[atlantaprog] Re: shallow analysis

> I don't think so.  If you ask people what they like about songs or bands,
> they'll tell you things like, "I really like the singers' voice," or "I
> like the attitude," or "I like how they remind me of this other band," or
> "I like what it makes me feel like," or "I like the dreamy quality...",
> things like this.  Why should this be dismissed as shallow and completely
> worthless??  We like bands and songs for the exact SAME reasons, we just
> like different bands!

In my experience teaching music classes to HS students, I think it's much
better to try to cultivate a more in-depth understanding of why somebody
likes or doesn't like a particular song/piece.  One of the key reasons why
people dislike music is that a particular piece doesn't have the same
assumptions about music that they do.  To provide a somewhat oversimplified
example, if somebody really focuses on melody above all, they're going to be
bewildered and annoyed by a piece of music that's really all about rhythm.
On the other hand, if you talk about rhythms and give them some idea of
what's going on in that piece, and they listen to it again, maybe it starts
to make sense.  And if they really start to listen to rhythm for the first
time in their lives, maybe they come away with a much deeper appreciation of
some of the music they already love.

The best gift I can provide as a teacher is a sense that good music is, as
Duke Ellington said, beyond category.  Furthermore, really good music
teaches you how to listen to it if you keep your ears open.

I think part of the problem with most radio stations is that people are
increasingly using music simply as aural wallpaper.  Thus the classical
music stations that play nothing but rickety-tickety chipper baroque stuff
with no vocals all day long because if they played Lieder or Bartok or
something somebody might have to pay attention.  Thus the slickly-produced
empty-headed pop tunes with a catchy little hook and dollar signs in their
eyes.  Still, enough smart, decent, stuff rewarding of repeated listening
manages to become popular (Radiohead, Queens of the Stone Age, etc.) that
this is actually a pretty good time for popular music.

-- Jack Bross

(p.s. I've been lurking on this group for a while, so though this is I think
my first actual post, I've enjoyed reading the messages)

Other related posts: