How accurate do you think is to quote thread/statement this old and draw conclusions from it?

 

there's a lot of people drawing conclusions about other people's intelligence based on what kind of music they enjoy. that's pretty dumb in my opinion.

my iq has been tested at 146. i have a pretty decent general education and i also have a fairly good music education. i sang in choirs throughout middle school and high school. i was a lead singer in two different rock bands - one cover band and one band that did all original material (i came up with most of the melody lines on my own). in short, i'm no dummy when it comes to music.

that doesn't mean that i can't enjoy "simple" music. i think adele is a fantastic singer, and i love many of her performances. i love pink floyd, yes, rush, elp, and genesis (along with many other "complex" rock bands). but i do not really get into music that is challenging to listen to or requires intense concentration to appreciate. i enjoy going to a symphonic concert when the music is melodic and dynamic. i'm not at all interested in avante garde music that is discordant or uses odd tempo changes that just sounds chaotic. i'm sure there is talent involved with this type of music, and bully for you if you like that sort of thing. but i'd rather listen to adele than that.

 

I think a lot of what makes modern music so strange has to do with who is paying for it or asking their parents to pay for it. For example, when Im with rappers, I hear a lot of them talk about making it big faster by "singing to the hos". Women seem to pay for music more then men or it seems the appeal creates more income, at least in america. So in turn, music like Adele and pop groups with teenage girl followings (K-pop) end up making more money, carrying out bigger tours, producing more merchandise that will sell.

 

Because time doesn't matter, that's why old man like young girl.

 

I listen a lot of different kind of music genre always underground artist, popular music is music to make money. Underground music is to make real music lover dance... IMHO, so why popular music is so popular because mostly of human are just stomachs ended with a sex. The mass smell the normality, formated people listen formated musics.

 

Simple music for simple people. That's commercial radio... Which is why musicians have interest is compleicate tastes in music and will open up to a variety of styles wholeheartedly.

 

As I sit beneath a glorious blue skied early spring day underneath the Unisphere, just outside of the Queens Museum waiting for friends to arrive so we can share the Ramones retrospective and 40th anniversary of their seminal, first album!!!

There is no accounting for taste when it comes to appreciating music, art, architecture or any other form in our dimension that can be judged through our perceptions. Intelligence is only a gateway in one's ability to appreciate that which falls outside of the mundane and not a guarantee, although it seems to me that it takes a certain level of smarts to actually create artistically, and in rare circumstances, novely. Two people with intelligence at opposite ends in extreme can certainly appreciate the same object such as a kaleidoscopic and intense sunset for example, as true beauty transcends intellect, and they will certainly agree on why they do on many of the same points, however the higher intelligent will be able to express it perhaps in a more elegant way, weighing points of perspective and crafting cognitively with a finess the lesser intelligent person cannot possibly cobble together. Another example might be the intelligent though foolish and misguided people rallying around Trump the Clown. I can only imagine their motivations for seeing the merit of the message within the context of the art of his current deal. I guess stupidity and intelligence are not mutually exclusive and can obviously walk hand in hand, but I guess there is much to debate on that count. Also a little off tangent, like with mackerel and certain herd animals, there is felt a safety in number phenomenon, where the group mind trumps the individual in an effort to live until the next moment. Tiny ants do this extremely well so that the colony thrives, but the queen ant has the survival of the entire hive as a first and foremost, managing many complex crucial systems (farming, tunnel infrastructure, etc, and is not out solely for herself and her cronies. Maybe ants can appreciate and create art, I haven't a clue. Namaste and blessings.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 10, 2016

Nothing much to add to what's already said, but I guess I'll share my story...

My parents never gave me any musical education (as they hadn't any). That means I just thought there wasn't any music besides what was on the radio. When I was a kid I always wondered why ultra hot and rich girls always sang about broken hearts. I was like "no way, these girls can have whoever they want!" or "why the hell are they singing they're heartbroken but the music is all happy and everybody is dancing?"

Then I met a new music teacher at my school that did us an exam with a Ska song, which sang about politics, injustice, poverty, rebellion, anger, dissappointment, greed... Things I'd never heard in music before. It was such an eye-opener. I discovered there was a whole world of music hidden away from us, because the media didn't want me to know it. Didn't want me to think. I was I think 15 or 16 years old back then and I sure got my time back! I can't remember his name but I'll be forever thankful to him.

