Community Profile

This is a community for discussing outsider music, song poems, offbeat composers, novelty tunes, obscure musical oddities, enigmatic and iconoclastic musical artists. The music we discuss here most often defies easy genre categorization.

Posting links to audio files is highly encouraged. Musical artists who fall into any of the categories as defined below are welcome to share their music and ideas here. Please read these posting guidelines if you are uncertain as to what is appropriate posting content.

Musicologist and deejay Irwin Chusid defines Outsider Music in his book Songs in the Key of Z:

"Autonomy is often the prevailing modus, the process intensely solipsistic. Outsider efforts thus reflect greater individual control over the final creative contour. This is partly attributable to the low-budget operations of many Outsiders, and in some cases to their inability or unwillingness to cooperate with or trust anyone but themselves. It's ironic that the less corporate money at an artist's disposal, the more singular the vision.

In this, the Outsider represents greater creative purity, something closer to a natural state. Equally ironic, because many Outsiders sound perfectly 'unnatural.' Perhaps 'visceral' would be a better adjective to describe the enigmatic Outsider process.

This inscrutability -- our inability to fully comprehend the internal calculus of Outsider art -- partly explains its charisma. Art under the microscope, art denuded, is art demystified.

We can listen to Outsider Music. We can analyze, appreciate and extol it. But we can never fully understand the odd compulsions and stupefying inner visions of those who create it.”

Using this broad definition, we wish to limit the community to discussing musical forms that fall within, or close enough to, these general parameters and aesthetics. This may include music and artists that fit the following criteria:

Outsiders
Generally, they are artists who have no ties to the music industry (like Jandek or BJ Snowden), have cut a path that is so uniquely personal that the music industry is often at a loss as to how to market them (like Daniel Johnston and Syd Barrett), or had brief pops in the mainstream but were considered too "out there" (like Captain Beefheart and Tiny Tim).

Offbeat Composers
Sometimes very serious, accomplished musical virtuosos took strange and wonderful turns, journeying way off from their original compasses, or inventing forms that were ahead of, or out of step with, their time. Harry Partch and Bruce Haack are examples of such musicians.

Novelties and Oddities
The detritus and unintentional kitsch of popular music, the weird ditties and odd expressions that have surfaced over the years, from crooning sci-fi actors to old housewives who were given record deals, from money-driven record producers attempting to cash in on trends to sincere Christian singers attempting to spread the word of God.

Song-Poems
Populism married commericalism and produced the song-poem as its bastard offspring. In the 60s and 70s, small ads in magazines, comics and pulps advertised "your poems set to music." Aspiring amateur songwriters would send in a set of lyrics to a company, along with a payment, and receive a vanity pressing of studio musicians performing their songs. This resulted in a vast array of eclectic musical folk art.

Visionary Artists
These are musical artists that may be considered outsiders by some, or they are artists who have followed their own musical ideas to the extent that they stand alone out in the left field of the musical landscape. Some contemporary artists have created musical works that are every bit as interesting and challenging as the above forms of music.

Related Links
MungBeing #2 featuring outsider art & music
Outsider Music Mailing List
Songs in the Key of Z
WFMU: Freeform Music
American Song-Poem Music Archives
Aspen multimedia magazine sound archives
April Winchell's Multimedia Collection
Otis Fodder's 365 Days
Incorrect Music Siftings
What is Outsider Art?
Weirdo Music list of download sites
outsider music entry in Wikipedia

The Outsider Music Community Project
Musical artists participating in this community have contributed a variety of MP3 tracks to this project. It showcases the works of those who are interested in, or influenced by, outsider music - and some may even be considered outsiders in and of themselves. Community members are encouraged to check this out, and submit pieces to share.


This community is maintained by jodymeme, spacemummy, and vargtimmen.

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