Devo, Run DMC, and the Chili Peppers

I didn't actually KNOW any of them, but the Springsteen one triggered immediately..

Hmm, that's a hint of a mustache, maybe it's freddie mercury - yes!
Hmmm, that's a bike, maybe purple rain, yes!
Hmm, that skin tone is 2 light for 2 of them, yes, got it!
WTF is that frilly shit, looks like part of a dress, hmmm, Madonna, yes!

I lucked out for the magic age. My brother, 3 years older, guided most of my choices, and his favorite time frame was 65-70s, and most of those bands were still in active production.

I played name that tune in jail. I'd pace the block, and there were 2 guys arguing over a radio at one end. Hey you, name that tune. I'd spit it out after a bar or 2. For hours and hours. I rarely got it wrong.

Did the same when listening to music with the boy. We'd compete to see how fast/fewest notes needed to figure it out.

(Was just cutting-to-the chase, re most-all random samples encountered, over the many years.)
Curmudgeonhood however, does try to balance the [-]s with whatever ameliorating [+]s emerge--as in cases where specific examples, some from these parts--have shown the possibility of my taking too-seriously those random examples. Agreed there are some I can appreciate, more I can tolerate ... but no 'genre' which appeals.

Sure: Marks, Pounds, Francs circumscribed the survival of the Masters--ever thus, before fairly recent slight-distributions of wealth were wrested. Even the fictions of Amadeus demonstrated well the patronage as had to be accorded the er, Patrons. Now everything is pure-bizness. Anyone imagine that 1% of songs sold in last 10 years--will be around in 20, 50 more?

Not implying, nor have I, that those in the IGM who appreciate the culled-best of (modern marketed media?) therefore must not appreciate the earlier.
(For that matter, I have my own favs of the 'Masters' and merely the good? ... and connect-not with some others.) Beiderbecke, Dixieland, some other few jazz forms, folk songs and many melodies all-along .. tickle my fancy. Music was essential in getting through the military-mindset in my early schools--but not Que Sera, Sera or A-You're Adorable pop-craft of those days. My cohorts had more classical records than the pop-45s du jour. Yes, some hummed the ditties, but no one took any of those seriously. We knew Doris Day wasn't a virgin (either.)

Mostly.. still true for me--the weirdness also predictability, have become Standard now: the focus upon a few amplified stringed instruments is a travesty also tragedy for all young, malleable minds, growing up amidst this monotonous sound-stage. I believe, via experience and observation: tykes need the (at least acquaintance with) that variety of Other Instruments, most of those found in an orchestra: plus some few *innovations, new but similar authentic, non-programmable human-only instruments. There is no substitute for the rewards earned by becoming better at a complex learning-curve, involving the whole body. Is karaoke sing-along a substitute for that effort?

* An innovation: Sergei N's commissioning of a 4-valve flugelhorn, demonstrating via his emulation of a rich cello sound: garnering appreciations by string players as well as us brass-bedazzled. There's also ppp and ƒƒƒ dynamic range==everything in between. Perpetual SHOUTING is fucking-insane. And it has become habitual. (I wonder if Ian Underwood went deaf, playing those gigs with The Mothers; haven't kept in touch.)

And no, I don't hate plucked strings per se, cf. Segovia, lutes, harps etc. But as a sole-diet, I see this fixation is akin to existing on pabulum, while all around are feasts. I don't care if the formula-music today has derived-from (you can't much devolve-from..) early Ad-mens' poisoning the world with Sales-jingles. Using an MRI now, to flag, trigger certain primitive levels of sound-processing? seems neither art nor 'science' but just more of the Crass: do x variants/sell more/hope not too many notice ... the parentage of them all. Sure this works--from the arithmetic of bizness models, it does.

Change is inevitable but devolution is optional--except within a kultur where marketed, robo-created sounds (the score and the programmed-instruments) have fulfilled Roger Price's Avoidism curse for all Consumers: If Everyone doesn't want it: Nobody gets it. We aren't quite there yet; orchestras still hold-on--largely via Patrons. When the rich are all 30-something Silly Valley brats, next: maybe that source of funds will disappear, too. We're already culturally impoverished compared with many (always a personal call). A trend or an anomaly?

tl;dr: The Average Still Sucks; the web can bring up my fellow curmudgeons' similar assessment: "popular music sucks" (also: "and is soulless") gets ~100k hits; didn't try n-variations. "Popular music is great" gets ~1.25M--first entry is, Why Classical Music? by Marcia Peck

