How much do the general public actually care about music production quality?

[.jon]

Appreciation of sound quality and production is a completely voluntarily acquired skill through hobbies or vocational/higher education.

Emotional response to music, on the other hand, is only partially learnt, and the learning process starts in early childhood and is nearly universal across cultures and social classes.

[Jace-BeOS]

I read your whole post, every word and I can see what you're saying, but I think you're wrong. Not entirely in every aspect as the majority of your post is merely your own reflection of subjective observations.

Granted.

I think only that you're over-thinking it a bit too much and this is adding so much clutter piled up on top that you limit your ability to see through it all.

Possibly. I overthink a lot of things. I also overexplain frequently:-D

I would argue that most humans, animals in general are emotional creatures. [...] In other words human intelligence is based upon our ability to control emotion and to override emotional responses while mixing and mapping signals from multiple mostly independent regions of the brain, based upon memory: this is called rational, logical thinking.

Interesting take. I think you're making a good point about overriding emotion with logic, but I also think humans are unique in being capable of processing logic at all. I often wonder if it's our capacity for language that matters most here. Non-human animals think and communicate, but they lack language to structure thought or convey complex ideas (or even simple ideas beyond "want food", "want out", "want touch", etc). Animals seem to respond to music somewhat, too.

If you simplify things to that level you should quickly come to realize that what you've said about the subject can be greatly simplified and in that way clearly understood:

Probably. I tend to over-complicate my own communication, especially in text

Are you really so certain the definition of "mainstream" you're using is not subjective and unique for every individual?

I'm not certain at all. I go by what the radio (what little of it I expose myself to), tv, or public spaces with forced music listening are showing me.

If you want to really understand things more clearly you need to question: what is music without emotion? Can you imagine listening to music without your own emotions present? Can you imagine existing even for a moment without your emotions?

These are entirely fair points. Music certainly affects me emotionally. The question is whether or not production quality matters. Production quality is a somewhat objectively measurable feature of music, isn't it? Good production quality has an influence on me experiencing a positive emotional response to music that I'm otherwise going to be interested in.

I can tell you the answer: you can.

Which is why I can comment about music I hate still having excellent production quality.

To control our emotion is a uniquely human capability that we have no evidence any other species possesses. Not only can we mute and suppress emotion, we can synthesize emotion.

Again, I find this an interesting way of separating humans from other animals.

Would you listen to music if it was meaningless?

Depends on what "meaningless" means in this context. Is it meaningful to me if a piece of music says nothing to me but pleases my sense of taste or aesthetics? Is ear candy or humor "meaningfulness"? I think so. Pleasure is certainly a meaningfulness humans pursue from many things they do or willfully experience. I certainly can judge some music as meaningless to me on an intellectual basis but still enjoy the experience of hearing it.

[Jace-BeOS]

well f**k it, KVR just completely ate a lengthy reply. f**ked if Im going to reconstruct it now so.

I hate when that happens. I am cultivating the habit of editing long website replies/comments within a notepad/word processor to avoid web bullshit wasting my efforts. I don't always remember to do that before it's too late...

[aciddose]

These are entirely fair points. Music certainly affects me emotionally. The question is whether or not production quality matters. Production quality is a somewhat objectively measurable feature of music, isn't it? Good production quality has an influence on me experiencing a positive emotional response to music that I'm otherwise going to be interested in.

I don't think it is measurable, objective or even possible to define in any rational way. For example what is "production quality" on an old fashioned (1910-1930?) album played from vinyl?

Since the definition is subjective and even changes over time from the same subject (based upon emotional "state of mind" and so on) it's hard to say it's very clear.

Can you imagine ... without emotion? ... I can tell you the answer: you can.

Which is why I can comment about music I hate still having excellent production quality.

To control our emotion is a uniquely human capability that we have no evidence any other species possesses. Not only can we mute and suppress emotion, we can synthesize emotion.

Again, I find this an interesting way of separating humans from other animals.

Would you listen to music if it was meaningless?

Depends on what "meaningless" means in this context. Is it meaningful to me if a piece of music says nothing to me but pleases my sense of taste or aesthetics? Is ear candy or humor "meaningfulness"? I think so. Pleasure is certainly a meaningfulness humans pursue from many things they do or willfully experience. I certainly can judge some music as meaningless to me on an intellectual basis but still enjoy the experience of hearing it.

I meant meaningless in terms of music where you felt absolutely no emotional response. Some might argue that it would then no longer be music - which is itself an interesting and very complicated subject/argument.

So, in other words; what I was trying to point out is that the whole discussion of "production quality" can probably be reduced to a "feels right/wrong" which is entirely subjective. So it makes it very difficult to take a rational absolutist position.

[V0RT3X]

In regards to the sound quality or accuracy of said plugins that most KVR posts are about (What is the best?), well...

The average listener who uses their latest iTunes giftcard to buy a few things, probably doesn't give a shit about the specifics. They really don't care if the synthesizer accurately emulates a analog piece of gear. Most are just looking for a catchy song..

This is probably around 83% of the population. (I pulled that number out of nowhere)

[Hink]

well f**k it, KVR just completely ate a lengthy reply. f**ked if Im going to reconstruct it now so.

