From Sean Cooper Sent Tue, Sep 21st 1999, 04:18
hoo-boy, talk about your thread-death! nicely put. sc >defensive reminder: "Only Stupid People Call It Intelligent" was a QUOTE >from Rather Interesting Records- it's a simplistic but funny slogan, but I >don't want it laid (directly) at my doorstep. I do still stand by the >position that as a component of a functional "genre" name, the word >"intelligent" fails to do what genre names are supposed to do, namely, >define a particular quality of the aesthetic class of objects that the name >picks out, so that the name is helpfully descriptive. Defining a genre in >terms of the emotions it produces in the listener can work (try "sadcore" >and "the blues") but, as many posts have pointed out, intellectual >(non-physical) response to sound is available as a reaction to ALL forms of >music. By way of comparison, substitute "pleasure-giving" for "intelligent" >and you will see the problem I'm trying to point out. I don't reject this >term out of hostility towards "intelligence" or out of >anti-intellectualism- as someone getting a PhD, that would put me in an >odd position to say the least. Of course, from an "ordinary language" or >late Wittgenstein perspective, if IDM helps a sizeable community group a >set of sounds, then the name "works" regardless of what >contradictions/simplifications come along for the ride.