Bringing About the Downfall of Bleepy Shite's Journal (original) (raw)

Hello there,

I've just joined this community - it's the first LJ community I've ever joined, because until now I've not been interested in communities, and haven't ever seen one that has grabbed my attention. This one made me laugh, and it's great to see some people who are actually against EBM!

Anyway, I've had a little read of this community, and I thought I might begin my interacting in it with a couple of questions.

I saw a few posts that were against this community, and suggested that it was silly because people here didn't know what they're on about. I'm not so sure I agree.

I noticed this one paragraph, part of a comment left by someone anonymous:
It's quite hilarious how people make anti communities about a genre they know nothing about...EBM is stuff like Nitzer ebb, DAF, Front 242, etc. Have you ever even heard them? Tell me if you have and then judge. This community is as silly as the KKK. Do you even know what you are hating? EBM has nothing to do with deathrock or some stupid subculture called goth...infact it's been labeled mostly as cyberpunk music. Leave it to the silly little music fans to revolve around labels, and what is hip to like and what's not, so who cares if a furry goth starts liking your sort of music, Like what you like and not what is uber to like. Have you ever heard of giving a new meaning to something?

This got me thinking. First I thought it was just some idiot stirring. Actually, I still think that, but I've thought a few other things too.
What's all this about EBM being a genre that this community knows nothing about? I think the people here know who all these bands are.
What's this person going on about, saying that "EMB has nothing to do with deathrock or some stupid subculture called goth"? Isn't that exactly the point of this community, and why we have a problem with EBM? Isn't this why Goth and Deathrock, and any decent music that was once associated with such subcultures gone!?!

This is less important. Those were a bunch of rhetorical questions.

What I am most interested in is your opinions on the following:

Regardless of which bands are strictly considered EBM and which ones aren't (given that there have been a few people who want to argue that this community doesn't know what EBM is and that it doesn't know what it's talking about or what it's hating)...
Does it really matter which definition we're sticking too if we all agree on a certain sound that we hate?
Who decides what is EBM and what isn't? For the sake of hating that god damn electronic crap with the bleeping noises and dance beats (and goggles, and glow sticks, and fake hair), we seem to all be hating the same thing. If the term we're applying to it is EBM, then who's to say that this is wrong?
If the people who listen to EBM call it EBM, then isn't that good enough for us to call it the same thing? After all, given what EBM stands for, I think the music that we collectively dislike does fit the title. Those who are against this community can say what they like, but I think it'd be quite hard to actually say that we're wrong in calling it EBM. Certainly it's lunacy to say we don't know what we're talking about and we don't know what we're hating!
Of course, someone could come along and play devil's advocate and point out that if the people listening to EBM are calling it Goth, then perhaps it's Goth. To be honest, I sort of agree with that. HOWEVER, to say that EBM = Goth doesn't quite work to me. Goth = Goth, and EBM = EBM. The fact that some EBM fans (who nonetheless do seem to refer to the genre itself as EBM) refer to it as Goth is a huge part of the whole problem with EBM. If it could just exist on its own, and without taking the place of something that we like better, then we probably wouldn't be here today resenting it so much.

I regret that this has turned into a big fat rant, and is fairly incoherent. Hopefully it makes some sense though.

Thank you, to everyone who supports this community, and to whoever is responsible for its creation, for disliking EBM! I must commend your lack of bad taste! :)