Drone Music : boring?
 

I was wondering : am I the only one who finds drone music quite boring?
I don't want to start a deep discussion about drone music and the musicians that can be "linked" to such genre, just curious about your general view on the matter and the feelings you guys have about this music.

At least for me....it's like, when i got deeper into ambient music and discovered the true gems of the genre, I've loved it ever since.
Drone music is awesome.

I should of went with "I love the following "drone" bands (specify in your posts), all the others are useless." because I do love Boris & Bardo Pond who both do a lot of really drone-y stuff, but the rest I find incredibly boring..

I've tried really hard to understand it, but I just don't get it.

_slavo_ , I knew you could be one of the first boarders to answer, i remember an old thread where you asked for some suggestions/reccomendations about drone music... You know, I'm not that fond on this genre, but I think that in a (maybe) near future I'll give another listen to some of the records I have ( mostly sunn O))) ) and probably I'll end up finding them less boring and more interesting... Dunno, time will tell, but right now I can't stand more than a few minutes of this music, I quickly lose attention and that is NOT a good thing. This prevents me enjoying this music. Shame on me.

no, fuck, no! everyone's got his/her own taste in music and there's nothing bad about you not liking drone stuff. I can't stand No-Neck Blues Band and Sunburned Hand of the Man, for example, and I know that majority of this board are nuts about them. But still can't understand why ;-)

It's all about personal taste.:)

Version 1: Ultimately, it depends on the artist, but mostly, yes.

Version 2: Ultimately, it depends on the artist (in reciprocation, it depends on one's own mindset while listening as well), but mostly, yeah, it's boring.

when drone is good, its great- boris, some sunn o))), axolotl, sunburned (most of)
when its bad its boring- too many to list

up to the listener i fear... also up for interpretation. i mean some folk class spacemen 3 as drone.............

Good point, but considering i love Paik's stuff, even the "heavier" tracks (and, even if it's not "pure drone", there is a resemblance..), i meant that there's probably something I could appreciate in drone's mare magnum, I need to manage and give enough attention to some good records... but it's not the right moment for me.

For a second I thought you meant Nam June Paik, the video artist that died recently. Ubu has some files of him accompanying Henning Christiansen on piano...some good stuff...Joseph Beuys does something or another with a telephone.
But yeah, this would be an example of good drony avant-garde music. The pieces consist of a meandering piano line over multi-textured noise & sound patterns...no guitars on it though.

...maybe look to Branca, Thurston, Lee, and Fripp for that.

I know a lot of people who find it very boring (so you're not the only one nicfittt) however I find it quite enjoyable.
Haven't seen it live though but I've heard that's it usually pretty boring.

if you don't like drones all your opinions on music are henceforth invalid.

What's the first album that can be considered "drone music" in your opinion?
p.s. my opinions on music are valid only for me, it's an undeniable fact :).

I like a lot of drone stuff but I take it on a case by case basis as with all things. I don't think anyone has really mentioned anything that I would call drone. Sunburned and NNCK aren't at all really. They can sometimes be a bit droney but only on occaision.

Things like Theatre of Eternal Music I would call drone and that is obviously mostly great.

You'll probably find that drone music predates records themselves by, I imagine, several thousand years. I don't really understand what is meant by 'drone music', as drones are as indistinct and varied and aspect of music as anything else. You might as well say, "What's your favourite melodic music?" I like some of the current bands who use drones, but not because they are 'drone music', but because they are 'good music'. Make sense?

Edit: I will put a shout out for Iraq's finest Munir Bashir though.

Boris .. drone? What? They have some droney stuff on their albums, but I'd hardly call any of their stuff straight-up "drone".

Drone is an amazing genre, however. And not boring in the least. In fact, it's usually more interesting than so-called "harsh noise".

i really enjoy listening to drone as much as possible. not only can it be a beautiful listening experience, but dissecting it and completely understanding what's happening can be really rewarding.

Certainly there are those who find drone music boring, and I can't come up with a way to argue against them just because I love it and find it satisfying. What I'm curious about, is how somebody could wind up posting on a board centered around Sonic Youth who finds drone music boring? I suppose if your favorite album by them were Rather Ripped, I might understand, but even Dirty has a fair share of droniness at points.

I'm a huge fan going back (at least) to the Theater of Eternal Music that the Velvet Underground evolved out of. As for boring live, it all depends on what you are trying to get out of the experience. In general, you can't "mosh" to drone (though I've seen it done at SY shows, so it's not impossible) but if you are more intested in listening to something as it is happening, then it's as interesting as on recordings. I agree with val-holla-ing that finding out how something is made can be very interesting, but then I've seen people like Andrew Liles who supplied really great video imagery timed to the music instead, and that was just as good in a different way.

Not at all boring. Very emotionally inducive under the proper circumstances. I can understand how some may find it rather boring, but I find it's more of mood-altaring music than anything

Exciting, will survive the test of time.

Drone wiki