Ya got numbers for any of that? No? Then ya know nothing, Scott Rubin.
Numbers for what specifically?
However you're quantifying "biggest." You obviously have a metric for comparison, and you must have compared them to big pop stars like Lady GaGa.
I mean, you could use iTunes downloads. Or album sales. Concert ticket sales. Yhere are plenty of ways to do it.
Well, the Daft Punk numbers will appear soon. I thought you may have been questioning my claim about A State of Trance being the most popular music radio show on earth. It's down in the worldwide section.
Huh. Didn't even care about that one, but you said "by an order of magnitude." I'll just point out that right below that is a show with ~20 million listeners. So order of magnitude it is not.
And Daft Punk numbers should already exist. They've had albums on iTunes for a while, right? You claimed they were the biggest long before the album was actually available. Show some numbers.
The album isn't out until Tuesday here. It's already out most other places, and they're doing their official release party in Wee Waa tonight (I love Aussie town names).
I was tempted to make the trip. It's not like I can't camp out nearby, and it's only a six hour drive.
The album isn't out until Tuesday here. It's already out most other places, and they're doing their official release party in Wee Waa tonight (I love Aussie town names).
I was tempted to make the trip. It's not like I can't camp out nearby, and it's only a six hour drive.
If I was six hours away, not much would have kept me away.
Huh. Didn't even care about that one, but you said "by an order of magnitude." I'll just point out that right below that is a show with ~20 million listeners. So order of magnitude it is not.
And Daft Punk numbers should already exist. They've had albums on iTunes for a while, right? You claimed they were the biggest long before the album was actually available. Show some numbers.
We'll wait for the final chart results and add in the torrent downloads.
There were a few people Triple J interviewed that were driving the 13 odd hours from Melbourne.
Eh, that's not so bad. I've driven to Freemantle in perth to go surfing once, when I was younger and dumber. The roads here are pretty nice, driving 13 hours isn't a huge trial, if you have a few other people with you.
Also, I could make the drive in less than six pretty easy, but not in the van. She's not built for speed. Or comfort. But I could hire or borrow a car, or even better, I'd borrow a bike.
I'm not really much of a Daft Punk fan, but I decided to give the album a try. My favorite track on the album is actually Giorgio by Moroder. Yeah, could do without the voice over, but the actual music of that song is 100% my jam (dat drum beat). I also really liked Fragments of Time, specifically for the reasons other people here dislike it. Aside from those two, Give Life Back to Music was a great opener and Contact was awesome up until the music stopped and it was replaced by stupid noise. Everything else was either meh or I actively disliked what I was hearing. I agree with the sentiments that it is a very cohesive album, it's just too slow and plodding for my tastes.
I'm not really much of a Daft Punk fan, but I decided to give the album a try. My favorite track on the album is actually Giorgio by Moroder. Yeah, could do without the voice over, but the actual music of that song is 100% my jam (dat drum beat). I also really liked Fragments of Time, specifically for the reasons other people here dislike it. Aside from those two, Give Life Back to Music was a great opener and Contact was awesome up until the music stopped and it was replaced by stupid noise. Everything else was either meh or I actively disliked what I was hearing. I agree with the sentiments that it is a very cohesive album, it's just too slow and plodding for my tastes.
How could you not like Instant Crush?! By far the best thing on there.
The other day, Jeph Jacques was tweeting about his initial experience with RAM. It's a whole slew of tweets. I copied/pasted it in the spoiler tag below.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May About to listen to all of RAM for the first time. Im scared
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May OH GOD 25 SECONDS IN AND IT'S PERFECT
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May The guitar work on Give Life Back To Music is fucking FANTASTIC.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May oh god the fusion breakdown halfway through Giorgio By Moroder
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May oh fuck the drums at 5:55 oh my godddd
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May literally laughing in amazement, that hasn't happened since I first heard Animals As Leaders
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May VINYL SCRATCHES?!?!?!??!?
