the acquisition of a 'taste'

[Shane Sanders]

We all know that some things really are an acquired taste. In the literal sense, beer/coffee/tobacco probably don't thrill people the first time they imbibe, but later, you learn to discern what 'moves ya'.

Let's talk about the aesthetics of the same process in terms of musical genres and even particular works. Feel free to expand the topic in any direction. I'd really just like some new conversations that aren't about gear or politics. The forum is starting to bore me a bit, but I know there are some of you out there that could talk for days about this stuff. Let's do it.

What got me thinking about it was my immersion in and love of doom and funeral doom. Most metal bores me to tears and has a comical posturing aspect that I just won't bother with any more. But then there are certain bands I always come back to and there's an evolutionary path that I've taken that I can sort of trace. I find new stuff all the time. It's like treasure hunting.

I find it bizarre that I can really love "In The Depths Of R'lyeh" by Catacombs, or the whole Nile, Evoken, Confessor, Anathema, Electric Wizard catalogs, etc. And so many more. And yet I know people who really seem incapable of ever appreciating any of it--it departs from 'the norm' too much. They can't even attempt to appreciate it. What stops them? What makes me devour new experiences like this and align my life so that I can seek them out more efficiently?

I suppose what I'm saying is "Isn't being an artist a phenomenal happenstance?" I mean, here you are, a bundle of tissue and consciousness, projecting your mind into fantastical arrangements of sound and light or whatever. Trippy.

[Shane Sanders]

Maybe sometimes people are operating from more surface-y patterns rather than archetypes, if that makes any sense (fine line, I know). Like they need to hear how a song fits in a 'market' before they can absorb it. They need it to remind them of something or to really be like something they know already. Or maybe they're just really conservative in their thinking and are frightened by extreme music.

[mauseoleum]

Quod licet bovi, non licet bon jovi

[Shane Sanders]

[opia]

It just sounds like so much patting oneself on the back for being different

[mauseoleum]

Merda taurorum animas conturbit

[opia]

Vescere bracis meis

[mauseoleum]

Aquila non copit murem

[Shane Sanders]

It just sounds like so much patting oneself on the back for being different

Then I've not made my points well enough.

[Kim Lajoie]

Maybe sometimes people are operating from more surface-y patterns rather than archetypes, if that makes any sense (fine line, I know). Like they need to hear how a song fits in a 'market' before they can absorb it. They need it to remind them of something or to really be like something they know already. Or maybe they're just really conservative in their thinking and are frightened by extreme music.

Or maybe they're in a cargo cult.

Actually I'm being serious. It's not uncommon for people to like a style of music and even compose in a style of music simply because that's what their heros are doing, particularly when they don't quite understand what it is about the music that works for them.

Not to say this is a bad thing. I know I started composing the music I like before I really understood WHY I liked it (what compositional devices made the music work for me). I suppose the key is in moving beyond "copying something because it's cool", to understanding how different composition (or production techniques work on the mind of the listener. You probably know you're about to reach that point when you find yourself considering using a "really cool" technique that sounds great on its own, and you choose not to use it because it doesn't fit in the context of the rest of the music.


...sorry, what was this thread about?


-Kim.

[tapper mike]

As B.B. King once said.
The style you are listening two when you cross that big 12~13 year old age group is usually the stuff that stays with you for the rest of your life.

I can't tolerate traditional asian music. (from india to japan)
I have a very low threshold for microtonality.

I also have no taste for country which would seem at odds with music I really do enjoy Cowboy Western, Jazz, Bluegrass, Blues and Rock. All of which have infuences in Country.

[Kim Lajoie]

As B.B. King once said.
The style you are listening two when you cross that big 12~13 year old age group is usually the stuff that stays with you for the rest of your life.

OH NO!!!

-Kim.

[tapper mike]

The heart of any music (not just rock) is the beat.

The beat is feeling. Without a beat the music is void. One can't have content without context. as soon as you place context of the beat you have forever taken the leap into a style because styles are defined more by the flow or beat of a piece. Free time is not as free as one would suspect. One will always fall back into a cycle of a rythmic value..

[ouroboros]

yes, I tend to think of it as an emotional attachment/personal meaning issue. It seems there is a sort of tipping point though for some in which the technique and awareness of structure, etc., becomes the point, or at least as crucial as the sentiment being expressed. I'm sure much has been written on this elsewhere and I am only poorly parroting things, but I don't know how elese to justify my utter fondness for some really bad stuff And so corporate advertising can be post-modern and authentic through concentrated "viral marketing", por ejemplo.

[Shane Sanders]

In the doom-y stuff I work on from time to time there's a distinct drive to abandon technique or any pretense of playing skill. I just want raw emotion to erupt out of a rudimentary form and complex timbres. I gravitate toward ABAB forms with some sort of weird low-end gravity. I love bass sounds. Sadly, I don't have to work very hard to abandon harmonic complexity because I've never really assimilated Western music in the way a 'songwriter' would do it. I just find poles of intervals that I can hang ideas on.

I worshipped Rush when I was 13 or 14 years old, and most of what people think of as classic rock--Pink Floyd, Sabbath, Ozzy, etc. I can't really hear any Rush in the stew of ideas in the exerpt below. It's really kind of an 'art brut' approach:

edit: this is a new version
http://www.box.net/shared/static/vekkbfxgkw.mp3

But there's probably some Jimmy Page in there in a very obtuse way. Definitely an Evoken influence in there, which is a relatively new infatuation.

The early-influence idea intrigues me, though. Maybe I was drawn to the dramatic power of riffing more than complex forms (even though both Rush and Zeppelin had some fairly complex songs). I think I ultimately do appreciate mood more than formal construction.