5 ms·

The reason classical music is less popular among the masses is not that it does not appeal to emotions - a lot of people would argue with that. Half of the stor

by snitko 17y ago

The reason classical music is less popular among the masses is not that it does not appeal to emotions - a lot of people would argue with that. Half of the story is indeed in the conservative nature of it (my father is a musician and I know how he goes about interpretation of classical compositions, stage appearance and all these rules). But there's also another half of the story which is simply lack of education in listeners. I only started to listen to different kinds of music (including jazz and classical) after I played an instrument for a year. It takes understanding and practice and since classical music is not really about any social group (like, say, punk-rock or classical rock are to some extent) it's hard for it to get this attention from people seeking for just emotional satisfaction. Over time, when a person gets more musically educated (and I mean doing music, not listening) his emotions require more intellectual sources, which is the structure of the composition (harmony and melody) and skills of the performers. That you can only appreciate when you try something yourself.

stcredzero 17y ago
another half of the story which is simply lack of education in listeners. A lot of people just don't have the wherewithal to appreciate melodic music. Melody just escapes them. They want chords and riffs to wash over them while moving with a strong beat. The kind of lyric dance implied by other musical forms escapes them, and they have no hope of appreciating anything that wasn't once based on some kind of dance. What really frightens me, though, are all these young people killing their fine cochlear structures with headphones. The wispy nuances of acoustic music don't even exist for them. They don't even exist in the same aural universe.
- snitko 17y ago
  I use headphones because the only time when I can spend some conscious time listening to music (not just filtering it with my ears) is when I'm taking a 30 min walk to the gym and then 30 min back. I realize, it's a trade off though, but don't be so hard on that.
  - stcredzero 17y ago
    I'm not being hard on headphones per se, but on killing one's high-frequency hearing by blasting loud electronic music into your skull. If you are truly an active listener, then you are probably not one of those people.
- rinich 17y ago
  That's an utterly biased and thoroughly wrong accusation. Name one of those songs lacking melody and I'll point out exactly what line could get stuck in my head. Even songs that use chords as a hook don't get the entire chord stuck: There's a single line that catches you. The real problem is a little bit more complex: We instinctively set up divides between us and things we don't know, so that we may more readily dismiss them. I'm actually in the middle of writing a New Year's post about that now.
  - stcredzero 17y ago
    That's an utterly biased and thoroughly wrong accusation. I think not. If you are one of those people who can relate to snippets of melody, then you are, by definition, not one of those people devoid of melodic perception. Or, are you assuming that your particular perceptions represent the entire spectrum of listeners of electronic music. I doubt that's warranted. What you do is fundamental to the human experience -- having a bit of music stuck in one's head. Most of us are born with some ability like this. There are entire musical traditions where this facility has been expanded and developed to a very high degree, however. I can pay something like 350 distinct tunes from memory off the top of my head, well enough to perform in front of a festival crowd. I probably have the "stuck in my head" impression of another 700 or so tunes. I am not a prodigious talent in this way, however. I know of traditional musicians who know something like 10,000 tunes, and 2 or 3 distinct versions of many of those. I posit that musicians like that have a better appreciation of melody than I do. Their brains are very good at processing that kind of information, and have processed much more of it. I also suspect that I have a slightly more developed sense of melody than someone who can recall some catchy hooks.
    - rinich 17y ago
      I look at it another way. When I play classical music, I find that I develop an appreciation for its nuances that I don't initially have. I start liking every individual line for its melody, whereas at first I only hear one or two things. And the more I listen to music, the more quickly I'm able to break down new music that I listen to. Most of us are born with some ability like this. Exactly why I'm confused as to your initial point: A lot of people just don't have the wherewithal to appreciate melodic music. Melody just escapes them. Now, in modern music there is a branch that focuses on rhythm more than it does on melody (in classical music as well as in pop). However, that branch is still exceedingly rare compared to the rest of what's coming out. People who listen to Lady Gaga, the Jonas Brothers, and J-Lo are all listening to music for its melodies. So it's not the fact that classical music is melodic that turns them off. My suspicion is that a part of it is an inability to really sympathize with the music. Pulsating beats are more instantly relatable than a complex sonata, which can be more readily dismissed as "tinkly classical nonsense" if a listener's apathetic.
rinich 17y ago
The reason classical music is less popular among the masses is not that it does not appeal to emotions - a lot of people would argue with that. I'm curious if you'd say that about Romantic music, which tried explicitly to evoke an emotional response in the listener.
prewett 17y ago
Classical music is a bit like a novel: it is complex and it takes a bit of effort to understand. Popular music is rather simpler and can be readily understood (like, say, the movie version of the novel). If you just want to feel, classical music is too much effort. There is also the barrier that it is hard to write classical music. Anybody can pick up a guitar, learn I, IV, V chords and write a song (these days, the lyrics don't even need to rhyme). Fewer people can add harmony, and very few can write counterpoint. I think a classical music piece can take as long to write as a short novel. I suspect that classical music was never all that popular: the upper classes enjoyed classical music and the more numerous lower classes enjoyed the pop music of the time from traveling musicians. It's just that the traveling musicians didn't write their stuff down.