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May ahahahah oh my god the end of this track is PREPOSTEROUS, I'm dying
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May The Game of Love seemed a little weak but maybe it'll grow on me
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May "Instant Crush" is like if the Cars wrote a synth pop tune
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May the chorus reminds me of Royskopp's "Junior," this is not a bad thing
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May "Lose Yourself To Dance" is more proof that Nile Rogers is a fucking sweet guitarist
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May This album has a strange sense of inevitability about it. As if Daft Punk could not possibly have done anything differently.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May "Touch" just started. This is the track I have been Warned About.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May oh my god the disco piano
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May is that a fucking CHOIR
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May Honestly kind of torn on "Touch." It's certainly…something.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May "Get Lucky" is an even better song if you imagine it as a giant shit-covered middle finger to modern loudness-war club-pop dreck
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May Listening to these songs for the first time is sort of like a Magic Eye picture, it takes a while for the song as a whole to come into focus
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May really diggin' the percussion on "Motherboard"
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May Also whoever played bass on this record is really, really good.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May I really really wanna hear Michael McDonald singing over "Fragments of Time"
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May instead of whoever this is
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May oh fuck, "Doin' It Right" sounds like it's gonna be really good
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May oh god damnit Panda Bear
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May Panda Bear seems to be incapable of working WITHIN a song and simply stomps all over it, he does this on every song I've heard him sing on
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May hahaha holy shit the minute the distortion kicks in on "Contact" hahahahahahahahahah yesssss
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May The ending of "Contact" may be the biggest musical blueball in human history
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May Initial impression of RAM: no idea what to think, honestly. "Giorgio By Moroder" is pretty great though.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May This may be blasphemy and I may recant the statement, but I kind of feel like Röyksopp did this better 4 years ago with "Junior."
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May I feel like a jerk whenever I talk about Music Opinions because I firmly believe that it's all, like, subjective, man
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May But sometimes I can't help it, I HAVE A DEGREE IN THIS SHIT
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May Anyway it is dumb to offer final judgement on a record I have heard once, we'll see if it grows on me
It was interesting to see his what he had to say. I think that Wil Wheaton's reply was fairly succint: @jephjacques The albums that I'm not sure about on first listen usually end up being the ones I love forever. ie: OK Computer.
I'm not really much of a Daft Punk fan, but I decided to give the album a try. My favorite track on the album is actually Giorgio by Moroder. Yeah, could do without the voice over, but the actual music of that song is 100% my jam (dat drum beat). I also really liked Fragments of Time, specifically for the reasons other people here dislike it. Aside from those two, Give Life Back to Music was a great opener and Contact was awesome up until the music stopped and it was replaced by stupid noise. Everything else was either meh or I actively disliked what I was hearing. I agree with the sentiments that it is a very cohesive album, it's just too slow and plodding for my tastes.
How could you not like Instant Crush?! By far the best thing on there.
I definitely agree. People who don't dig Instant Crush can gtfo my lawn.
Daft Punk exist in a recently formed sphere that exists parallel to the mainstream, the Dad House Sphere. Like come on here's an excerpt from some random article: "The duo are to the US electronic dance music (EDM) scene what the Velvet Underground were to punk, in so far as it's hard to imagine the genre existing as it does without them. " The article also hilariously claims Madonna's producer was a "Daft Punk imitator".. this is the sort of banter surrounding them. It's like how people talk about Zeppelin (Dad Rock) w.r.t. rock music.
How could you not like Instant Crush?! By far the best thing on there.
I'll give it that it's one of the better tracks on the album, but the heavy voice mods just ruins what would've otherwise been a fun song. I would've also liked it more if the difference between the verses and chorus was more dynamic.
You're talking so much about kind of putting the humanity back into this music, and at the same time a huge part of your persona is the idea of the robot. You guys are always in public with the helmets so people don't know what you look like; the use of the vocoders and the robo voices in the songs. It seems like it's the opposite, really, of what you're trying to do here.
BANGALTER: It is and it is not. The fiction and the story, it's about these robots. We directed an experimental film about seven years ago, eight years ago that was called Electroma and that followed the story of these two robots which are in the desert that were somehow desperately trying to become human. And that's maybe what somehow is the story of this record, the story of these androids or these robots or these vocoder, robotic voices that are trying to feel an emotion. Or trying to have their robotic side going toward humanity in a world where human beings are gradually going toward technology and toward this idea of robots, you know?
