7 questions about popular music

Do talk back
User avatar
take5_d_shorterer
Posts: 5753
Joined: 22 Sep 2003, 23:09
Location: photo. by Andor Kertesz, Hung.

7 questions about popular music

Postby take5_d_shorterer » 28 May 2009, 00:24

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?

2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?

3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?

4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?

5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?

User avatar
Muskrat
World's Foremost Authority
Posts: 21397
Joined: 17 Jul 2003, 01:05
Location: Next to the park; across the street from the college; and the freeway at my back
Contact:

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby Muskrat » 28 May 2009, 00:44

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?
These days, hearing music from records, because I can choose/control the ambiance. Still, there's nothing like a live performance by an act that can hack it.

2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?
If you heard me try to make music, you wouldn't be asking the question.

3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?
You're painting with a very large brush -- McGuinn, Sebastian, John Phillips, Dylan and many others were folkies who took eagerly to electricity. But what they did was create a sort-of new sort-of genre, which left the traditionalists to carry on.

4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?
I think that if Chuck Berry could make as much money playing like Nat King Cole or Louis Jordan (for instance) as he could by writing his own songs and playing for white teenagers, he'd have chosen the former course. Elvis wanted to be in a gospel quartet.

5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?
Odd question, but I suppose I'd choose (a). Life, for me, was (b).

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?
"Can you read music?" "Not enough to hurt my playin'."

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?
Traditional.
Things that a fella can't forget...

Lord Rother wrote: I’m with Googs.

Sneelock

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby Sneelock » 28 May 2009, 01:06

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?
If I had to pick one it would be records. hey sneelock, wanna go see the beatles? no, I'd rather stay home and listen to records.

2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?
a. I've got my mind right. the good lord didn't see fit to give me musical talent. As good as I think I can sing, when the pets cover their ears, that sends a message even I can get.

3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?
well, all suspicions make sense to the people who have them. I'm glad I don't. some of the best music I ever heard came from rusty gates and faulty devices.

4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?
very. I'm going to pass the hat for Chuck right now. dig down deep, won't you?

5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?
well, I sort of had it both ways but I never really stuck to playing anything. there's nothing like people getting together and making music. I'm sad that my kids would find this unusual.

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?
it's what makes a fiddle a violin!
7. How would you define what "folk music" is?
music for folks!

Sneelock

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby Sneelock » 28 May 2009, 01:10

I'd like to quickly add to number 5 that I hope I never hear "jimmy crack corn" again as long as I live.
getting together and singing is nice but some of that stuff is Corn-EEEEEE!

User avatar
Guy E
Posts: 13301
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 23:11
Location: Antalya, Turkey

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby Guy E » 28 May 2009, 02:23

A challenging post...

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?
LIVE. I love records and log-in 100's of hours of record-listening for every live show, but I love live music.
Why? It's real. It's visceral. That's the best I can answer. Of course, it's not always "real" at all and can be quite the rehearsed con-job, but I think I've developed pretty good critical skills in this department.

2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?
By others... I don't play an instrument.

3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?
No. Electric instruments opened-up all kinds of possibilities. If I was a songwriting fan more than a record-buying fan I might resent electric instruments, but production and arranging sensibilities are as important to me as songcraft.

4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?
Important. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes not. But I think Frank Zappa wildly overstated the impact of Beatlemania. I think the vast majority of musicians dedicate themselves to music out of love... I don't think most of them have a conscious choice in the matter either.

5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?
I think growing up in isolation is one of the best avenues to developing a unique musical vision. BECK is an example of a kid who grew up outside the mainstream and the dividends have been significant.

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?
I dunno.

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?
I don't know the answer to that either. Either EVERYTHING is folk music now or folk music no longer exists. "Folk" as a defined style (like UK Punk) does not interest me too much.
["Minnie the Stalker"]The first time that we met I knew I was going to make him mine.

