocido por entendidos y estudiosos. Ya he hablado de qué encuentro en la música electrónica cuando busco en su pasado. Recientemente he escuchado a una banda llamada Tangerine Dream que también hizo soundtracks para filmes en esa época. Y mientras Carpenter pensaba en esta para sonorizar con melodías que han perdurado porque a su manera son jingles para vender sus pelis, Tangerine Dream parece hacerlo pensando más en generar atmósferas con paisajes sonoros que en forjar melodías recurrentes distinguibles. Es como si fueran dos concepciones distintas de un arte tan acotado como el dar música a pelis. Tal como toda la música no se concibe para ser bailada, hay otros mundos en la música electrónica del pasado y la que se hacía para pelis, no hay que quedarse encallados en lo que hacia Carpenter o entendemos ahora que era Carpenter recreándolo.

I don't think electronic music is a style in itself or the property of anyone. It has fought to be taken seriously and not be relegated to being understood as an experiment, a toy, or filler. Whether because it couldn't hide that it is, due to its type of sound or the avant-garde enthusiasm of its pioneers, it has often seen itself as the sound of the future and a place to test or break rules. But the decisions about an art form belong to those who create it; I'm not here to tell anyone what to compose or what to listen to. I'm only showing the difference between Bublegum Crisis and what we're dealing with. That was a one-time thing, and it's honoring a small portion of one of the references with which they built something new. If they had applied the logic through which Synthwave understands itself, the exercise would have resulted in albums and albums by a supposed TerminatorCore that reduced it to the sound of struck metal with a keyboard melody. That would be limiting, and staying with Carpenter is also limiting. Restrictions strangle art, preventing it from enduring as something with more identity than a wink, a native internet exercise that lasts a breath.

No creo que la música electrónica sea un estilo en sí ni patrimonio de nadie. Ha luchado para ser tomada en serio y no ser relegada a entenderse como experimento, juguete o relleno. Ya fuese porque no pudiera esconder que lo es por su tipo de sonido o por el entusiasmo vanguardista de sus pioneros, se ha visto muchas veces a si misma como el sonido del futuro y un lugar donde hacer pruebas o romper reglas. Pero las decisiones sobre un arte pertenecen a quienes lo crean, no vengo a decir a nadie qué componer o qué escuchar. Solo muestro la diferencia entre lo de Bublegum Crisis y lo que nos ocupa. Aquello fue una sola vez y honrar una pequeña porción de uno de los referentes con lo que armaban algo nuevo. Si hubieran aplicado la lógica desde la que el Synthwave se entiende a si mismo, el ejercicio habría dado para discos y discos de un supuesto TerminatorCore que redujera aquello a sonido de chapa golpeada con melodía de teclado. Eso sería limitarse, y quedarse en Carpenter también lo es, las restricciones estrangulan el arte evitando que este perdure como algo con más identidad que un guiño, un ejercicio nativo de internet que dure un suspiro.

The aforementioned neoclassicism still endures in emblematic buildings in the United States, but in Europe, we see it differently from our similar fashion because we had something like the Renaissance, similar in concept but infinitely more glorious. This claimed to admire and revive a past of which little remained to be remembered. Its image was skewed and distorted because of this; there were no Tangerine Dream albums on YouTube to be ignored. But what made the difference was that they didn't clone classical authors or works, but rather used the framework of what they believed to be that era as a starting point, contributing in all its facets. True art owes its past, so it honors and remembers its references, but doesn't simply reproduce them. Like Bubblegum Crisis, you allow yourself to season the mix with traces. Synthwave isn't at all the music that was made back then, due to its bias, but will it remain a style in its own right, leaving something lasting, or will it be a hauntological relapse? Time and its artists will tell. Meanwhile, I'll listen to what they're doing and many other things from the past.

I've finally been able to trace the origin of the photo thanks to @heat-and-hot-water, yet again, an image that I understood (overanalyzing) in a way that didn't mean much at all, but… I'm happy to discover it, and in art, things are also how we see them, not just what they inherently convey through the artist's intention. This business of viralizing screenshots or snippets of other works, of constructing new meanings on decontextualized cuts of previous works is VERY much of the century we are in and what we have previously called postmodernism and is now mutating into something else.