It's maybe something we felt, which is we are two robots trying to become human. So it meets halfway; it has this kind of a cyborg and droid quality, but it seems that it's a story that has some emotion with it. Because it's about artificial intelligence in some sense, but it's in the same way that if you have HAL, you know, in 2001 — an artificially intelligent entity that is very elegant and that maybe knows — is so intelligent that he knows that he's not a human being. Here it's not about the intelligence side of it, rather than emotional side of it. A robot that is sad because he cannot feel, or something like that. So it's almost this paradox.
But it's always been for us about the interaction between technology and humanity, and we couldn't have done our project, definitely, without technology. As Guy-Man said, we are poor musicians in terms of performers.
We created the music initially with drum machines and samplers and taking little bits of pieces of records and but also using synthesizers. What we are are producers and songwriters. We're always trying to have a sense for melody and harmony and things that we feel we're able to manage. But on a production level, we totally, it's true, relied on technology. It doesn't mean that we cannot at a certain time look at technology and maybe not decide to glorify it.
We live and we're totally addicted and we're totally connected to technology ourselves, but we were interested in, again, sustaining a certain craftsmanship that was maybe existing before technology that we think shouldn't completely disappear and has the right to coexist with today's technology.
And this coexistence and this idea of mixing both is what makes us excited about the future, about getting the best of both worlds and combining the superpowers of computer processors with ideas and real stuff and real things.
Endless Fantasy is nice but nowhere near as good as RAM. Anamanaguchi is a very, very good one trick pony and some of their songs are on par or better than some Daft Punk songs. The variety in RAM is astonishing and refreshing; EF on the other hand was just a blur.
I'd argue Endless Fantasy touches more than you'd think. A good balance between slow and fast, what I feel is a legitimate pop song, and still maintaining a unified feel. The whole album has one solid idea in 22 songs. You have to respect that.
These albums are not even comparable they are so different what are you doing stahpppp
Nobody is saying they are the same. One is a five course dinner at a three star restaurant and the other is unlimited buffalo wings. Feel free to prefer whichever one you like, but I can strongly argue for the better quality of one of them.
I can't believe that you liked RAM more than EF. Despite the high polish and classic French House beats, I'm pretty confident that RAM will be remembered as a pretty solid album at best, and a mediocre one at worst. It doesn't hold up to Alive 2007 or Homework, and I certainly wouldn't recommend RAM to anyone who doesn't already listen to Daft Punk.
Like Sail said, you are also comparing two albums from wildly different genres with entirely different goals. DP wants you to lose yourself to dance, and 'Guchi wants you to get fired up on the dream. Setting aside the apple-to-oranges problem, I think EF did wayyyyyyy more for chiptune than RAM can ever hope to do for house. I don't think it's fair to call either one a "better album," but I think EF is by far the more important album.
Oh geez, I don't even want to go into that argument. I just want to make Tmo see that "more variety = higher quality" is still a subjective opinion. There isn't really an objective comparative statement you can make that equates to quality when the styles and goals of these two albums are so radically different.
a) Nothing you say is contrary to anything I said. However, your statement
Setting aside the apple-to-oranges problem, I think EF did wayyyyyyy more for chiptune than RAM can ever hope to do for house.
is just plain wrong. Chiptune has been around since before the guys and gals in Anamanaguchi were born. It was pioneered and forgotten and re-introduced into the mainstream before they even formed a band. To say that they are doing something momentous for the genre is delusional. And to say that RAM is 1) insignificant or 2) trying to do something for house music is premature at best and misunderstanding the message of the album entirely.
I don't need a lecture on chiptune history. I've been coveting a SIDstation since 9th grade, and I've been listening to Venetian Snares and demoscene stuff for at least that long. I've been fiddling with LSDJ to build some chiphop beats. For someone who doesn't listen to too much chip, I'm pretty well-versed.
Anamanaguchi is the first major chiptune act to move past 8bit sounds in their music, and EF makes an active attempt to push the genre forward. Look at the JPop fusion vibes in "Japan Air!" No one else is really doing that stuff yet. EF feels like a watershed, but it's too early to tell. I don't get the same "game-changer" vibe from RAM.
