Hypothetical Electronic Music Program Proposal

compliments of EM:DEF

"Spreading the Word Through Sound"

EM:DEF Program Grant Application

Electronic Music Project - “Spreading the Word through Sound”

Amongst the myriad of music genres, electronic music has slowly but surely risen to the surface over the past hundred or so years, but not without adversity or controversy. The genre lacks a mainstream audience, which I believe has led to a misunderstanding. I have found that those who don't clearly understand this type of music also hold pre-conceived notions. Some associate electronic music with hard drugs and heavy drinking, while others simply dismiss the genre as an annoying arrangement of blips and bleeps. These people are not to blame for their misconceptions; they simply have yet to receive a proper education on the subject.

My project “Spreading the Word through Sound” will serve as a local (Savannah) and global community-building program centered around electronic music and all it entails. I believe that through the utilization of non-traditional, sensory perceptive means of teaching, the world will grasp a better understanding of this important musical form, a form that perpetually expands and stretches itself into something new.

As a sophomore at the Savannah College of Art and Design, I have always shown a high degree of interest in electronic music and would relish the opportunity to use what I know to inform others. My older brothers turned me on to the multi-faceted genre in eighth grade, thus spurring research that included raiding iTunes' online music store and delving into the latest reviews. Such habitual research sharpened my listening abilities, enabling me to navigate through sub-genres. My ears can differentiate between lazer bass and drum & bass, or hip-hop and trip-hop. Since then, I have worked with Propellerhead's computer-music-making software products Reason and Recycle, learning to sample and manipulate sounds into a cohesive song.

Currently working towards a major degree in Writing and minor in New Media Arts, I am confident that my ever-growing writing skills combined with my knowledge of new media technology will help propel the program towards success. I have already written several electronic music reviews on Squarepusher and Luke Vibert, written for my school's online newspaper, conducted an interview, and published poetry. This passion for the human condition and the future will serve to bolster communication within the program.

I. Introduction and Background

The program “Spreading the Word through Sound”points its aims towards the community and works to avoid the cliches of electronic music and it's culture. Society holds the misconceptions that the genre revolves around the buying, selling, and consumption of hard drugs such as acid and ecstasy. This is partly due to the Federal Government's “Club Drug Campaign”, established in 1999, which targeted the genre directly.

Electronic music thrives on events such as raves, parties, and clubs. These performance opportunities are currently being threatened. The War on Club Drugs also effects the jobs of venue owners, promoters, and anyone else involved in the electronic dance music genre. With the establishment of the latest drug war tactic, the Crackhouse Law, many venues and rave organizer are at risk of an “unfounded attack on a vibrant music culture” and even jail time of up to twenty years. With the livelihood of the electronic music community at stake, the need for action arises. My program will work to erase the false picture society has painted about the genre.

My program will also help “raise and provide funds for legal assistance to innocent professionals in the electronic dance music business who are targeted by law enforcement in the expanding campaign against club drugs” and educate those unfamiliar with the genre through unorthodox means. “Spreading the Word through Sound” will achieve its goals through shows, stimulating workshops, and help from the media.

The program could be equated to California's “We the People” music, arts, and freedom festival. The massive festival directly profited EM:DEF, yet seemed counterintuitive; the large size of the event did nothing to help erase electronic music's drug stigma anymore than “Burning Man” does. My program wishes to carry out EM:DEF's mission through a sterile, drug-free, alcohol-free policy.

The program will rely on the serious involvement of others in the community, similar to the United Kingdom's Oxfam's month-long music festival called Oxjam. Oxfam works to fight poverty around the world through month-long music festivals that are organized by music fans. The events can be at large venues or small parties; it all lies in the music-lovers' hands. Yet, unlike Oxfam, my program will hold shows and events to help fund the defense of electronic music and education of the genre, instead of helping the less fortunate.

Similar to “Spreading the Word through Sound”, DanceSafe is a nonprofit organization that deals with club drugs. DanceSafe works to promote “health and safety within the rave and nightclub community” and educate non-addicted, recreational drug users. My program also acknowledges the problem of hard drug use, but serves to abolish this stigma that has been attached to electronic music via shows that are a clean, alcohol-free environment.

I strongly believe in such a policy for the program because I have witnessed, firsthand, what such drugs can do to a human being, specifically my own brother. After returning home from a Sunday evening dinner, my family and I found him writhing around on the living room floor during a seizure. The wooden floorboards were drenched in his excess sweat, and he mumbled incoherent words while he cringed his face in discomfort. He was hospitalized immediately and doesn't remember anything, but I still do. He had taken LSD from a music festival.

Also, when I worked as a receptionist at a psychiatrist's office, the wretchedness of hard drugs revealed itself to me. Many patients suffered terrible withdrawal symptoms from Xanax or other abused substances while in the waiting room. One patient called to tell me that she could not keep her appointment; she had spent the last of her money on diapers because of her uncontrollable bowel movements. My heart shook in its nook to here this and her painful cries.

