Re: Loud music

[alex olsen <alex.ookpik@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Linda,

The first part of your post is a very interesting piece of music
history -- a very interesting read. I would though have to echo
Bruno's comment about the current diversity in music (although I've
not sure I'd argue that Gaga is as sophisticated as the Beach Boys,
but then again I'm not so into the sophistication debate in music
anyway). :-)

More specifically, I'd be curious to hear what specific genres of
music you are referring to -- e.g. in the paragraph below. You say
"rock music" but it sounds like more of a reference to Lady Gaga-type
theatrics...

> However, rock music today has taken a different direction.  With the
> increasing cutbacks of music education in the schools, music has become
> more primitive structurally even if this is hidden behind increasingly
> expensive and complex technology.  There are rock performances involving a
> large degree of spectacle, where the music often consists of the singer
> repeating the same note, occasionally making a departure to sing another
> note or two.  The audience does not notice that there is no melody present
> because the attention is directed to the spectacle.  Similarly, the rhythm
> is very repetitive and a 1-2 rhythm with the accent on the second beat is
> considered as novel by the audience.

In our current popular music landscape even the term "rock" caries
with it such multiplicity in terms of feel, content, rhythm,
production approach, and cultural milieu, that the term really needs a
more specific qualifier added to it -- e.g. pop-rock, heavy metal,
indie rock (a giant multi-headed beast), postrock... etc. even just to
name the most broad of categories -- to evoke any one particular
musical image.
Are there specific groups you're thinking of?

It's interesting to me as well because your descriptions of this broad
category of current music sounds not unlike a description of punk rock
to me -- simple melodies, simple beats, repetitive -- which I suppose
some people have said is "not music", etc.. And yet punk has been
around since the late 60s and is certainly no longer "youth music" --
it is also a far cry from being tied to conservatism.

To me this all speaks to the very subjective nature of music and the
musical experience. And aesthetics.
A friend recently said to me : "What I call noise, you call sound".

An interesting topic...

:-)
Alex




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