Why I Am Amusical
March 9, 2009 7:38 AM Subscribe
Why I Am Amusical
Why do you listen to music? Is it a crutch to get you through the day? When you go to a concert, what on earth do you get out of it? Do you feel "warm fuzzies" when you are walking out of the building? Maybe it makes you feel all happy inside. Well, the real world isn't like that. Music has no answer to the problem of evil. As long as you are a listener, you have no chance of fully participating in a rational discussion. Just one of the articles on my continuously developing website, Everything Shii Knows.
Why do you listen to music? Is it a crutch to get you through the day? When you go to a concert, what on earth do you get out of it? Do you feel "warm fuzzies" when you are walking out of the building? Maybe it makes you feel all happy inside. Well, the real world isn't like that. Music has no answer to the problem of evil. As long as you are a listener, you have no chance of fully participating in a rational discussion. Just one of the articles on my continuously developing website, Everything Shii Knows.
Yeah, it's a thin veil for Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and the like.
posted by shii at 8:15 AM on March 9, 2009
posted by shii at 8:15 AM on March 9, 2009
Lol, I missed that in a big way. I guess "Music has no answer to the problem of evil" should have been a giveaway.
posted by grobstein at 8:22 AM on March 9, 2009
posted by grobstein at 8:22 AM on March 9, 2009
Of course, music doesn't presuppose an all-powerful, benevolent(!) god, either.
posted by grobstein at 8:22 AM on March 9, 2009
posted by grobstein at 8:22 AM on March 9, 2009
I have flirted with being "amusical" as a part of my development as a composer (and by many practical definitions none of the sound i record is "music").
Music does not presume to guide the way we treat or judge others, and it does not give us a metric by which to evaluate our own worth.
posted by idiopath at 9:11 AM on March 9, 2009
Music does not presume to guide the way we treat or judge others, and it does not give us a metric by which to evaluate our own worth.
posted by idiopath at 9:11 AM on March 9, 2009
50% of me: Heh, good read with explanations; funny stuff. Not once was the word "art" mentioned on the page. If you understand art, fiction, goosebumps down your spine in a good song, then what was a silly read.
50% of me: Agreed. soooo many crappy bands play the same crap over and over again... just to sell merch and to kiss Live Nation / Ticketmasters' butts? Also, horror films aren't scary anymore after you get to a certain age and seeing hundreds and hundreds of them with predictable antagonists, plots, loud noises, and musical cues. If only horror film makers start doing things different... how about a big Hollywood-budget horror film WITHOUT a musical score?
posted by querty at 10:41 PM on March 9, 2009
50% of me: Agreed. soooo many crappy bands play the same crap over and over again... just to sell merch and to kiss Live Nation / Ticketmasters' butts? Also, horror films aren't scary anymore after you get to a certain age and seeing hundreds and hundreds of them with predictable antagonists, plots, loud noises, and musical cues. If only horror film makers start doing things different... how about a big Hollywood-budget horror film WITHOUT a musical score?
posted by querty at 10:41 PM on March 9, 2009
Do your research, NCFOM had 16 minutes of music. And besides, it's not a horror movie.
posted by querty at 2:06 AM on March 10, 2009
posted by querty at 2:06 AM on March 10, 2009
"The Birds" doesn't have music.
posted by grumblebee at 7:28 AM on March 10, 2009
posted by grumblebee at 7:28 AM on March 10, 2009
(unless you count the kids singing)
posted by grumblebee at 7:28 AM on March 10, 2009
posted by grumblebee at 7:28 AM on March 10, 2009
There's an anecdote that Hitchcock originally did not want a score to his movie "Lifeboat." His reasoning was that it took place out in the middle of the ocean, and it would be out of place to hear music in the middle of nowhere. Supposedly, composer Bernard Hermmann changed Hitchcock's mind by saying, "You tell me why there would be movie cameras and lights in the middle of the ocean, and I'll explain why you should have music in the movie."
posted by grumblebee at 11:30 AM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by grumblebee at 11:30 AM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
"The Birds" doesn't have music.
"Network" doesn't have music. Actually, a fair number of 70s films don't have music, and I often find that very refreshing. Music is way overused in movies.
From shii's blog: "...buy her a Beatles CD on her 16th birthday."
Sixteenth? What, are you joking? I bought my daughter a Beatles CD for her fourth birthday. We were singing "When I'm Sixty Four" together, on the way to kindergarten every morning (she in the bike seat, papa commandeering the bicycle) a few weeks later.
Otherwise... fabulous article, shii. Here's one musician who found it horoughly entertaining.
In closing...
shii said.... I know what it's like to be dead,
I know what it is to be sad,
And shii's making me feel like I've never been born...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:10 AM on March 16, 2009
"Network" doesn't have music. Actually, a fair number of 70s films don't have music, and I often find that very refreshing. Music is way overused in movies.
From shii's blog: "...buy her a Beatles CD on her 16th birthday."
Sixteenth? What, are you joking? I bought my daughter a Beatles CD for her fourth birthday. We were singing "When I'm Sixty Four" together, on the way to kindergarten every morning (she in the bike seat, papa commandeering the bicycle) a few weeks later.
Otherwise... fabulous article, shii. Here's one musician who found it horoughly entertaining.
In closing...
shii said.... I know what it's like to be dead,
I know what it is to be sad,
And shii's making me feel like I've never been born...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:10 AM on March 16, 2009
um, that's thoroughly entertaining. Yes. Thoroughly.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:14 AM on March 16, 2009
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:14 AM on March 16, 2009
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posted by grobstein at 8:08 AM on March 9, 2009