II. Goals and Objectives

1. Shows-

In support of the Drug Policy Alliance Network's mission to “envision new drug policies based on science, compassion, health and human rights and a just society in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more”, my program would thrive on what I'd like to call “Sober” electronic music shows starting right here in Savannah. These laptop performances will occur at 18 and up venues, allowing for a broader population to absorb the genre. The shows will be ten dollars, which will go directly towards the Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund. As at most electronic music events, live painting will be done by local SCAD students. Whatever money these volunteers make will be put into the fund. At each show, pamphlets written by me, containing brief biographical and stylistic information on the music artists, will be divvied out.

First up on the roster will be local acts such as DJ Culprit (http://www.myspace.com/culpritdj) and DJ MNUVR (http://www.myspace.com/MNUVR) who have already spun dubstep and drum n' bass at Tantra Lounge on Broughton Street and are recent graduates of SCAD. My boyfriend K.A.O.S. (www.myspace.com/kaosounds) has acquired a small fan base and has introduced the rap mash-up (a staple of artist Girl Talk) to patrons of Guitar Bar. In time, other acts would come to include heavy hitters like Caspa from the United Kingdom's dubstep scene, who has just recently started touring the United States. “Spreading the Word through Sound” has faith in the following talents to support it's goals:

DJ Karma (Dance and House)

Werd2jaH (MC for Dubstep)

DJ Peru (Dubstep)

DJ MNUVR (Dubstep)

Axion Theory (Ambient)

DJ Phivestar (Electro and Hip-hop)

DJ Epiphany (Dubstep)

DJ Cavity (Drum n' Bass)

Triz & T8ter(tot) (Dubstep)

These are people that I know from either my hometown of Atlanta or right here in the Savannah area. Each act has a distinctive style and serves to justify the well-rounded, musical melting pot that is electronic music.

2. Workshops-

The program will host monthly workshops on subjects like circuit-bending that allow the average person a behind-the-scenes look at just one of the many possibilities of electronic music-making. This technique of short-circuiting electronic devices such as children's toys or digital synthesizers results in new and unique sounds that can be found in the performance duo of Beatrix Jar. The duo has visited Savannah's Telfair Art Museum several times with their workshops and sound-collage performances partially funded by an American Composers Forum Subito Grant.

One of my closest friends is an avid Gameboy collector and would be more than happy to teach interested locals and even visitors how to take the vintage toy and turn it into a glitchy-scratchy, beat-making, Nintendo-bit, sound-producing digital instrument.

These free, hands-on workshops are meant to educate those who are under the misconception that electronic music is just background noise for sweat-inducing parties. The genre is well thought-out, technical, and even methodical in craft. The workshops' effectiveness in knowledge-building will smash that of traditional lectures.

3. Media (Spreading the Word)

Effective communication will be the foundation for the program and calls for a joint effort from the local community and, on a broader sense, the world. The following will help to carry out my program's mission:

Websites-

A) My blog on HubPages at http://hubpages.com/profile/idmgurl works to educate a wide audience on new and upcoming electronic music, complete with videos and playful, rhythmic descriptions that stimulate the senses. There exists a need for the vast spectrum of the genre to be exposed and explored. My HubPage will serve as the link to information on events and EM:DEF.

B) DJ Pro Bono's blog “Sorry for Partying” at http://paulbono.com contains a plethora of vital information on old and new electronic music. The site is updated weekly with the goal of supporting artists spanning the street-bass sounds of the West Coast, such as The Glitch Mob, to Atlanta's own Sound Tribe Sector 9. This blog will provide substance for education.

C. Facebook and Myspace have grown tremendously throughout the years. Together, these two sites can hold the hefty and vital load of updating people on weekly events and workshops, not to mention link the community to the Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund and Drug Policy Alliance, where donations are welcomed.

D) JamBase will aid the program by bridging the gap between the fans or interested newbies and the music. The site provides the most accurate and timely information on concerts around the United States. JamBase users can access updated, brief biographies on the electronic music artists that the program will be hosting.

E) SCAD's District online newspaper at www.scaddistrict.com will establish a music section in the Arts and Entertainment section specifically for electronic music enthusiasts or anyone else interested in the genre. The section shall include reviews of the program's weekly shows and workshops.

F) SCAD radio has already recorded a feature on my Luke Vibert review for wide consumption on the airwaves, complete with thirty second clips of the songs reviewed. I will strive to work with SCAD radio further to compile an anthology of electronic music to balance out their Indie rock collection.

2) Magazines will serve as a source to reach and educate the masses about shows, sub-genres, and electronic equipment. The program will work to make these magazines available at more locations.

-Connect

-XLR8R

-Paste

-Computer Music

3) Graphic design majors at SCAD will benefit from “Spreading the Word through Sound”. They can make visually stimulating posters to beef up support for the weekly shows. My boyfriend has mastered the craft of making unique graphic t-shirts. Shirts could be sold at the workshops and shows for around eight dollars; proceeds would profit the organization.

III. Timeline

May 25th- Launch Facebook and Myspace page

June 1st- Launch District's electronic music section

June 2nd- Announce the first show

June 9th- First show feat. DJ Culprit

June 17th- Circuit-bending workshop with Beatrix Jar

June 28- Gameboy workshop

IV. Budget

$400- to pay the expense of copying pamphlets

$2000 – to pay venues owners for hosting weekly shows ($100 per show)

$3000- to pay Telfair museum for hosting workshops ($250 per workshop)

$9,000- to pay for accommodations, flying expenses, etc. for visiting artists