by snitko 17y ago

stcredzero 17y ago

another half of the story which is simply lack of education in listeners. A lot of people just don't have the wherewithal to appreciate melodic music. Melody just escapes them. They want chords and riffs to wash over them while moving with a strong beat. The kind of lyric dance implied by other musical forms escapes them, and they have no hope of appreciating anything that wasn't once based on some kind of dance. What really frightens me, though, are all these young people killing their fine cochlear structures with headphones. The wispy nuances of acoustic music don't even exist for them. They don't even exist in the same aural universe.

snitko 17y ago
I use headphones because the only time when I can spend some conscious time listening to music (not just filtering it with my ears) is when I'm taking a 30 min walk to the gym and then 30 min back. I realize, it's a trade off though, but don't be so hard on that.
- stcredzero 17y ago
  I'm not being hard on headphones per se, but on killing one's high-frequency hearing by blasting loud electronic music into your skull. If you are truly an active listener, then you are probably not one of those people.
rinich 17y ago
That's an utterly biased and thoroughly wrong accusation. Name one of those songs lacking melody and I'll point out exactly what line could get stuck in my head. Even songs that use chords as a hook don't get the entire chord stuck: There's a single line that catches you. The real problem is a little bit more complex: We instinctively set up divides between us and things we don't know, so that we may more readily dismiss them. I'm actually in the middle of writing a New Year's post about that now.
- stcredzero 17y ago
  That's an utterly biased and thoroughly wrong accusation. I think not. If you are one of those people who can relate to snippets of melody, then you are, by definition, not one of those people devoid of melodic perception. Or, are you assuming that your particular perceptions represent the entire spectrum of listeners of electronic music. I doubt that's warranted. What you do is fundamental to the human experience -- having a bit of music stuck in one's head. Most of us are born with some ability like this. There are entire musical traditions where this facility has been expanded and developed to a very high degree, however. I can pay something like 350 distinct tunes from memory off the top of my head, well enough to perform in front of a festival crowd. I probably have the "stuck in my head" impression of another 700 or so tunes. I am not a prodigious talent in this way, however. I know of traditional musicians who know something like 10,000 tunes, and 2 or 3 distinct versions of many of those. I posit that musicians like that have a better appreciation of melody than I do. Their brains are very good at processing that kind of information, and have processed much more of it. I also suspect that I have a slightly more developed sense of melody than someone who can recall some catchy hooks.
  - rinich 17y ago
    I look at it another way. When I play classical music, I find that I develop an appreciation for its nuances that I don't initially have. I start liking every individual line for its melody, whereas at first I only hear one or two things. And the more I listen to music, the more quickly I'm able to break down new music that I listen to. Most of us are born with some ability like this. Exactly why I'm confused as to your initial point: A lot of people just don't have the wherewithal to appreciate melodic music. Melody just escapes them. Now, in modern music there is a branch that focuses on rhythm more than it does on melody (in classical music as well as in pop). However, that branch is still exceedingly rare compared to the rest of what's coming out. People who listen to Lady Gaga, the Jonas Brothers, and J-Lo are all listening to music for its melodies. So it's not the fact that classical music is melodic that turns them off. My suspicion is that a part of it is an inability to really sympathize with the music. Pulsating beats are more instantly relatable than a complex sonata, which can be more readily dismissed as "tinkly classical nonsense" if a listener's apathetic.

rinich 17y ago

The reason classical music is less popular among the masses is not that it does not appeal to emotions - a lot of people would argue with that. I'm curious if you'd say that about Romantic music, which tried explicitly to evoke an emotional response in the listener.

prewett 17y ago

Classical music is a bit like a novel: it is complex and it takes a bit of effort to understand. Popular music is rather simpler and can be readily understood (like, say, the movie version of the novel). If you just want to feel, classical music is too much effort. There is also the barrier that it is hard to write classical music. Anybody can pick up a guitar, learn I, IV, V chords and write a song (these days, the lyrics don't even need to rhyme). Fewer people can add harmony, and very few can write counterpoint. I think a classical music piece can take as long to write as a short novel. I suspect that classical music was never all that popular: the upper classes enjoyed classical music and the more numerous lower classes enjoyed the pop music of the time from traveling musicians. It's just that the traveling musicians didn't write their stuff down.