Now in my 30's is easy to see why the music industry works that way. I play in a cover band and we play all kinds of crap because "that's what the people wants to hear". If we refuse we don't get hired, simple as that. And guess what, most of the crap we play stays one, two or maybe three years maximum on the setlist, because is just radio junk that will be forgotten by the next year and replaced by some other similar crap. But we also play stuff from Tina Turner, Bon Jovi, Europe... etc. That shit is old but people still likes it because it's good. Good music touches you and stays in your life. You listen to it even after time passes. Bad music is easily forgotten.

 

Interesting, so you're saying people doesn't change over time?
Because I keep hearing this statement, yet see the exact opposite in real life.

 

Music, like art is subjective. What one person enjoys, another may not. Just because a lot of people love something, that doesn't make it good (or bad)

 

Let me add some more information which may be the reason a lot of music today sounds wrong. I strongly recommend that you find a PDF of this:
'Musical Cult Control: The Rockefeller Foundation’s War On Consciousness Through The Imposition Of A=440Hz Standard Tuning' By Leonard G. Horowitz
It is a well-researched account of how the Illuminati deliberately implemented a sinister plan to make all music affect us negatively in what could only be decribed as an evil experiment to to see if mass hysteria could be induced in the general public through music. It was only a short time (in the grand scheme of things) after they changed standard tuning to a less pleasing sound that we saw popular music take a rather negative and rebellious turn. Yes it is known that it's the new instruments and tools that inspire new music, but the electric guitar for instance may never have been invented if it could not have produced pleasing music when standard tuning was A=444Hz. Research this for yourself and you might have a big rethink about the way popular music has developed.

 

I really don't believe in this A=432Hz conspiracy hypothesis. I've experience with this for years. I've even had people in my band tune their instruments in A=432Hz for a while, but honestly, I couldn't really feel any difference regarding any mood changes that would supposedly be induced by this frequency change. This whole thing lacks scientific substantiation.

However, contemporary pop music does drive me nuts. I'm a very isolated guy. I'm a loner. It's just me, my wife and my dog, and I really don't appreciate human contact. I don't have a TV or radio at home or at the office.

Anyway, the other day I was having lunch at a restaurant and their radio was vomiting all these latest pop hits...Man, only insane people could enjoy listening to this shit...Talk about repetition...It's hook after hook after hook, non stop. There's no structure. There's no story. It's just getting as quick to the chorus as possible and then repeating it as many times as possible...It's very annoying.

Something very bad must happen to someone's brain in order to get him to enjoy this kind of senseless and aggressive noise.

I'm not talking about taste, by the way. I know how to recognize good art even when I personally dislike it...This is something different. It's some kind of bizarre deformation...It's very disrespectful and intrusive.

 

Last edited: Apr 10, 2016

IMO there is no "Good or Bad" music

Frank Zappa's stuff is legendary imo.

Is it Good??

Some is huge orchestral pieces that are both disturbing and hard to listen to whilst others are peaceful and calming. Some are laced with satire and political propaganda whilst others are simply instrumental.

Interesting and stimulating, most definitely, Good or bad

What's not to your taste may be "Ambrosia" to another individuals sensory palette.

If one is egotistical enough to claim that his/her choice is "Good" whilst another is "Bad" in a field where individual perception is paramount is just a little shortsighted IMHO.

 

I think the answer to the original question is obvious: We're 98% chimpanzee.

 

The most popular thing for the people is SHIT.
Want your music be popular? Be a SHIT.

 

And 50% banana.

 

Hello,
i have no read through all comments, but i completely disagree with what i read so far.
Popular music -like your example Adele - is not popular because it's easy to listen to and because "people are stupid" like someone said.
The thing of REALLY GOOD popular music (there's a load of wannabe crap in the charts, too) is, it goes straight to the heart, is touching the listeners soul in some way, and it does that really easy. This is the art of a really good pop song.
The second example you gave, Austin Wintory, actually i wonder how this got so many views at all. Completely boring, background track.
The difference to Adele's song is so obvious. Does it have a beautiful, remarkable melody ? No. Does it draw any pictures in my mind or relate to anything i could feel ? No. Adele's song is art. The other is handcraft, if a t all, nothing special.

 

who really cares about popular music?, music is very personal and over time your personal musical tastes change, regardless of what is being played on the national radio station or in popular facebook lists

enjoy it for it's creativity, and if it pushes your buttons, enjoy it even more