Daft Punk's Random Access Memories

has futurism always been embedded in DP's image?

rtc, how is your point different from the standard genre fan beef with popular artists? ie "People think x represents dance/R&B/hip hop at its best but they haven't heard all this much better, less well-known stuff in that genre". I've heard that countless times (mostly from Lex tbh)

idk, i dunno if i'd do that w/r/t a legit pop act like daft punk, it's mostly aimed at stuff that's beloved of critics (who should have heard of the better, less well-PRed stuff).

"fear of presentism" is v accurate here, and it's absolutely the same as the mbv/bowie excitement - there's a real air of seizing on to a familiar, safe name bolstered by both nostalgia from one's adolescence and the knowledge that it's canonical and no one's gonna mock you for getting it wrong

has futurism always been embedded in DP's image?

ROBOTS!!!!!!11111111

the skream remixes are 100% better than this btw in both nebulous presentism terms and in actual musical terms

i find the lyrics of the daft punk a bit tired too, if not actively sleazy

"fear of presentism" is v accurate here, and it's absolutely the same as the mbv/bowie excitement - there's a real air of seizing on to a familiar, safe name bolstered by both nostalgia from one's adolescence and the knowledge that it's canonical and no one's gonna mock you for getting it wrong

Was it fear of presentism when Kate Bush released Aerial?

If you were to talk about this album in relation to, say, the Justin Timberlake record, THEN I'd be prepared to concede it's part of the same phenomenon.

the fear of presentism is manifest in the build-up - the non-stop chatter before you can hear more than a tiny bit of music. when the buzz is so overwhelming before there's anything there to seize on to, it's sort of telling that the music is not entirely the point. there's pre-release anticipation but this is something else.

it's true of artists i like too - happening with beyoncé right now for instance (though with less of the 6music old people on board)

ha xp the timberlake album is DEF part of this

what does presentism mean here?

using synths?

DP's present seems to involve them doing things they haven't done before (make a hit dance song without synths), as ever. discussion of their "relevance" doesn't seem usefu. it's their unique position and individuality in approach that makes their returns interesting.

xp Of course people are excited about the idea of a record. Anticipation is fun, especially when it's being stoked so expertly. You're right that the music is not the sole point, at least not until people hear the whole album, but the longing is interesting - a craving for an event album. Timberlake's exploits a similar craving but much less imaginatively and with a ton of superstar baggage.

the longing is interesting - a craving for an event album

this is otm but i find this creepy? when the value is more about "something me and my friends and people like us can all find common cause in" than the music? i mean i love event albums and i love the social aspect of music but those happen organically, they're not there to be willed into happening

No, presentism isn't a sonic thing so much as the sense of music as embedded within currently swirling ideas and developments, the way we live now. That's not always a good thing: Swedish House Mafia and Imagine Dragons are "present".

For better or worse Daft Punk are presenting this as "hey look, you can step out of the present and take up with this as if it never stopped being 1996 2001 2007 1979.

i mean i love event albums and i love the social aspect of music but those happen organically, they're not there to be willed into happening

― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Monday, April 22, 2013 1:45 PM (18 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think it's a bit of both here, as it is often is.

which might be exactly the right move to make from a group with DP's baggage xp

Hard really to imagine them doing anything else at this stage really, though they're certainly seeking to make a marketing angle virtue of necessity.

which might be exactly the right move to make from a group with DP's baggage xp

well yeah, just as JT's promo campaign was on-point from a marketing/branding perspective, but ugh if we're gonna reduce arts criticism to "how good are artists at reinforcing their brand"

off-topic but TIM while you're in here the new fantasia album demands your attention

Any kind of pop move includes some coercion – that's part of appealing to a mass audience . I have to think about which is more coercive: event albums or would-be anthems ("Born This Way")

xpost oh shit yes there is a flight from presentism I'll happily buy business class tickets for right now.

this song is excellent fuiud

xp But one reason this DP album is intriguing is precisely because it's not situated in the present. It's not about what you can find elsewhere. That's why they made it. How much did Let England Shake or Aerial have to do with swirling ideas and developments? And DP would argue that this is about the way we live now, inasmuch as it's a rejection of many aspects of modern life, rejection being as valid as endorsement imo, if it's done with a real agenda.

but ugh if we're gonna reduce arts criticism to "how good are artists at reinforcing their brand"

― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Monday, April 22, 2013 9:48 AM (42 seconds ago) Bookmark

yeah i understand the impulse of revulsion - but i think the social experience of music is often as interesting as the music itself, and part of the reason why we're here an why ILM is often so scintillating! chartism threads are often the best

fantasia is pretty present imo, or at least not any less than she's ever been

Have people actually heard this record yet other than the single?

all good R&B is kinda on a flight from presentism in 2013 :-/

But the Daft Punk campaign wouldn't have worked if there wasn't significant groundswell of anticipation there in the first place, they don't need to will anything into happening.

