I think this is, perhaps, a case of Mort using a faulty analogy. “The Emporer’s New Clothes” rests in that the Emporer is naked, and only the child sees it. This is not the case here. (Just because you can’t hear the beauty, doesn’t mean the music is not beautiful.)
A better one might be “An Ugly Duckling”. Mort can only see the ugly duckling, but we all see the beautiful swan.
Just a thought…
This reminds me of Peter Schickele’s explanation of tonic and dominant: the tonic chord is so called because it’s the dominant key of the piece; and the dominant chord is so called because it provides a refreshing, or tonic, change.
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retorted lissener
Thanks, Gartog. Any other instructions? I crave your guidance.
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No problem 
and not right now, I think the others in this thread have addressed your points pretty well.
Has someone already reached the tonic and gin stage (Biffy), or was someone already there (Peter Schickele?)
This someone reminds me of a thread a while back on a different SDMB. Somebody who was Bisexual asked why straight/gay people considered only one gender when looking for a lover, and was continually frustrated by the lack of a logical explation. Eventually it seemed to boil down to: “If you don’t get it, you don’t get it and may not ever get it” There’s not much to be done about it explaining doesn’t seem to make a difference whatsoever.
I think the discussion has been colored by Mort’s very “disparaging” remarks about classical music in the other thread. My previous post was less harsh than I originally wrote it.
Actually, in a way I think I’m in the opposite position from Mort: I listen to classical music almost exclusively. Rock is definitely the music for partying, but otherwise I never listen to it.
However, I do like Weird Al Yankovic’s parodies. (He’s an excellent musician, BTW. His singing is as close to perfect an imitation of the originals as you can get. His performing is very crisp and not at all sloppy.) The music is okay, but I appreciate his humor. He also once said he parodies songs that are “asking for it”. In other words, he mocks songs that are just too popular, or take themselves too seriously, or listeners take too seriously.
So I mostly don’t like rock music by itself - it takes Weird Al’s humor to get me interested!
I’ve heard a few Frank Zappa numbers here and there and I find them more musically interesting than standard rock (not enough to buy a Zappa CD, though). I guess he does a kind of rock/jazz (which others have probably said, but from what little I know about him he rejected all labels).
Mort, taste in music is to a large extent culturally determined. Traditional Japanese or (Asian) Indian music is based on musical principles that are completely different from Western music, and most Westerners (like me) have no appreciation for them. Yet there are many people in those Eastern cultures that have developed a taste for classical music and world-class performers have arisen among them. I’m not saying this means you must give classical music a shot. With all sincerity I say listen to whatever music you like. But it demonstrates that even people with completely dissimilar tastes can appreciate classical music.
I’m no expert, so I can’t tell if you’re tune-deaf as opined above. However, I had a friend who couldn’t carry a tune in the proverbial bucket. At MIT he took some music course in ear training or something. His appreciation of music went up considerably. Most of us have a natural capacity to appreciate music. Perhaps you’re one of those who have very little of this capacity, like my friend. If you ever want try to learn to appreciate music of any kind (as opposed to the message), some training like that might be an option that could improve things. No guarantees, of course. But it could be worth a try.
I like Weird Al’s stuff, too. I’ve got his “Polka Party” album. His parodies are really good - “Addicted to Spuds” springs to mind - but his original stuff is has much going for it. He and I seem to share a warped sense of humor - “Christmas at Groundzero” is my all time favorite christmas music.
I’d agree with you about culture influencing music. When I was a kid, my family sponsored an immigrating vietnamese family. They stayed with us for a couple of weeks while my parents helped them find a house and jobs. I still remember hearing the 8-track tapes that one of the girls brought with her. That was way far different than anything you’d normally hear.
There is a fella from China who play Chinese folk music on the streets downtown here in Wiesbaden once in a while. Its similar to, but distinctly not the same as, what the vietnamese girl played. When he’s there I always stop and listen - and watch. The instrument he plays is really intriguing. The description of it that he has up beside his CDs says that is sort of the chinese equivalent of the banjo - not so much in tone or manner of playing, but in its use in folk music. It is a smallish stringed instrument that is held up right between the knees - it stands on the chair he sits in. He plays it with a thing like a violin bow.
Hearing training might help, but I don’t know when or where I’d get it. There’s the question of time for it, of course. And then there’s just the where. I’ll keep my eyes open for an opportunity. Another way might be to get my wife to coax her church’s choir director into starting a music appreciation program and getting some professionals brought out to Podunk (in german “Arsch der Welt.”) That might not be such a bad idea, since my daughter seems to take after me. My son seems to like classical music with no prompting, and my daughter tends to like the more raucous stuff like I do. It might be good get such a program going and let folks find out if they, or their kids, are tone deaf (or tune deaf) and work on it together.
I dunno. That’s even more time that I’d be hard pressed to find. From what folks are saying here, though, it might be worth it to hear some of things that have been described.
Oh.
A couple of short notes to that last post:
“Christmas at Groundzero” refers to groundzero of an A-bomb blast in this case, not the tragedy in New York.
The reference to “Chinese” is a literal translation of the german words that the guy playing the music uses to descibe himself. I’ve had my ass mashed here before for using these words because apparently they’ve acquired some racist connotations in the US. I’m not using it that way. Apologies in advance if you are offended.
…I’ve read the topic title, and gone straight to the end of the string, so sorry if I repeat what someone else has already said:
How relevant is Britney Speares? Is she reflecting the voice of a nation, or (as I think), a walking marketing exercise?
On a tangent, how relevant is rap music to Australia? How come it is so popular? We have no black ghettos, no subculture along racial lines anywhere near the extent of the US, so why do we have so many examples in the Top 10, year after year? Is it because a purchasing group of significant proportions think it is music worth listening to?
So with classical…running a symphony orchestra is a big exercise, there are a lot of people involved, and needs a lot of tickets sold to keep it running…and every Australian capital city has one! A similar large consumer group must be supporting it financially, not just listening to the free-to-air version on their radio.