Music Edm and Triphop - Post Modern Design Exercise

Nathaniel Allen

Graphic Design 1

Anthony Rostvold

4/21/2018

Post Modern Design Exercise

#1) Description of Electronic / Dance music:

Electro House:

This style of music is characterized by a pulsating, industrial driving beat, with sparsely sprinkled lyrics (often repeating).  It evokes post-apocalyptic imagery, and seems to invite the listener to “let go” since nothing else matters.  This genre of music is all about letting go and dancing.  It is anti-judgmental in its approach, and is cautious to not lay their trip on anyone else.  It respects individuality, and leaves room for the hearer to come to their own conclusions about meaning.  

Brainstorming words / phrases for Electro House:

digital, synthesized, dreamy, heart-thumping, heart penetrating beats, floating, untethered, surreal, bubbles floating safely away, clouds, space, futuristic things that have yet to arrive, industrial, mechanical, militant, post-apocalyptic, new frontiers, dancing, dark, haunting, intense, psychedelic

TripHop:

This style of music is closely related to Electro House with its synthetic pulsating beats, but with a little more emphasis on storytelling through the lyrics.  It also loves to draw on the contrast between the innocence of the 1950’s ‘Leave it to Beaver’ culture and the experienced reality of the post-apocalyptic era.  The blending of this contrast is often seen in the imagery of the videos produced by this genre.  If I were to describe this genre in a nutshell it would be found in a quote that I saw recently which states: “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.”  It would seem to me that this genre is trying to expose the fact that no one gets out of here alive, so we need to quit living in fear of the inevitable and face our fears, the greatest of those being death.  There is a heavy emphasis on shock value found throughout this style of music and the accompanying videos.  

Brainstorming words / phrases for TripHop:

innocence meets experience, haunting, anxious, LSD trippy, foggy, gruesome and violent imagery, embrace your inner Id, release the animal, you can run but you can’t hide from the inevitable, turn and face your fears in order to truly live, everything you’ve always wanted is on the other side of fear, total inebriation, perfection is an illusion, we are all corrupt, embrace our imperfections and live, the lamb is really a wolf, the movie “Pleasantville”, expose the hypocrisy of group conformity by bringing the latent corruption of humanity into the light, breaking the molds, embracing individualism

#2) Identify the visual direction of my Post Modernism design:  Conceptual, Techno

#3) Brainstorm ideas on how to communicate the music visually:

• Soundwaves sending people surfing into space
• Opposing speakers bouncing atoms around
• Helium balloons
• Hot air balloons
• Bubbles
• Astronauts and Native Americans together in space
• Peace Pipe
• Retro 1950’s Diner
• Black and white checkered dance floor
• Molecular structure of a diamond
• Soundwaves acting like a trampoline
• Swing Dancing
• Dance floor tethered to the earth
• Military weapons shooting bubbles instead of bullets
• Pied Piper
• Planets lined up in a pendulum swing
• Pinball machine of planets
• Stars are portals into the party
• People are pinballs about to be launched
• Girl swimming in space
• The doors of perception
• Planetarium
• Archaic astrarium
• Stars forming unique constellations
• Leave it to Beaver art
• Salvador Dali paintings (surrealism)
• Wolf in sheep’s clothing
• Sheep in wolf’s clothing
• Post-apocalyptic picture with greys accented by bright red balloons
• Scissors severing the ties to reality

#4) Synthesize ideas into concepts:

Concept #1:

I will use the theme of being carefree, and will express this visually by displaying a silhouetted couple swing dancing with a space backdrop.  The dancing couple will have their hands together, but the girl will be floating upwards in defiance of gravity.  The picture will take center stage of this portrait style poster with the wording on both the top and bottom.  Airy space clouds and planets will occupy the backdrop of this poster to make use of any negative space.  This will be a Conceptual poster.

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