Guess I'm stuck with my sensibilities/as youn'ses are. I don't mind being an outlier and--as with sex preference--nobody can Like what pisses them off, viscerally. Rationally though: My tastes are irrelevant, of course. Simply, I deem it tragic that a majority of tykes have never heard a full orchestra--let alone a live one. This may have abetted shallowness in other areas of mind growth, I can only surmise. Lenny Bernstein's concerts for young people demonstrated the instant-love many of these very-young children experienced; you can't fake expressions on those faces. I call this Loss a tragedy for those millions of fledgling ears, who never had any home exposure to Works which have survived centuries/across all cultures--except this one. That there have been $Ts made in the Bizness just underscores the emotional impoverishment elsewhere.

Post #394,816 by malraux 9/19/14 5:50:08 PM Reply	Devo, Run DMC, and the Chili Peppers Are the only ones I listened to on that list. I don't make a habit of listening to them now. I don't mind some Queen and Elton John but the rest is not something I care to listen to these days. Regards, -scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
Post #394,817 by crazy 9/19/14 8:36:53 PM 9/19/14 8:44:36 PM Reply	15/20 - guessed most of them I didn't actually KNOW any of them, but the Springsteen one triggered immediately.. Hmm, that's a hint of a mustache, maybe it's freddie mercury - yes! Hmmm, that's a bike, maybe purple rain, yes! Hmm, that skin tone is 2 light for 2 of them, yes, got it! WTF is that frilly shit, looks like part of a dress, hmmm, Madonna, yes! I lucked out for the magic age. My brother, 3 years older, guided most of my choices, and his favorite time frame was 65-70s, and most of those bands were still in active production. I played name that tune in jail. I'd pace the block, and there were 2 guys arguing over a radio at one end. Hey you, name that tune. I'd spit it out after a bar or 2. For hours and hours. I rarely got it wrong. Did the same when listening to music with the boy. We'd compete to see how fast/fewest notes needed to figure it out. Edited by crazy Sept. 19, 2014, 08:44:36 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #394,840 by pwhysall 9/21/14 1:08:40 PM Reply	There's too much good new music to waste time listening to old bad music, just to check if it's still bad.
Post #394,842 by Another Scott 9/21/14 1:16:56 PM Reply	Re: There's too much good new music Like this? ;-) Cheers, Scott.
Post #394,845 by Ashton 9/21/14 4:25:03 PM Reply	There's too much good old music to waste time on the sound-alike, now-99%-algorithm-derived ..ever-$$$-inspired ..wash-rinse-Repeats, thankyouverymuch. Music-for-profit is exactly akin to Health Care-for-profit. Both unclear on the concept, so awfully that ... words nearly-always fail, amidst the cacophony, especially at ƒƒƒƒ Carrion (there's an aural-form of that, some notice.) (One could market Pure-Shit™ to a dung beetle in this enviro.) What was that LRPD'd phrase? ... Hell, Microsoft sells Vista!
Post #394,850 by pwhysall 9/21/14 6:10:23 PM Reply	Stop being a curmudgeon What's on the telly (and to which you are objecting) is a tiny, tiny fraction of what's actually out there, which doesn't comply with your uncharitable characterisation.
Post #394,852 by drook 9/21/14 8:08:10 PM Reply	Didn't Mozart write for patrons? -- Drew
Post #394,858 by malraux 9/21/14 8:37:41 PM Reply	I listened to a Clara, Bob Schumann, and Brahms festival tonight. And now I'm going to listen to Caravan Palace and Ewan Dobson. Classical composers wrote music to make a living as well. You limit your own horizons with your snobbery, Ashton. Regards, -scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
Post #394,863 by static 9/21/14 11:04:07 PM Reply	There is a reason the algorithms work. And that's because the respond to how our brains work. The human brain likes patterns. That is its primary mechanism for reducing the amount of information it is inundated with through our senses. But it also likes patterns that slightly defy our wetware prediction engines. This is why innovative arrangements work. Patterns within patterns within patterns on top of patterns. Wade. Just Add Story http://justaddstory.wordpress.com/
