Some Unlikely Combinations Can Rid Us Of Our Most Ridiculous Biases

How electronic music changed me for the better

Image by StockSnap

I used to hate electronic music. Yes, hate is the word. I was ignorant. I was biased. I was narrow-minded. I was stubborn. I was wrong. Hatred usually originates from ignorance, bias, narrow-mindedness and stubbornness, and it is always wrong. I didn’t understand what electronic music was, or that there were as many shapes and forms of electronic music as there were of non-electronic music. In short, I had painted a distorted picture holding the brush upside down with my ass.

I believed that musical prowess must be in a musician’s proficiency playing an instrument. My view was that anything that deviated from the physical act of putting fingers to keys, strings or skins couldn’t be considered of the same calibre. Then I was introduced to electronic music, to different kinds of electronic music, and my biases dropped faster than I hung my head, abashed.

Naturally, there is much to be appreciated and lauded about a performer’s ability to play an instrument, but it would be short-sighted only to consider traditional, acoustic instruments. The great Brian Eno has long viewed the studio as an instrument. Imagine that: being inside the instrument, flicking switches and turning knobs and breathing with the…