I hate when that happens. I am cultivating the habit of editing long website replies/comments within a notepad/word processor to avoid web bullshit wasting my efforts. I don't always remember to do that before it's too late...

I just do "ctrl a">"ctrl c" before I post. Also if you used quick reply and you use the back arrow to find the text field empty often clicking on the text field brings back the text

[Jace-BeOS]

well f**k it, KVR just completely ate a lengthy reply. f**ked if Im going to reconstruct it now so.

I hate when that happens. I am cultivating the habit of editing long website replies/comments within a notepad/word processor to avoid web bullshit wasting my efforts. I don't always remember to do that before it's too late...

I just do "ctrl a">"ctrl c" before I post.

That's actually my number one tactic if I have forgotten to edit externally or the text has gotten more involved than I anticipated:-)

[jancivil]

Would you listen to music if it was meaningless?

Seriously. laugh out loud at that. What does that even mean.

[jancivil]

I care about poor 'sound quality' if it makes something I WANT to hear difficult.
As I said somewhere, I have never had hi fidelity equipment except headphones, I'm as far from fetishizing it or thinking of myself as 'audiophile' as can be or nearly. But I make things I want to hear, for instance and why make it sound shite? Weird extremes I'm seeing here. I mean weird to me, carry on.

[vurt]

I care about poor 'sound quality' if it makes something I WANT to hear difficult.
As I said somewhere, I have never had hi fidelity equipment except headphones, I'm as far from fetishizing it or thinking of myself as 'audiophile' as can be or nearly. But I make things I want to hear, for instance and why make it sound shite? Weird extremes I'm seeing here. I mean weird to me, carry on.

is sound quality genre specific though? ie different ideas about what processing/mastering is best, a string quartet would want the minimum post processing whereas a black metal act will want compression maxed out and then glitch/idm is a whole other playing field.

[aciddose]

Would you listen to music if it was meaningless?

Seriously. laugh out loud at that. What does that even mean.

Well not something anyone like yourself without a single functioning brain-cell would ever be able to comprehend, I mean clearly.

[jancivil]

People listen to music for the following reason:

1) as a background to daily tasks (dishes, exercise)
2) as a distraction from silence and the threat of having thoughts
3) as a way of establishing "identity" ("I belong to X culture, sub-culture, etc")
4) to set a general "mood" for other things, like dancing (where the actual music is completely irrelevant -- the slender, gyrating ass isn't), or for film (where Mood is all that matters, and melodic writing is either superfluous, unnecessary, or a distraction from the main event)
5) to establish some level of "ritual" for things like funerals, weddings, etc (although those norms have deteriorated considerably, since people have no longer have any idea whatsoever what music is emotionally suitable for a situation or not)
6) as an excuse to take drugs or give up the rational side of their brain and generally have an excuse for otherwise intolerable behavior

Reality -- most people don't care about music. They'll listen to and enjoy it...but they have no intellectual interest in it, and they sure as hell won't pay for it (People pay for items 3 and 4 -- the sex, the sense of belonging, not the music itself).

This is the awful truth.

[jancivil]

I care about poor 'sound quality' if it makes something I WANT to hear difficult.
As I said somewhere, I have never had hi fidelity equipment except headphones, I'm as far from fetishizing it or thinking of myself as 'audiophile' as can be or nearly. But I make things I want to hear, for instance and why make it sound shite? Weird extremes I'm seeing here. I mean weird to me, carry on.

is sound quality genre specific though? ie different ideas about what processing/mastering is best, a string quartet would want the minimum post processing whereas a black metal act will want compression maxed out and then glitch/idm is a whole other playing field.

True.

[jancivil]

Music as meaningful, though. I don't know. Will that be a fact in any case?
That's a rhetorical question, NB.

That in the context of all this talk about rationality I found absurd.

For instance <this music 'has no emotional resonance'>. A remark which locates nowhere in the vicinity of knowledge, 'it' does for some/it won't for others. So, there may be music which appeals to a rational COMPONENT in the mind, such as Yngwie Malmsteen which has not a lot of meaning for me. It may for the person who loves it, the shredding is so meaningful, the scales are so meaningful. No, it's a laughable notion, it's stupidly reductive.

Some words may be meaningful or the opposite ie., nonsense, but music cannot reduce to that.

[kelldammit]

Overall, I'd agree with those that have said that as long as things are at least roughly in order, the song will be what transcends the production and/or playback system. Many i know fall in love with songs through their distorted phone op amps and crappy earbuds, or mono bluetooth speakers (that are also driven to distortion). That's the only representation of the music they know. The same songs on my monitors flip them out. "I have never heard music sound like THAT before!"
So fidelity can change the experience somewhat. One of my roommates hears "depth" on older recordings basically as surround sound. So i hear "mid-left, tucked back", and she hears "mid left, behind me"! It's really cool to see someone experience music like that. On more modern stuff, she tends to hear the same flat plane of sound between the speakers that i do...but it's still impressive to her because of the richness and detail of the better playback system. Despite better sound at worst, and total immersion at best, is either enough for her to buy anything more decent for playback than she already has? Nope.