User avatar
Quaco
F R double E
Posts: 47382
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 19:41

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby Quaco » 28 May 2009, 05:03

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?
Recorded music for two reasons: 1) As a fan of popular music, I feel there just aren't that many people who are as good live as they can be in the studio. I don't expect perfection, but it should be either more exciting, different in a dramatic way, or something, but at least passable. Often this is not the case. I'm quite dissatisfied with rock music concerts. I am very rarely transported. (Orchestral music is a bit of a different situation.) 2) As a fan of songwriting and recording techniques, I like being able to listen again and again and really get into it and dissect it.

Live music can be the best thing ever, but it rarely is. Listening to records is more reliable and constitutes 95% of my transcendent experiences.

2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?
I enjoy playing music, so I sometimes dislike the feeling of hearing someone else play without me being able to do something too. I also prefer to be on a stage than in the audience, not because I love the limelight, but because I like to have something to do. SImilar to the way I prefer to be helping out at a party rather than just standing around "having fun".

A concert that I'm playing will give higher highs -- there is something incomparable about being involved in a great musical moment -- but interestingly, it's hard to hold onto the feeling. Sometimes, a whole concert will go by without my ever being able to look around and realize it's good and have a "moment". But when the moment comes, I'd much rather be onstage than watching.


3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?
I suppose. It's odd to think that, since my world is that of the electric guitar, but I can see how someone might think that using electrified instruments would alter the playing (you can get away with a lot more on an electric than an acoustic, thus musicality could potentially be diminished) as well as the experience (suddenly the artist is miles away, with so much less contact with the people he's playing for). My favorite music uses electric guitars, but I largely agree with their suspicions.


4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?
Very. I don't think most people would have done it had it not been a glamorous, potentially money-making venture.

This decade is where we are starting to see that happen more: musicians devoting a lot of their energy to something they know will have little financial reward. In a way, it's more "real" than it ever was.


5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?
The former, just because it's so nice to be around musicians. Having a home full of music is a wonderful thing. The change from folk music to popular music would happen based on other factors, I think, such as what records one is exposed to, what one's friends listened to, and so on. It still nice to have a background in good old plain music, no matter what sort.

If the question means I could never hear any popular music ever, I would have to choose that option, simply because I have to: if I did not, I would be a different person. Why do I want to be a different person with different tastes. I like what I like!


6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?
Before recordings, it was essential to the transition from folk or simple liturgical music to other forms like baroque, classical, and popular music. When recordings came along, it wasn't so important this way. But still, it does something different than recordings do, and in some ways is superior...

A recording can become something of a dictator, whereas writing something down allows for interpretation. I recently played a bar mitzvah (!) and one of the aunts got up and sang "Oh! Darling" with us. I thought it interesting that though she sang the song an octave up, when it came time for the "whooo" in the second bridge after "when you told me", she knew it and went for it, creating almost a shriek, in an attempt to "do" a McCartney. So much of The Beatles' performance aspects are imperatives for people like us who grew up with them. It makes it hard to find anything new in the songs.

Then again, a recording is a work of art on its own, and if I could, I would hang "Odorono" in a museum next to the best of Andy Warhol. I like this aspect of recordings!


7. How would you define what "folk music" is?
It's a style itself now, isn't it? Even professionally crafted music in the folk music idiom (something with Celtic or Appalachian roots, with acoustic guitars) is folk music. But it can also mean anything played by non-professional musicians in a homegrown idiom, possibly on handmade or inexpensive acoustic instruments, but probably having little influence from the European classical school or from popular music.

Sometimes heavy metal played in a teenager's basement seems like folk music though.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

User avatar
The Notorious B.I.N.G
Posts: 20
Joined: 27 May 2009, 16:57
Location: Carlisle, England.

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby The Notorious B.I.N.G » 28 May 2009, 07:45

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?
I'm ashamed to say that I've only attended a handful of gigs in my lifetime, I therefore view music almost entirely through the prism of records. Why? I guess I'm a recluse. An obsessive recluse.

2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?
Definately a) - have you heard my jams?