Post #394,870 by Ashton 9/22/14 4:19:01 AM Reply	Good points! but minor. (Was just cutting-to-the chase, re most-all random samples encountered, over the many years.) Curmudgeonhood however, does try to balance the [-]s with whatever ameliorating [+]s emerge--as in cases where specific examples, some from these parts--have shown the possibility of my taking too-seriously those random examples. Agreed there are some I can appreciate, more I can tolerate ... but no 'genre' which appeals. Sure: Marks, Pounds, Francs circumscribed the survival of the Masters--ever thus, before fairly recent slight-distributions of wealth were wrested. Even the fictions of Amadeus demonstrated well the patronage as had to be accorded the er, Patrons. Now everything is pure-bizness. Anyone imagine that 1% of songs sold in last 10 years--will be around in 20, 50 more? Not implying, nor have I, that those in the IGM who appreciate the culled-best of (modern marketed media?) therefore must not appreciate the earlier. (For that matter, I have my own favs of the 'Masters' and merely the good? ... and connect-not with some others.) Beiderbecke, Dixieland, some other few jazz forms, folk songs and many melodies all-along .. tickle my fancy. Music was essential in getting through the military-mindset in my early schools--but not Que Sera, Sera or A-You're Adorable pop-craft of those days. My cohorts had more classical records than the pop-45s du jour. Yes, some hummed the ditties, but no one took any of those seriously. We knew Doris Day wasn't a virgin (either.) Mostly.. still true for me--the weirdness also predictability, have become Standard now: the focus upon a few amplified stringed instruments is a travesty also tragedy for all young, malleable minds, growing up amidst this monotonous sound-stage. I believe, via experience and observation: tykes need the (at least acquaintance with) that variety of Other Instruments, most of those found in an orchestra: plus some few innovations, new but similar authentic, non-programmable human-only instruments. There is no substitute for the rewards earned by becoming better at a complex learning-curve, involving the whole body. Is karaoke sing-along a substitute for that effort? An innovation: Sergei N's commissioning of a 4-valve flugelhorn, demonstrating via his emulation of a rich cello sound: garnering appreciations by string players as well as us brass-bedazzled. There's also ppp and ƒƒƒ dynamic range==everything in between. Perpetual SHOUTING is fucking-insane. And it has become habitual. (I wonder if Ian Underwood went deaf, playing those gigs with The Mothers; haven't kept in touch.) And no, I don't hate plucked strings per se, cf. Segovia, lutes, harps etc. But as a sole-diet, I see this fixation is akin to existing on pabulum, while all around are feasts. I don't care if the formula-music today has derived-from (you can't much devolve-from..) early Ad-mens' poisoning the world with Sales-jingles. Using an MRI now, to flag, trigger certain primitive levels of sound-processing? seems neither art nor 'science' but just more of the Crass: do x variants/sell more/hope not too many notice ... the parentage of them all. Sure this works--from the arithmetic of bizness models, it does. Change is inevitable but devolution is optional--except within a kultur where marketed, robo-created sounds (the score and the programmed-instruments) have fulfilled Roger Price's Avoidism curse for all Consumers: If Everyone doesn't want it: Nobody gets it. We aren't quite there yet; orchestras still hold-on--largely via Patrons. When the rich are all 30-something Silly Valley brats, next: maybe that source of funds will disappear, too. We're already culturally impoverished compared with many (always a personal call). A trend or an anomaly? tl;dr: The Average Still Sucks; the web can bring up my fellow curmudgeons' similar assessment: "popular music sucks" (also: "and is soulless") gets ~100k hits; didn't try n-variations. "Popular music is great" gets ~1.25M--first entry is, Why Classical Music? by Marcia Peck Guess I'm stuck with my sensibilities/as youn'ses are. I don't mind being an outlier and--as with sex preference--nobody can Like what pisses them off, viscerally. Rationally though: My tastes are irrelevant, of course. Simply, I deem it tragic that a majority of tykes have never heard a full orchestra--let alone a live one. This may have abetted shallowness in other areas of mind growth, I can only surmise. Lenny Bernstein's concerts for young people demonstrated the instant-love many of these very-young children experienced; you can't fake expressions on those faces. I call this Loss a tragedy for those millions of fledgling ears, who never had any home exposure to Works which have survived centuries/across all cultures--except this one. That there have been $Ts made in the Bizness just underscores the emotional impoverishment elsewhere. Auto-rebuttal: The 'cultured' Germans of their Great Depression, may have heard the Ode to Joy/no translation required: but that experience didn't prevent their going-all-beastly to put food on their families, thence move to remove that need (from those next dead families in their wake.) 'Classical music' alone won't save you from Beastliness. If there were still, in the dis-USA more real instruments in use today than the present handful? would it still be the dis-USA? Beats me. (We'd have a better grade of Insanity here though, I wot.) ..and we'd still have Pianissimo along with the merely occasional ... Fortissimo. Moderation in modulation.

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