From lwtcdi Sent Tue, Oct 21st 1997, 12:17
From lwtcdi Sent Tue, Oct 21st 1997, 12:17
Graham/lwtcdi wrote a lot of things that made good sense, but lost it here: >> For starters, I don't really believe all this crap about music having >> soul. This may offend some people, >Don't worry, I'll take the bait. >BTW, people who have seen "Dead Poets Society" will notice a striking >similarity in this discussion (hence the subject title). >> but the only things that matter are >> diversity and originality. This is what forms so called emotion or soul >> in music (for me). When artists excel at these two, the music becomes >> soulful. It's certainly not some kind of magical force or channel of >> emotions into music or anything like that... >*sigh* >See, that's precisely what you get from overanalyzing and >intellectualizing the music (the chin-stroking syndrome, anyone?). >The main purpose of music is to *express* emotion, Hmmm. Still considering this one... > to *provoke* emotion. Yeah, definately. I totally agree with this. Records do provoke emotion. I think this is the perfect way to desribe it. But I don't know that the emotion/soul put in to the music is neccessarily equal to that gotten out of it (not that you said it was, just pondering the idea) >Emotion is not something that can be rationalized in >terms of diversity and originality. Oh yeah, this track has 79% >diversity and 91% originality, so now I can calculate it's >emotion. Exaggarated as this may sound, this *is* what you're saying >basically. Yeah. You're right, of course. Sorry, I was talking a load of bullshit again. Music does stem from emotion, of course and I was stupid to believe otherwise. If you check my other post on this subject, you may be able to see what I was getting at. Sometimes I get a bit fed up of this lofty assumption that the 'artist' is a highly emotional being who channels their feelings into the music and gives it out to the masses like Jesus feeding the five thousand with a few loaves of bread. But I suppose over rationalising it is just as dumb too. >Emotion is about FEELING! Have you never been nearly moved to tears >by a track? Yeah...nearly. Strangely enough it was Wagon Christ's 'Reedin'. Don't know why, but it truly is a beautiful piece of music. Does depend a lot on how you're feeling when you hear it though, but music can tip emotions over the edge... Other IDMers, I await your blubbing top tens with baited breath... >Have you never felt shivers down your spine when hearing >certain intros ? Again, a resounding yes! Been listening to Bjork's Homogenic LP a lot since buying it after the mass discussions on this list. I think it's an amazing album which lives up to the potential and hype that her music has been given since the outside (I own the previous 2 LPs but don't listen to them much). Never has a voice gone together so well with music that I can remember. And the music is great - traditional instruments such as string accordian etc vs electronic beats and noises, and significantly (despite a lot of it being produced by Mark Bell) it rips the tits off LFO's boring and emotionless Advance LP. If you've been thinking off getting this, but were put off by some of the negative postings...go buy it! And to those of you who want to take me to task on this one, well go ahead... I won't be able to flame you 'cos I'll be getting in touch with my femenine side... >THAT'S emotion! THAT'S soul! Yeah brother! Right on... I've seen the light! Gb.