the acquisition of a 'taste'

[Emerald Tablet]

Ooooh well taste.

I'm a funny guy. When I was a child I liked to listen to conversations without noticing the words. Just the timing the pitch and the pace and it sounded like music to my ear. Later when I worked in a steel factory I loved listening to the factory sounds

I always liked micro tonality especially blue notes that weren't to "in key" The notes in lets get It own from Marvin gay or should've been me from Gladys Night / BB king thrill is gone come to mind

When I discovered Zappa I liked it right away. But also many Dolly Parton songs including the faked tear in her voice
Come to think of it there isn't a lot of music I dislike. Perhaps I have no taste at all

To me Taste is like an opinion - when you have a clear opinion reality will always present you an exception to your rule (your opinion)
The moment you say you dislike country or pop or house or whatever musical form - some day you will hear an exception to your rule

If taste is genetically and culturally and personally determined it can probably only be called good or bad when its conflicting or agreeing with someone else's standard as seen from his or hers reference window.

[tapper mike]

Bends and passing/neighboring or comparitive tones isn't microtonality.

An octave can be divided equally between more then 12 semi tones or less
Listen to some trad chinese. It all sounds horribly out of tune to me.

[Shane Sanders]

Bends and passing/neighboring or comparitive tones isn't microtonality.

An octave can be divided equally between more then 12 semi tones or less
Listen to some trad chinese. It all sounds horribly out of tune to me.

It is horribly out of tune with the system our Western ears are bringing to the table. But one can acquire a 'taste' for it with some time. Not that a person would need to do so in order to be intelligent or anything. I'm just saying that you can grow to like it, genuinely like it. Asian and Middle Eastern music is huge for me, but I'd probably never really heard it except in films until I got to university. Over time, it has impacted me and I seek it out.

[VicDiesel]

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

Nonsense.





Victor.

[tapper mike]

looks like the only two people for that floutist were the camera man and the sound man.

As for Gregorian chants if you listen you will notice it has beat and measure.
subdued but present.

[vurt]

what about drone music, ambient music, noise. no beat no measure in many of these productions.

[herodotus]

If the world of music were drawn round a clockface there would be, what, a few seconds between rush and pink floyd? The whole ambit of rock would cover possibly a couple of minutes. Tracne less than a second.

Your taste hasn't changed. It's stuck, as tapper mike (quoting BB King) says, at about the time your balls dropped.

You're such a hater.

But seriously, most people don't listen to music. They use it as background noise. This background noise is the 'soundtrack to their life'. What music this soundtrack comprises depends on how they like to dramatize themselves. People who are small but who want to be tough listen to Slayer or Lamb of God. People who fancy themselves intellectuals will listen to anything from Schoenberg (rare) to Charlie Parker (less rare), but only if it is respected by the consensus makers that they regard as authorities. People who have far-left political tendencies and a great deal of anger will listen to Discharge or Crass (old) or NOFX (less old). And the vast majority will listen to something polished and bland and sort of pretty because they long for a life that is polished and bland and sort of pretty.

It is possible to appreciate almost any music qua music. Only Kenny G and REO Speedwagon and a few others (well, maybe more than a few) strike me as being completely without musical interest of some sort. It's just that most people don't really care about music except insofar as it is a part of the aforementioned 'life soundtrack'.

[Benedict]

Hey Reo Speedwagon were cool and if I really ned to sleep Kenny G is the cure every time.

[Navij11]

How about simply listening because it fits the mood best at the time, rather than setting the mood? Being mostly an electronic fan, I can say that I enjoy Drum and Bass and Hardcore Acid early in the morning: It wakes me up and gets my psyched for the day to come.

In the afternoon, I prefer more breakbeat and liquid funk type of songs, as I continue to roll through the day, I keep going. At night, I prefer the deep house and atmospheric dnb, as its calming and puts me to sleep. Whether or not I actually like this music is debatable, but it all fits perfectly into what I do each day.

[ughnonumus]

I suppose what I'm saying is "Isn't being an artist a phenomenal happenstance?"

It is if you say that it is. Personally, I believe that everything happens for a reason.

The occult explanation of phenomena is quite different from that which materialists and spiritualists pose.

I mean, here you are, a bundle of tissue and consciousness, projecting your mind into fantastical arrangements of sound and light or whatever. Trippy.

Unless one can bring the abstract into the concrete in a real living way, one will profit very little...if at all.

