Re: The Highly Suspicious Origins of a Very Unrare Word…
[quote author=“WIERD”]So the WIERD has been wondering if like us anyone else has become slightly suspicious of the specific origins of the term ‘Minimal Synth’ in the past few years. I began wondering about this particularly after spending time in Germany and in correspondence with many slightly older musicians, and collectors and ‘historians’ of the genre who experienced it in Europe during its first wave in the early 80’s. In particular it seems interesting that people I very much respect such as Andreas from Second Decay, Geert and Peter from Twilight Ritual and most of all the ultimate historian in my opinion of all things cold and Minimal Mr. Joerg Opitz never use the word ‘Minimal Synth’ but rather ‘Minimal Music’ or ‘Minimal Elektronik Music’. It really seems that this ‘category is only used by fans in their 20’s and early 30’s - i.e. the ‘Internet Generation’...
With theses suspicions in mind I asked Frank Maier from Vinyl-On-Demand recently when he first noticed the word ‘Minimal Synth’ appearing, and he confirmed my suspicion and made the very acute observation that he first noticed the word appeared precisely with the introduction of Ebay in the mid/late 90’s and that he believes the term was ‘invented’ by a few very strategically minded ebay record sellers in Northern Europe to better facilitate American and English-Speaking buyers to find and buy their records when ‘Searching’ categories.
Perhaps this is simply a matter of language but I find it slighly difficult to say or hear this word in conversation knowing its origins were purely commercially oriented and not really a part of the authentic history of the Minimal Elektronik genre…very rare for sure… :?:
Hate to pick up old threads, but anyway: cute conspiracy theory! Can’t adopt it as I’m pre-internet generation and I recall the term “minimal synth” from the early 80’s. In my circle (that was in NY) we were aware of/using it by late ‘81 or ‘82, I’d say. Can’t remember where we picked it up from, but surely we did not invent it.
Sorry to disagree with everybody… 