it's just like the Jews waiting for their Messiah, it's really hard to think it's gonna happen any time soon. That's the thing, most people are just collectively jumping on the trend bandwagon when it comes to electronic music and noone seems to be making anything remotely creative anymore besides a few select individuals.

Its a chicken/egg scenario. The music came first, the genre-labels came afterwards. Its not people who are fixated on them, its the fact that there's nowhere left for it to go. Corpse.

well, perhaps, someone will create something completely different (highly doubtful), and label it as something else and we can kill IDM.

Maybe. Can you honestly see that happening? We've reached the pinnacle of electronic music.

I cannot see it happening, no, but I can also say that I cannot predict the future nor believe we have reached a pinnacle or resolution to what can infinitely be done in the electronic spectrum of music. If you actually look at what the term "IDM" stands for. There will be a diverse belief and terminology that is exhalted or compared/contrasted about what it actually truly is. Let's just basically ask "Can there be any more creative forces within the electronic music communities?" This could possibly be answered a little easier.

As I see it, a true IDM artist is someone who creates electronic music that sounds unique for its genre ( ie. what Squarepusher is for DnB )
A person who copies other IDM artists is not an IDM artist by any means, because he has not created anything that sounds unique for their "genre".

IDM is an umbrella term for a group of original artists, and not a genre with an identifiable sound, and that is the way we need to keep it. Once it becomes a genre with its own "sound" its dead.
So, our only hope is to seperate IDM from IDM-wannabes. We need to create another term for artists that copy existing IDM artists and seperate the wannabes from the originals, because if we don't, IDM is going to turn into a genre of 90% crap and 10% good stuff, instead of a term for describing artists with 100% good stuff.

But it seems that this has already happened. Within just the few years, it seems that it has turned to bland, overused crap. One of the last creative albums I can think of was Joseph Nothing's "Dummy Variations", and that was released a couple years ago. I'm sure there a few, here and there that are completely different, but not many. The first time I heard the album I was in shock because it had a very weird sound to it, but incorporated the complex programming you see in IDM, yet a quality that created happiness of being at a club...it was amazing.

Yes it has happened already, but it can get worse. So we should now refer to IDM as IDM and to IDM-clichés as IDM-clichés.

And I will also have to look into that album you mentioned, sounds exciting.

It's on Planet mu, mike paradinas's label (mu-ziq) and it mixes some traditional sounds, international type sounds, drill n bass, IDM, and a big touch of happiness Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I think it's creative as hell.

i agree with Josh on this one. it seems to be relative in almost every genre. there will be a time where things will turn to bland staticness. but, fortunately we are blessed with those who come along and recreate creativity again and refresh our ears and minds. eventually someone will come along and brighten things up. our greatest asset is to turn to our favorite golden oldies and explore their depth and magnitude. there is much to be learned and much to be researched.