I was offering that up more in a celebratory manner than really making an observation about the underlying reality of it. But I do sense the formal structure of reality around us has a reason, but the specifics are sometimes very random-y-pandemonium-y to me.

The occult explanation of phenomena is based on observations (i.e. each percept depends on them). However, it is not "random-y-pandemonium-y" in the least bit. Of course, it sounds so much more intelligent to remain in the abstract...even without understanding!

[zedd]

It wouldn't be right for the following quotation not to be included in this discussion. We've probably all heard it many times before, but it simply MUST make an appearance in a thread about 'taste":

"Whether you have good taste or not depends on how many people agree with you."
--George Martin.

Unfortunately, the mainstream music machine doesn't agree much with me... not for a few decades now.

[Lunatique]

What makes up a person's musical taste varies greatly from person to person depending on personality, values, religion, cultural background, age, education, social circle/lifestyle, and so on. While one person's musical taste might be mainly determined by his age and lifestyle, another person's taste might be determined mainly by his religion and values. There is no one-size-fits-all in this.

What I think is interesting is how some people limit themselves to a very narrow range of musical styles. To me, most musical styles have limited capability when it comes to conveying the many emotions and mental states we have as human beings. There are very few musical styles that can convey all of these emotions and mental states effectively:

Joy
Irony
Rage
Contemplation
Regret
Suspense
Dignity
Loneliness
Horror
Lust
Melancholy
Embarrassment
Tragedy
Aggression
Heartbreak
Hubris
Serene
Arrogance
Injustice
Danger

...etc and so on.

Sure, you can write lyrics that convey them, but to me, lyrics is something that isn't a necessity in music, because lyrics without music is just words, while music without words is still music. Also, one particular style of music may contain lyrics that tries to convey an emotion, but those same words when put to another style of music would be far more effective. For example, take lyrics about the gates of hell breaking open and all will be destroyed by the prince of darkness--using cocktail lounge jazz. That is not going to be nearly as effective as using goth metal. Flip side of that is cocktail lounge jazz will convey a romantic mood with a slight melancholic atmosphere far better than any death metal ever could.

So when people who limit themselves to a few music styles that only cover a few emotions or ideas effectively, they are missing out on a whole spectrum of other musical styles that can convey more emotions and ideas. For me personally, I like covering as wide a range as I have time or the energy to explore, because it broadens my musical vocabulary and makes me a better listener as well as a better musician. I think of it as having more sonic colors to paint with, as opposed to just having a few and limiting myself.

But I can see how an angry teenager would not be interested in music that expressed emotions or ideas that are beyond his ability to appreciate, and would focus mainly on rage, aggression, lust...etc. So in the end, it does have a lot to do with someone's personality, personal growth, lifestyle, education, cultural background...etc.

With that said, there are certainly styles of music that I can appreciate and respect intellectually, but could not love because I just don't respond to it emotionally. It's strange how that works--what we do or don't respond to and fall in love with.

[herodotus]

What I think is interesting is how some people limit themselves to a very narrow range of musical styles. To me, most musical styles have limited capability when it comes to conveying the many emotions and mental states we have as human beings. There are very few musical styles that can convey all of these emotions and mental states effectively:

Joy
Irony
Rage
Contemplation
Regret
Suspense
Dignity
Loneliness
Horror
Lust
Melancholy
Embarrassment
Tragedy
Aggression
Heartbreak
Hubris
Serene
Arrogance
Injustice
Danger

...etc and so on.

What I find interesting is the overwhelming consensus that music is meant to express or convey emotion.

People can find a book interesting even if it doesn't 'move' them. They might not care about the characters but they can still appreciate the subtleties of plot and the elegance of the word flow.

But with music, this sort of intellectual appreciation is very rare.

Which probably explains why so much music is in 4/4 time.

[Lunatique]

What I find interesting is the overwhelming consensus that music is meant to express or convey emotion.

People can find a book interesting even if it doesn't 'move' them. They might not care about the characters but they can still appreciate the subtleties of plot and the elegance of the word flow.

But with music, this sort of intellectual appreciation is very rare.

Which probably explains why so much music is in 4/4 time.

That's a good point. I can certainly think of music that is more intellectual than emotional (IDM comes to mind, or some avant-garde) and still appreciate and love it. In cases like that, it becomes a matter of what you look for or are attracted to in musical ideas. For me personally, I tend to be attracted to:

Sophisticated arrangements
Compelling melodies
Rhythm
Interesting harmonic structures
Virtuosity in performance/production
...etc.

[mauseoleum]

Philosophum non facit barba!