FWIW I think Daft Punk's impact right across modern music has been so huge that it's almost impossible to separate them from presentism among the global pop audience, even as the band themselves try and distance themselves from a landscape they helped create. At least part of the anticipation is for an album to come along an redefine pop all over again, which is an almost impossible ask especially given it took about six years for the influence of Discovery to really seem apparent.

but i think the social experience of music is often as interesting as the music itself, and part of the reason why we're here an why ILM is often so scintillating! chartism threads are often the best

indeed, to an extent, but it's all too easy to get trapped in a it's-worth-talking-about-because-we're-talking-about-it endless feedback loop

At least part of the anticipation is for an album to come along an redefine pop all over again, which is an almost impossible ask especially given it took about six years for the influence of Discovery to really seem apparent.

and also because, as has been discussed at length elsewhere, game-changers - which are more common than people think - don't usually come busting out of the gates stating their intent; they usually hide in plain sight and come from unexpected directions.

But Daft Punk campaign wouldn't have worked if there wasn't significant groundswell of anticipation there in the first place, they don't need to will anything into happening.

Yeah, this.

But the Daft Punk campaign wouldn't have worked if there wasn't significant groundswell of anticipation there in the first place, they don't need to will anything into happening.

well, that's true of any act with that kind of profile, whether it's JT or missy elliott or whoever (and actually if a missy campaign ever creaks into motion then that will absolutely be fear-of-presentism encapsulated). it happened with basement jaxx for years after they stopped being good.

lol not really

You can't seriously compare post-Kish Kash Basement Jaxx or a possible Missy comeback to the buzz around this record.

however, you CAN compare the jai paul comeback

Missy has sold far more records in America. Daft Punk has, like, no commercial footprint.

Sometimes the world just stops caring in between albums, no matter how much of a touchstone they once were. If we're talking class of 2001 then the Strokes are a pretty obvious case in point. Or Xtina for that matter.

We're not talking about what they've sold, we're talking about the scale of their comebacks. A lot of people that nobody gives a shit about anymore have sold more than Daft Punk. (Sorry Missy, I don't mean you)

jfc, i turn around for an hour and you guys make "presentism" into a thing and run it into the ground

The Crazy Itch Radio thread is basically everyone going "hmm, disappointing first single... hmm, don't like the descriptions of this... hmm, this is a bit of a drop-off from their first three..."

i'm pretty certain if tim wanted to pull a grunge speak-style hoax on ilx we'd all be swingin' on the flippity-flop in the space of a day

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jfc, i turn around for an hour and you guys make "presentism" into a thing and run it into the ground

― some dude, Monday, April 22, 2013 10:05 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

we are using this public forum to wrestle contortedly with our terrifying and overwhelming fear that daft punk may secretly be, in their robot hearts, rockists

Discoists.

they may be rockists...they undoubtedly now have some appeal to a strain of rockism

when i was talking about something rotten at the heart of this it was more about its unsettlingly rapturous reception, for what it is - to not be able to find elsewhere and all around in the world what this song offers seems like a fundamental act of rejection, a fear & loathing of the here & now

― r|t|c, Monday, April 22, 2013 4:31 AM (2 hours ago)

kind of hate this line of attack. i'm not talking about "fear & loathing of the here & now" (which i'll leave aside for a moment), but rather the "not be able to find elsewhere" angle. that a collectively hyped release has precedent or rough equivalent doesn't make it undeserving of acclaim, doesn't corrupt whatever success it might achieve. as noodle said, daft punk are popularizers, and popular to boot. they have a fairly high profile, and so that naturally extends to what they do. there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, just as there's nothing wrong with a bunch of reasonably well-informed critics and fans getting behind this track - even if one happens to see it as a middle instance of its genre. it may simply be that others disagree. i loved this track and assumed it would be a hit on some level or other from the moment i heard it. i don't claim to be encyclopedically knowledgeable about the genre, but i listen to a LOT of music, and very few tracks of any kind hit me that way, perhaps a small handful in a good year.

the "fear of presentism" charge is similarly flawed. while daft punk have recently said and done a few things that smack of nostalgic retrenchment, "get lucky" stands or falls on its merits as pop. pop is always of the present, even when it's enamored of the past. the present isn't ever just the present, after all. it's a dialogue between the past, present and future.

getting gee'd up for BIG NEW ALBUM is pretty rockist

as long as we can not go off onto a mental tangent cos somebody dropped the R bomb

I want to believe the hype, it's fun getting excited by a big album release. Get Lucky's leaving me feel a little underwhelmed, though ... I feel like the nu-disco territory's been covered pretty extensively over the past few years, and this single just doesn't add all that much to it.

the "fear of presentism" charge is similarly flawed. while daft punk have recently said and done a few things that smack of nostalgic retrenchment, "get lucky" stands or falls on its merits as pop. pop is always of the present, even when it's enamored of the past. the present isn't ever just the present, after all. it's a dialogue between the past, present and future.

― I have many lovely lacy nightgowns (contenderizer), Monday, April 22, 2013 2:16 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You're attacking a point you've mischaracterised.

as long as we can not go off onto a mental tangent cos somebody dropped the R bomb

― Sarushima baby jive (Noodle Vague), Monday, April 22, 2013 10:17 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

that rockist rain just wont let up

i'm pretty certain if tim wanted to pull a grunge speak-style hoax on ilx we'd all be swingin' on the flippity-flop in the space of a day

― some dude, Monday, April 22, 2013 2:08 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm gonna choose to be flattered by this.

eh this thread is ooc now but ftr daft punk are perfectly entitled to be as retro as they want, i don't expect any presentist obligation from them and it's not the point i was making

oh great, I jumped into the conversation during a fart sniffing contest