3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?
I think their suspicions were understandable, if not entirely valid. It's easy to mock the whistlers and slow-hand-clappers as mere luddites, but there were serious political, as well as musical, issues at stake. As far as I can see, Dylan's "betrayal" resided as much in abandoning "the Cause" as it it did in dropping the acoustic.

4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?
I think "the profit motive" is inseparable, to a greater or lesser extent, from the act of making music in the modern world. It's a business. Everybody gotta eat.

5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?
I guess a), but that's probably only because the reality's b).

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?
Tough one. I'm not sure I'm really qualified to answer that. I guess when notation started to become codified in around the 9th Century, it allowed a music that was a free-floating oral tradition to develop into a music that could be recorded and therefore studied away from the act of making it. What notation is up to nowadays is anybody's guess.

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?[/quote]
Another sticky question. The definition of "folk music" has changed over the years. As far as I'm aware it first started popping up in the 19th Century and was used to demarcate the line between the music of the various peasant classes and the central European tradition. In the 20th Century it kept something of that definition, even if the focus of attention shifted to the music of various ethnic groups within the United States. Here the problems begin, for once you start recording, you artificially freeze something that was (again) a free-floating oral tradition that evolved along its own lines. When you factor in the various "folk revivals" that have popped up through the years the definition becomes even more blurred, because now you have people copying folk music, or trying to sound like folk musicians by imitating records, rather than learning in the traditional way. Nowadays the term has bloated out of all meaning, and is lazily applied to any old sod with an acoustic guitar. Hell, I've seen Sufjan Stevens described as a "folk singer".

I hope I've passed.
"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff."

User avatar
The Write Profile
2017 BCB Cup Champ
Posts: 14755
Joined: 15 Sep 2003, 10:55
Location: Today, Tomorrow, Timaru
Contact:

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby The Write Profile » 28 May 2009, 08:48

What a great idea for a thread!

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?

I think there's very little that can capture the sheer buzz and communal rush of a live gig, but those moments are fleeting. There's certainly something reliable about recorded music- I mean, its blessing and curse is that it's the same document each time, so you can go back and notice things you missed before. But familiarity can breed both content and contempt. As an aside to the question, live recordings very rarely live up to the real thing precisely because you're missing out on being there. And so you're left with the performance, by itself.
2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?

Obviously the latter, as I'm no good at the former. I would like to have the talent to do so, but by the same token I'd want to be really, really good. Otherwise it's not worth it.
3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?

To the extent that the guy who called "Judas" at the famous "Royal Albert Hall" concert, their suspicions were somewhat valid. He later said in an interview that part of the reason he was so angry was not so much the music but the utter contempt Dylan treated the audience. And he's right. The performance was remarkable theatre and remarkable music, but I can understand some people feeling betrayed by it. Yet by the same token, I'm inherently suspicious of people who have problems with instruments or their use. They are all just tools to make the music, the key is getting the right sounds out of them.

4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?

Huge, of course- to the extent that people wanted to find a means to do the thing they love for a living. As for the people who managed them, that's another matter entirely, and altogether more conflicted.
5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?

I've grown up mainly in the context of the latter, with the exception of a few friends who have been in bands, and as a listener, I like that environment. It seems that you can almost dip in and out of any scene or style you chose. If I were a musician, I think it would be nice to have the former option, but ultimately suffocating.

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?

As someone who studied musical theory to a relatively high level, I guess it mainly shows how we get some place, and how things evolve. It's fascinating in that sense, and a knowledge of theory can explain to a degree, how things happen, and why they happen. But the irony is of course, we're almost going back to the other direction, where there is probably less reliance on notation, as different recording elements come into play. This is a very difficult question that I'd have to think more about.