Daft Punk put forth a solid effort, and I'm on record as having really enjoyed RAM. But, I only listened to it once in its entirety, and I probably won't revisit it. This is because it doesn't feel new or interesting to me. Live instrumentation has been a part of house for a while now; couple that with the musical gaffes in RAM (Moroder voiceover and the simple lack of consistent bangers), and the album just seems less inspired than its predecessors. Now, the narrative and the philosophical arguments put forth by Bangalter&Guy-Man w/r/t to RAM are really interesting and inspired, and I like them a lot. However, narrative and philosophy alone can't sustain a group forever; look at pretty much any prog genre and most aging rappers for evidence of this.
Furthermore, let's talk about production values a little bit. High production values aren't necessarily a good thing anymore. I liked early Daft Punk because it's grimy, clipped, imperfect. Listen to the static and noise in Da Funk's samples. note how things are filtered down and how the drums crackle in your ears and the guitars buzz irregularly. It reminds me of Blade Runner; the music was evident of the fact that Bangalter&Guy-Man were pushing their hardware to the limits when they made that album. On the other hand, RAM is really polished, but that's because there's so much computing power now that vocoders and synths can be perfectly clean and sterile even with a ton of effects and samples running. The lack of limitations on RAM's production is perhaps its downfall. To wit, Brian Eno:
“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.”
This is likely the same reason Trap & Grime are overtaking dance scenes in the US and Europe. In a world where ultra-HQ recording is ubiquitous, fidelity is aesthetic. Speaker buzz, feedback, clipping, and other quirks of using imperfect technologies have been the sounds of EDM since techno took over Detroit in the 80s. They were part of DP's early work, but they are not part of RAM.
You are free to like whichever you want, and I have enjoyed both records immensely. I'm just attempting to articulate why I am listening to Endless Fantasy and Homework these days instead of RAM.
Comments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-listened-to_radio_programs
And Daft Punk numbers should already exist. They've had albums on iTunes for a while, right? You claimed they were the biggest long before the album was actually available. Show some numbers.
Also, I could make the drive in less than six pretty easy, but not in the van. She's not built for speed. Or comfort. But I could hire or borrow a car, or even better, I'd borrow a bike.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
About to listen to all of RAM for the first time. Im scared
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
OH GOD 25 SECONDS IN AND IT'S PERFECT
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
The guitar work on Give Life Back To Music is fucking FANTASTIC.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
oh god the fusion breakdown halfway through Giorgio By Moroder
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
oh fuck the drums at 5:55 oh my godddd
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
literally laughing in amazement, that hasn't happened since I first heard Animals As Leaders
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
VINYL SCRATCHES?!?!?!??!?
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
ahahahah oh my god the end of this track is PREPOSTEROUS, I'm dying
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
The Game of Love seemed a little weak but maybe it'll grow on me
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
"Instant Crush" is like if the Cars wrote a synth pop tune
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
the chorus reminds me of Royskopp's "Junior," this is not a bad thing
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
"Lose Yourself To Dance" is more proof that Nile Rogers is a fucking sweet guitarist
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
This album has a strange sense of inevitability about it. As if Daft Punk could not possibly have done anything differently.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
"Touch" just started. This is the track I have been Warned About.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
oh my god the disco piano
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
is that a fucking CHOIR
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
Honestly kind of torn on "Touch." It's certainly…something.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
"Get Lucky" is an even better song if you imagine it as a giant shit-covered middle finger to modern loudness-war club-pop dreck
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
Listening to these songs for the first time is sort of like a Magic Eye picture, it takes a while for the song as a whole to come into focus
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
really diggin' the percussion on "Motherboard"
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
Also whoever played bass on this record is really, really good.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
I really really wanna hear Michael McDonald singing over "Fragments of Time"
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
instead of whoever this is
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
oh fuck, "Doin' It Right" sounds like it's gonna be really good
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
oh god damnit Panda Bear
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
Panda Bear seems to be incapable of working WITHIN a song and simply stomps all over it, he does this on every song I've heard him sing on
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
hahaha holy shit the minute the distortion kicks in on "Contact" hahahahahahahahahah yesssss
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
The ending of "Contact" may be the biggest musical blueball in human history
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
Initial impression of RAM: no idea what to think, honestly. "Giorgio By Moroder" is pretty great though.
