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.
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.