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?
The Notorious B.I.N.G wrote:Another sticky question. The definition of "folk music" has changed over the years. As far as I'm aware it first started popping up in the 19th Century and was used to demarcate the line between the music of the various peasant classes and the central European tradition. In the 20th Century it kept something of that definition, even if the focus of attention shifted to the music of various ethnic groups within the United States. Here the problems begin, for once you start recording, you artificially freeze something that was (again) a free-floating oral tradition that evolved along its own lines. When you factor in the various "folk revivals" that have popped up through the years the definition becomes even more blurred, because now you have people copying folk music, or trying to sound like folk musicians by imitating records, rather than learning in the traditional way. Nowadays the term has bloated out of all meaning, and is lazily applied to any old sod with an acoustic guitar. Hell, I've seen Sufjan Stevens described as a "folk singer".

I hope I've passed.

His answer will do! :D
It's before my time but I've been told, he never came back from Karangahape Road.

Limpin' Jez McKenzie
Poptastic
Posts: 15392
Joined: 05 Jul 2004, 22:01

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby Limpin' Jez McKenzie » 28 May 2009, 10:00

There are actually 10 questions.
I kept thinking "swim as far as you can, swim as far as you can".

User avatar
mentalist (slight return)
under mi sensi
Posts: 14575
Joined: 17 Jul 2003, 10:54
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby mentalist (slight return) » 28 May 2009, 10:38

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?
I don't have a preference. Hearing music live can be hit and miss, but when it hits there's nothing quite like it and it provides my greatest musical memories, and 'you feeeel nuh pain'.

2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?
Have you heard me play guitar!? Played by others thanks.

3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?
I don't know what the reasons behind their suspicions were. But what I like about music has less to do with the felicity of one's musicianship then the overall sound and texture and rhythm. Which doesn't really answer your question.

4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?
Well I guess success in the charts is reasonably analogous to the profit motive (not that the musician is making the profits necessarily) so I guess it's been pretty influential.

5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?
A) would have been great. I would love to have grown up young learning an instrument, being a bluegrass banjo player would have been great. But I am B). We always want what we don't have eh.

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?
Don't really know. The advent of recording has made notation less important in some contexts. But then music gets passed down as well. I suppose notation is important for some music (say Bach) and not others (say Flatt & Scruggs).

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?
I associate it to a musical style tied to a region or even a class of people generally not part of academies and such. But it's a very fluid term. It would be good to have a more formal definition of folk music.


I feel so serious & exhausted now.
king of the divan

User avatar
Nikki Gradual
nasty, brutish and short
Posts: 20751
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 21:59
Location: Marineville

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby Nikki Gradual » 28 May 2009, 14:12

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?
I like both equally but differently. A record is like allowing the band to take a mind-enhancing drug, where they can explore and do what would be impossible outside of a studio where they can be machines, but live is where they are at their most rootsy appealing and laid bare as humans with all the character and diversity that that brings with it. Two different disciplines really: that's why there are so few great live LPs and why bands that sound precisely like their records (as polished and note perfect) when they play live (ie Interpol) are always so disappointing.

2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?
Hearing music played by others. Any music I try and make myself would be unlistenable. I am talent-free.

3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?
They weren't suspicious of electric instruments, they were suspicious of the propensity for electric instruments to infiltrate a very specific niche of their genre, a niche that I never considered Dylan, Fairport Convention or most other successful '60s folk acts to inhabit anyway. Hey, I prefer trad folk acoustic, so did they. Doesn't mean that they are or I am right.

4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?
More interesting is examining the motives behind why money and profit were so important which are very valid, but don't detract from the fact that they (along with fame) were (and are) everything. .

5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?
b) I guess on the basis that if the rest of my family stink like I do at music, then that's not going to constitute too many fun nights in around the fire.

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?
Notation.

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?[/quote]
It's all folk music, man.
"He's thrown a kettle over a pub; what have you done?"

Molony

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby Molony » 28 May 2009, 14:31

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?

I prefer listening to records. I sometimes get cheesed off by people around me pushing, shoving and chatting when I go to gigs. I like to be able to appreciate what I hear.

2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?

Listening to music by others comes first because it inspires me to make my own. I need to make my own though. That is a vital outlet for me.

3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?

