Principia Discordia > Or Kill Me
On Jazz.
Kai:
I'd like to revoke what I said about Jazz in the past.
I can't find the exact quote, but it was something to the effect of "Jazz is noise". This was revised from my previous, rather naive statement about Jazz from a dilletantte's perspective (and given that I don't play the genre, that's likely all I'll ever be).
Perhaps not revoke, but a further revision. Like taxonomy, sometimes new information comes to light and the evolutionary relationships that seemed so clear yesterday are suddenly a polyphyly or polytomy, or worse, a premise based on some study in Science proclaiming arsenic-eating bacteria. The model needs updating.
And it stems from something that I think many people here agree with, in at least the basic premise, and that is that music worth listening to doesn't have to be easy listening. And I don't mean in the sense of LOUD or having controversial lyrics, though these are also acceptable. I'm talking about difficult listening in the form of sounds and rhythms that are outside my comfort zone. Because, like the definition of "weed", noise is sound where it's not wanted.
If I had to pick any genre that tends to go outside that comfortable range, it's Jazz. Complicated, dissonant, often including nothing resembling a melody, definitely not easy listening. Even if your preffered music is death metal at ear drum bursting levels, Jazz is still difficult. Why should being uncomfortable mean it's not worth anything? Once again, uncomfortable being "that which is incongruent to my MO".
The obvious answer is that many people find Jazz worth quite a lot, and not just dilettante hipsters either. I know I'm really going against the grain here (some might even call it groupthink) to say that I'm willing to give more Jazz some listening. Hell, I'm listening to Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage right now, and you know what? It hurts. It /feels/ in great part like noise but for goddsake I'm never going to grow musically if I don't get over some shallow notion of what constitutes music. There's plenty of discussion in the Apple Zone thread right now on musical stagnation, and I think it applies equally to this.
In closing: fuck what you think you know about noise. It's worth listening to at least once, if my ears aren't destroyed in the process. This isn't about taste, this about a willingness to explore, lest I become some sort of horrible narrow-minded critic that listens to the same 5 tracks over, and over, and over...
Mesozoic Mister Nigel:
I don't think any genre of music is worthless. There is also no genre of music whose offerings I wholly dislike. I like some more than others, and some I like very little. The only music that I really genuinely prefer not to listen to if I can avoid it is music that is specifically designed to soothe.
Kai:
--- Quote from: Not Your Nigel on October 13, 2013, 12:04:38 am ---I don't think any genre of music is worthless. There is also no genre of music whose offerings I wholly dislike. I like some more than others, and some I like very little. The only music that I really genuinely prefer not to listen to if I can avoid it is music that is specifically designed to soothe.
--- End quote ---
Any particular reason?
Mesozoic Mister Nigel:
--- Quote from: Kai on October 13, 2013, 12:18:48 am ---
--- Quote from: Not Your Nigel on October 13, 2013, 12:04:38 am ---I don't think any genre of music is worthless. There is also no genre of music whose offerings I wholly dislike. I like some more than others, and some I like very little. The only music that I really genuinely prefer not to listen to if I can avoid it is music that is specifically designed to soothe.
--- End quote ---
Any particular reason?
--- End quote ---
I feel like it's trying to shut me down, or to generate white noise in my brain.
Kai:
--- Quote from: Not Your Nigel on October 13, 2013, 01:59:06 am ---
--- Quote from: Kai on October 13, 2013, 12:18:48 am ---
--- Quote from: Not Your Nigel on October 13, 2013, 12:04:38 am ---I don't think any genre of music is worthless. There is also no genre of music whose offerings I wholly dislike. I like some more than others, and some I like very little. The only music that I really genuinely prefer not to listen to if I can avoid it is music that is specifically designed to soothe.
--- End quote ---
Any particular reason?
--- End quote ---
I feel like it's trying to shut me down, or to generate white noise in my brain.
--- End quote ---
I can see that.
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