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
This may be blasphemy and I may recant the statement, but I kind of feel like Röyksopp did this better 4 years ago with "Junior."
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
I feel like a jerk whenever I talk about Music Opinions because I firmly believe that it's all, like, subjective, man
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
But sometimes I can't help it, I HAVE A DEGREE IN THIS SHIT
New Jacques City @jephjacques 15 May
Anyway it is dumb to offer final judgement on a record I have heard once, we'll see if it grows on me
It was interesting to see his what he had to say. I think that Wil Wheaton's reply was fairly succint: @jephjacques The albums that I'm not sure about on first listen usually end up being the ones I love forever. ie: OK Computer.
Daft Punk exist in a recently formed sphere that exists parallel to the mainstream, the Dad House Sphere. Like come on here's an excerpt from some random article: "The duo are to the US electronic dance music (EDM) scene what the Velvet Underground were to punk, in so far as it's hard to imagine the genre existing as it does without them. " The article also hilariously claims Madonna's producer was a "Daft Punk imitator".. this is the sort of banter surrounding them. It's like how people talk about Zeppelin (Dad Rock) w.r.t. rock music.
Like Sail said, you are also comparing two albums from wildly different genres with entirely different goals. DP wants you to lose yourself to dance, and 'Guchi wants you to get fired up on the dream. Setting aside the apple-to-oranges problem, I think EF did wayyyyyyy more for chiptune than RAM can ever hope to do for house. I don't think it's fair to call either one a "better album," but I think EF is by far the more important album.
a) Nothing you say is contrary to anything I said. However, your statementis just plain wrong. Chiptune has been around since before the guys and gals in Anamanaguchi were born. It was pioneered and forgotten and re-introduced into the mainstream before they even formed a band. To say that they are doing something momentous for the genre is delusional. And to say that RAM is 1) insignificant or 2) trying to do something for house music is premature at best and misunderstanding the message of the album entirely.
Chiptune history.
Anamanaguchi is the first major chiptune act to move past 8bit sounds in their music, and EF makes an active attempt to push the genre forward. Look at the JPop fusion vibes in "Japan Air!" No one else is really doing that stuff yet. EF feels like a watershed, but it's too early to tell. I don't get the same "game-changer" vibe from RAM.
Daft Punk put forth a solid effort, and I'm on record as having really enjoyed RAM. But, I only listened to it once in its entirety, and I probably won't revisit it. This is because it doesn't feel new or interesting to me. Live instrumentation has been a part of house for a while now; couple that with the musical gaffes in RAM (Moroder voiceover and the simple lack of consistent bangers), and the album just seems less inspired than its predecessors. Now, the narrative and the philosophical arguments put forth by Bangalter&Guy-Man w/r/t to RAM are really interesting and inspired, and I like them a lot. However, narrative and philosophy alone can't sustain a group forever; look at pretty much any prog genre and most aging rappers for evidence of this.
Furthermore, let's talk about production values a little bit. High production values aren't necessarily a good thing anymore. I liked early Daft Punk because it's grimy, clipped, imperfect. Listen to the static and noise in Da Funk's samples. note how things are filtered down and how the drums crackle in your ears and the guitars buzz irregularly. It reminds me of Blade Runner; the music was evident of the fact that Bangalter&Guy-Man were pushing their hardware to the limits when they made that album. On the other hand, RAM is really polished, but that's because there's so much computing power now that vocoders and synths can be perfectly clean and sterile even with a ton of effects and samples running. The lack of limitations on RAM's production is perhaps its downfall. To wit, Brian Eno:
“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.”
This is likely the same reason Trap & Grime are overtaking dance scenes in the US and Europe. In a world where ultra-HQ recording is ubiquitous, fidelity is aesthetic. Speaker buzz, feedback, clipping, and other quirks of using imperfect technologies have been the sounds of EDM since techno took over Detroit in the 80s. They were part of DP's early work, but they are not part of RAM.
You are free to like whichever you want, and I have enjoyed both records immensely. I'm just attempting to articulate why I am listening to Endless Fantasy and Homework these days instead of RAM.