38 ms·

I used to think that, but when I had to study atonal music, it became clear to me how much of an impact it had on film music and how it shows up in fragments in

I used to think that, but when I had to study atonal music, it became clear to me how much of an impact it had on film music and how it shows up in fragments in pop music. Then, I took a class on electronic music composition. For my own project in the spirit of the avant garde, I wanted to challenge myself to write something "musical" without resorting to the traditional concepts of pitch-based melody and harmony or quantized rhythm. It turns out, there are many other levers you can play with to create the effect of an musical arc. Not to pat myself on the back, but I think the end result is evocative in a similar sense as tonal music. If I had the time, I would do more. Check it out here, if you like: https://soundcloud.com/acjohnson/wanderers https://soundcloud.com/acjohnson/wanderers

jerf 9y ago
If we want to play "wave the credentials" at each other, I minored in music composition, and my objection is a great deal philosophically deeper than "I don't generally like how atonal music sounds". There's a parallel world where atonal music is still explored but I wouldn't characterize it as "flinging music off a cliff". Atonality was merely when the cliff-jumping occurred. I have neither the time nor the desire to fully explain my point in an HN post, but I would note that the music community itself has been asking questions in this direction in the last decade or so, if you want to follow up on it, as the academic music community asks themselves exactly how they got to where they are now, so disconnected from the rest of the world at large and so utterly irrelevant to almost anything musically occurring today. (Not just pop music; that is structurally inevitably insipid, really, so who cares, but irrelevant to anything other than their own very little world.)

38 ms·

I used to think that, but when I had to study atonal music, it became clear to me how much of an impact it had on film music and how it shows up in fragments in

by acjohnson55 9y ago

jerf 9y ago
If we want to play "wave the credentials" at each other, I minored in music composition, and my objection is a great deal philosophically deeper than "I don't generally like how atonal music sounds". There's a parallel world where atonal music is still explored but I wouldn't characterize it as "flinging music off a cliff". Atonality was merely when the cliff-jumping occurred. I have neither the time nor the desire to fully explain my point in an HN post, but I would note that the music community itself has been asking questions in this direction in the last decade or so, if you want to follow up on it, as the academic music community asks themselves exactly how they got to where they are now, so disconnected from the rest of the world at large and so utterly irrelevant to almost anything musically occurring today. (Not just pop music; that is structurally inevitably insipid, really, so who cares, but irrelevant to anything other than their own very little world.)