No, not at all. It would be far too restrictive to confine music to one style or method of production. The notion that one is somehow more 'worthy' than another strikes me as being odd. Perhaps it is a notion of authenticity.

4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?

I don't know enough about such things to comment usefully.

5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?

(a) I think that people make better music when they can bounce ideas off each other and share licks and so on.

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?

Precision, I guess.

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?

Music played by and for the common man.

User avatar
Corporate whore
Genuine and Authorised Pope
Posts: 16267
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 16:36
Location: ,Location, Location

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby Corporate whore » 28 May 2009, 15:05

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?

Music is meant to be heard live. At its best, a gig can hold you in the moment & surpass the impact of any record.


2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?

I have tried and tried, but I can't play an instrument to any level of competence - so I vote 'others'.

3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?

No they were not.

Folk is meant to be organic & reflect the times. Treating it as a music caught in aspic started with the victorians writing it down, and continued with early recordings which then became regarded as somehow 'definitive'.

I doubt that the originators of the songs had accoustic guitars (although they might have had a Bodran and a fiddle), so to claim that accoustic folk (as defined by folkies shouting down Dylan) is somehow 'authentic' is specious to say the least.


4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?

Don't know. But there are not that many Rock'N'Rollers.

5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?

Neither of the above.

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?

Plus - A common language

Minus - Artificial restrictions, ability to stop music evolving.

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?

Folk is a much abused term, and as said before, it now covers such a wide spectrum as to be almost meaningless.
Image

User avatar
Corporate whore
Genuine and Authorised Pope
Posts: 16267
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 16:36
Location: ,Location, Location

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby Corporate whore » 28 May 2009, 15:09

Side comment on number 3;

The English Concertina would be considered an 'authentic' folk instrument by the aforementioned Folkies.

When I had my family one restored, the restorer said that new it would have cost the equivalent of a 'good quality used car' - so a hundred years ago they were hardly the instrument that Old Scrotum would have had to play down the pub. And yet now its 'Authentic'.
Image

User avatar
Snarfyguy
Dominated by the Obscure
Posts: 53502
Joined: 21 Jul 2003, 19:04
Location: New York

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby Snarfyguy » 28 May 2009, 15:38

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?

It seems to me that these are almost the same question. As noted above, musical notation gives musicians a common language. I think of folk music as that played by people who don't use that language, but instead use an unwritten, intuitive language.
GoogaMooga wrote: The further away from home you go, the greater the risk of getting stuck there.

User avatar
harvey k-tel
Long Player
Posts: 40893
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 23:20
Location: 1220 on your AM dial

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby harvey k-tel » 28 May 2009, 15:51

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?

I much prefer listening to records than hearing it live. My ear is drawn to sounds that are created in the studio - whether they be conspicuous or ambient - stuff that can't easily be replicated or performed in a live setting. Heck, I'd rather listen to a good soundboard tape from a show than actually be there. I like to hear the room, and when you're surrounded by chatter it's hard to do.

2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?

I love making my own music and playing other peoples' music, but I need to hear other people playing music so I can steal their ideas.

3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?

Well, of course their suspicions were valid - they despised electric instruments and felt they had no place in their music.

4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?

I think most organic bands start out for purely altruistic reasons; they want to make music for themselves and others to hear. It's quite rare that any band will actually make a living from their music, but many spend countless hours just trying to get heard, often at their own expense. I honestly don't think that that mentality has changed much through the years.

5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?

I'd definitely prefer the first option. Once I was finished 'growing up' I'd be able to put my musical knowledge and abilities to use playing any type of music I damn well pleased.

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?

I don't think it contributes much to pop or rock music these days; probably only for string or orchestral arrangements. I honestly don't know - there are too many possible answers to this one depending on genre.

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?

Folk music, like any 'folk' custom is something that is passed down through generations or families/communities without the benefit of notation. Word of mouth and learning by ear/sight are the touchstones.
Tempora mutatur et nos mutamur in illis

User avatar
La Denim
Posts: 2313
Joined: 18 May 2009, 20:18

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby La Denim » 28 May 2009, 15:59

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?

