MB> If I want a copy, I will get it on standard cassettes.  I find that
MB> "Sound quality" is usually pointless, and it would be a big trouble to
MB> either copy these on regular cassettes or bring that video player in
MB> the basement where I listen to the music most of the time..
Well, what you'd probably need to do in that situation is just make a 
cassette copy from the VHS HiFi tape.  Copying from cassette to cassette adds 
a lot of noise.  Copying from HiFi videocassette to cassette does not.  I 
have actually used my VHS HiFi deck as a target device during 4-track 
mixdowns just so that I can then copy that mix back to tracks 1 and 2 of a 
fresh cassette tape and have two more tracks free.  The results were 
amazingly clean.  The Beatles did something similar to this when they 
recorded "Sgt. Pepper's" and "Magical Mystery Tour".  Sometimes they even 
copied back and forth between two machines three and four times.  Listen to 
the hiss on "I Am The Walrus" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" sometime!
MB> Does Portishead, Ruby, Tricky, Bj”rk, etc. fit your definition?.. They
MB> don't have much melody nor rhythm, they concentrate on weird sounds.
I've heard of Portishead but have not heard them.  I've never heard until now 
of Ruby and Tricky.  I think Bjork is cute sometimes, sometimes not.  Funny 
you should mention her.  I just listened to The Sugarcubes, "Stick Around For 
Joy" last night for the first time in a couple of years.  I've never listened 
to Bjork's solo work, however.
MB> Aesthetics depends on the person who's hearing it.
This is true, because I think my music is very aesthetic.  I won't record 
music that grates on my nerves!  :)  Unfortunately, it grates on a lot of 
other people's nerves!
MB> Who's talking about pop?
I am.  I'm a US Top 40 hits junkie - well, except for the 90s.  Something is 
wrong in my opinion about the pop music in this decade.  It doesn't fit with 
all that has gone before, yet I don't see it as the start of a new era or 
anything,
MB> Like, "Ice Ice Baby" (1990) taken from a 1982 Queen song?
That's the one that usually comes to mind first, and yes you are correct. 
Another earlier example was Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" which lifted riffs from 
Van Halen and Kiss.
MB> Don't be fooled with most people's definition of "aesthetic".
I guess my definition of that stems from my own pop mentality and from 
considering what most people think is good music.  I like you have "weird 
aesthetic taste" as well, but I seem to always see myself the way I really am 
- the odd man out.
MB> Interesting, but you should try PC's someday. ;)
I hate PCs.  I have one at work.  It's supposed to be 33x faster than the 
1MHz C64 spare unit I have there hidden away in the credenza.  It's not.  The 
internal achitecture of PCs sucks.  If anything, I'm getting an Amiga as soon 
as the dust settles from all of the legal ownership exchanges and whatnot 
that is surrounding that platform currently.  A 68060-based 50MHz Amiga 
system will blow a Pentium 133 out of the water.  PCs are clunky old heaps in 
comparison.
But this is another topic!  ;-)
Myke Carter
mykec@delphi.com
P.S.  Do you have an Internet email address?
--- (C) 1996
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