A HIGHLY CONDENSED HISTORY OF DRONES IN MUSIC AND SOME BLOG-SIZED THOUGHTS ON WHY PEOPLE STILL LISTEN TO THEM
In Indian music the four stringed tambura is used to produce the drone which is commonly known as a ‘Raag’ – a colloquial word for the classical term ‘raga’. This describes the scale pattern and melodic motif as well as being a word that embraces the philosophical and moral ideas defining a musical performance.
In Northern Indian classical music, improvisation takes place with the musical anchor of any one of 200 main raags. Each one is different and contains its own complex set of rules. In India another way of saying ‘drone’ is ‘Nada Brahma’ (God is sound).
American composer, La Monte Young is generally credited with bringing the drone from its Indian roots into the Western classical environment. Check out his Notes on Continuous Periodic Composite Sound Waveform Environment Realizations for some un-light reading & audio samples.
John Cale, himself a former pupil of La Monte Young, helped redefine this radicalism from Avant-Garde modernist backwater into the realm of popular music on tracks like The Velvet Underground’s ‘Venus In Furs’.
The use of single repetitive tones is in marked contrast to the conventional sound of Western Pop’s structured hooks and climaxes.
So why do people still listen to them?
John Blades, a radio programmer from Australia put forward a convincing explanation:
“in recent years, there has been an increase in total listening, and drone listening requires total immersion in the sound environment. I also believe that, with the global atmosphere of violence and terrorism, meditative and total listening experiences are more highly regarded”
In other words drones can connect the listener to the need for a sense of permanence and stability. Those who criticise the lack of variety are missing the fact that this is also a significant part of its appeal.
While New Weird links to ethereal acoustic folk can clearly be heard in modern drone-based artists like Pelt, Double Leopards and Six Organs of Admittance, drones are also a key element in the psych-rock tribalism of more noise orientated bands like Animal Collective, Yellow Swans or Vibracathedral Orchestra.
An actively engaged listener can see the monotone not as monotony but as possibility -an absorbing sonic canvas which can create meditative moods, disorientation or a healthy combination of both.