From records. I don't prefer anything much live, be it music, acting, poetry...I just prefer films, reading, listening to music than seeing people perform. There's some kind of inherent embarrassment which stirs in me and also a tiny bit of contempt for 'performers'.

2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?

By others, because I have no musical talent.

3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?

Invalid. I like electronic sounds; simple as that really.

4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?

I've no idea.

5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?

B) I can't say I've ever really entertained the notion of playing musical instruments with my family.

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?

Again, no idea. But I like that music has its language, even if I don't understand it.

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?

R 'n' Jumper

_________________
mission wrote:As Brendan Behan said to the person talking about spiritualism, the Catholic Church has a much better class of ghost.

It's my class.

User avatar
take5_d_shorterer
Posts: 5753
Joined: 22 Sep 2003, 23:09
Location: photo. by Andor Kertesz, Hung.

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby take5_d_shorterer » 28 May 2009, 16:17

An "incompleat" answer. Will try to fill in some of the details later when I edit this post.

See later post.
Last edited by take5_d_shorterer on 30 May 2009, 19:11, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Muskrat
World's Foremost Authority
Posts: 21397
Joined: 17 Jul 2003, 01:05
Location: Next to the park; across the street from the college; and the freeway at my back
Contact:

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby Muskrat » 28 May 2009, 17:09

corporate whore wrote:The English Concertina would be considered an 'authentic' folk instrument by the aforementioned Folkies.

When I had my family one restored, the restorer said that new it would have cost the equivalent of a 'good quality used car' ...


But somewhat easier to locate parts for.
Things that a fella can't forget...

Lord Rother wrote: I’m with Googs.

User avatar
TG
Posts: 3774
Joined: 30 May 2006, 23:41
Location: Boss Angeles

Re: 7 questions about popular music

Postby TG » 28 May 2009, 17:18

1. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music from records, b) hearing music live? Why?

I, too, have always been fascinated by the recording process and have spent far too much time (even as a kid) dissecting records and how they were made. While I do love live music; I don't much have the patience for it anymore. I still go out, but only to clubs or small theaters. The price of tickets, standing around and waiting and suffering through bad opening acts has lost most of it's luster. It has to be records at this point.

2. Which do you prefer: a) hearing music played by others, b) making music yourself? Why?

Hearing music played by others, I suppose. Or by me with others. Not by me alone. I get much inspiration from others' music. I know what I do. I'm always surprised by what others are capable of doing.

3. American folkies in 1960s were often suspicious of electric instruments (e.g., Dylan at Newport, 1965). Do you think their suspicions are valid? If so, why? If not, why not?

Invalid. Life goes on. Business is business and progress is progress. They used microphones, didn't they? Nothing stays the same and to expect or demand that it does is foolhardy.

4. How important do you think money and the profit motive was to rock and roll (e.g., Chuck Berry)?

Not quite as important as women and the getting laid motive.

5. Which choice would you prefer: a) growing up with only folk music and learning to play an instrument in a context in which friends and family could play instruments or b) growing up with popular music in a context in which your family did not play instruments and your friends hardly ever played?

There is little as satisfying as real people playing real songs on real instruments in a room together. I don't have a group of people that I play with with any regularity anymore and I miss it tremendously. I'll take A.

6. What do you think musical notation contributes to music?

As others have said; it was more important in the pre-recording era. That said, I do wish that I had a better command of music notation and music theory. It is an easily shared language for those who speak it and makes working through the parts of a song simpler. It's a mystery for those of us with limited knowledge.

7. How would you define what "folk music" is?

Real people playing real songs on real instruments. Beyond that, it is something different for different folks. American folk isn't English folk isn't, I don't know, folk from the tiny Republic of Togo. But it's all folk.
Jeff K wrote:Not at all. I love TG. I might be the only one on BCB who does but I don't care.


Return to “Yakety Yak”