keys,
When you think about it really, all music is repetitive. AABA or ABBA or whatever. It is the same thing over and over verse chorus verse chorus. That really is the structure of music. If one composed without stucture and just ambled abstractly, I doubt that would sound very good musically.
Further all music is essentially loops as well. The guitarist or keyboard plays the same chords through the verse the same way, then get's to the chorus etc. The drummer essentially "loops" his drum pattern, playing the same beat over and over with a fill here and there and a big close. But this is all about the arrangement of a tune and what is the glue that holds the tune together. Without it, it would sound chaotic and like poop. Think of any song you have ever heard....that's what it does, repeats the stucture the melody the patterns over and over. They may do something tricky like transpose in the middle now and again, but then that repeats as well.
Now what makes any of it interesting are the melody line and the solos here and there.
If you choose to create music differently then what has been done, more power to you and go for it.
I view styles perhaps differently than you do. To me they are a back up band. No different than if one were to be a part of a band. In this case however I have through my purchase of the equipment also bought some of the best players in the world to come and "sit in" with me. It is up to me, what I want to get them to play and how to play it, tempo stucture, instruments. All the years I played with bands and composed, never once did I go to a practice and say, "here's a new tune guys, but you can't play on it, I'm going to play all the parts myself."
I don't see styles much if at all any different from that, except my keyboard doesn't lay around at a practice get too drunk to play and then want to quit early.
So you see, it's a matter of perspective and how one uses the tools that technology has brought to us. The board and styles are only tools and the musicianship comes not from the board, but who it is and what they are playing sitting behind it.
You'd probably be sadly disappointed by some of the most popular artists that are out there now and all the tricks they use in the studio, to include loops and samples and whatever else is available.
You're invited to the party here, but you also have to realize to arrive and insult everyone at the party, is not going to make you the most popular person there. The other danger that comes with posting an opinion on open forum, is that others with opposing points of view are going to call you on your opinion. If you cannot handle that heat....don't come into the kitchen and stir up the pot.
Some of the best musicians I have ever heard reside on this forum. Whether they use styles or samples or loops, to me is of little consequence. They are making music and good music is good music period. Again, it's less about the tools and more about what creatively one does with them.
jam on,
Terry
[This message has been edited by trtjazz (edited 10-26-2002).]