Musical Relativity

ubw newbie Joined: Jan 4, 2004 Location: Germany Posts: 29

Attention! Any similarity with Einstein is unmeant.

This article has nothing to do with the mathematical and physical theory of relativity of Einstein, but there is - philosophically considered – a RELATIVITY of LIFE for all ranges of our society, thus also for music, musicians and listeners.

Music is affected relatively by the competence of the musician, and any relation to the audience is depending on the taste and mood of the listeners. Based on experiences, observed and stated, there are extensive RELATIONS in the TRIANGLE between MUSICIAN & MUSIC & LISTENER, because of the multiplicity of different distinctive musical talents, style directions and multi-cultural requirements on music of the potential listeners. Without listeners the music does not have communicative social value or external effect. Only by listeners the music get or doesn’t get acceptance, attention and publicity. However, music serves a personal purpose for the musician as one self’s own listener.

Music is mainly offered with few exceptions to the reachable current society, thus the relation between music and listener is essential for the acceptance. Therefore, music can only be RELATIVELY good or bad, depending on the tastes of the reached listeners. There cannot be ABSOLUTELY bad or good music, since it is individually differently judged by listeners. There is also no ABSOLUTE judgement, if e.g. a recognized music reviewer or also the music industry condemns the music offer. From my point of view, there are no absolutely comprehensive appraisal factors, which are sufficient to judge a certain music piece as good or bad for ALL listeners WORLD-WIDE.
However, the human ear has a strong dislike against so-called wrong tones, dissonances, clock offences, noise and others - at least observed within the industrial nations -, whereby this is differently noticed by listeners in different cultures. This dislike is sufficient for most listeners already, in order to reject a whole piece of music.
A musical presentation gets a relatively high acceptance and acclamation, whenever it meets exactly the taste of the majority of the reached listeners. It is relatively difficult to know in advance which listeners will be inspired exactly by a certain Song.

Who offers a music piece to the public, should already find out beforehand, when composing and producing, what’s the effect of the music for the listener. A set of social and psychological factors plays an important role for the acceptance and approval by the listeners:

1. The general social situation and mood, appointed by the spirit of the time, political and economic situation.

2. The personal nature and tendency, determined by own psychic, social, familial and financial situation.

3. The temporary dominance of certain style directions in an observed period of certain geographical areas (e.g. HipHop/Rap and electronic music in USA and Europe).

Who offers music with disregard of these psychological factors, can neglect the number of the listeners, with exception of relatives, friends and acquaintance, who are biased in an evaluation anyway.

Since the factors of influence on the audience at a certain time of the publication of a piece of music are so complex and extensive, it is practically not feasible, to forecast rationally one musical success. However, a small number of insiders of the music scene can meet a musical taste rather successfully according to the experience of intuition, to reach the right listener target group.

Whether a song becomes a world hit, nobody can forecast securely so far, because of the continuously changing complexity of the relativity between musicians & music & listeners.

Music is relatively simple to listen to, but it is relatively difficult to meet the tendency and the taste of a listener, with exception of the musical owner's taste.

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 2:45 pm

Very thought provoking indeed! Thanks for the great post Philos60. I'll have to chew on this one for awhile!

Ron

ubw newbie Joined: Jan 4, 2004 Location: Germany Posts: 29

Philos

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 9:27 pm

The whole world is but a stage

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 9:53 pm

Thats why god invented genre's Razz

. So people can find there targe audiencet without much searching randomly. I dont see the relationship getting any diffrent than it was thosands of years ago..some people make music and other people listen. If the music is good in the listeners opnion, then they will listen to the band again...if its not then they dont.

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 10:12 pm

good essay, but just to point out a fact or two.....

you mention psychological factors.....looking at the Metal suicides in the 80's, the drug taking in Electronica in the 90's and the gun hits to rappers over the past 15/20 years are the mind matters that should be looked at.
Music is a global matter, not geo-placement as u suggest. There are more rappers in Asia than UK, Metal, although underground, is the second biggest outlet globally, electronic is first with hip-hop falling 3rd, but growing.

Although music is a science, it is one that cannot be dissected in any manner, and if it is it destroys the very essence. Emotion. We do not analyse emotions, they are a personal journey...as is music.

Who offers music with disregard of these psychological factors, can neglect the number of the listeners, with exception of relatives, friends and acquaintance, who are biased in an evaluation anyway.

this is incorrect. if one is to think psychologically about their music, then de-structure takes place, leaving music singled out to a specific area, which isn't the musical pretense of a international language.
I write/used to write music that I never classified. I place it in a genre that may be incorrect, but I do not single out...THIS IS FOR HERE/THERE....People from as far as Slovakia, Russia China have connected with my lyrics....music is universal. not regional...and the day it becomes regional I shall quit all together.

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2005 5:01 am

I agree with you Brooksy, Philos made some excellent points but...

1.The demographics of music sales are what the industry do and will effect the nature of your record/publishing deal certainly - but the writer cannont start taking the point of view of the listener-it will prevent anything happening unless it has happened before! Our job is more just to get real good at what we do, write about what we as individuals see as our truth, and assume there's enough people in the world similar to us to like it.
2.There is an area of the music industry that works on pure formula - (ie. This producer combined with that writer combined with that choreographer combined with this stylist combined with this budget combined with this market....oh and add an artist of the right colour, age, attitude, sex etc etc etc...) and they are guaranteed a return relative to their investment purely on the basis of exposure to a market their product is designed specifically for. But do they produce music of real emotional content ?(as Brooksy talked about) - I don't think so - They are the junk food of our world. They are to be respected because they do what they do well - they have created a market (pre teenager and bovine morons-ironically enough the emotionally immature and the emotionally inept) and cater to it perfectly. But I wouldn't call them "artists"
3.If you follow a sociologists view of the world then art is both a symptom/reflection of a societies culture and a light behind which a society follows. Music + Money has screwed things up alot but there are still some genuine beacons out there if you look hard enough. Music, as all arts, has a value beyond it's finacial success. It provides a society with a record of emotion that the next generation can tap into (The first time you experience lifes realities (love, hate, death..) you'd asume you were going insane were it not for the mass of songs/books/films out there which let you know - it's normal-but it's painful at times!)
4.I like Philos's parallel between relativity and music - the theory can be applied to alot of the world around us though perhaps complex theory (better known as chaos theory)is a better analogy. The concept of relativity in music in Philos's essay is based on the the individuality of the factors involved, not the constant nature of their energies and the difference of their perspectives-hence complex theory as a better model.
5. I'm boring myself now. Drugs, sex, women, constant adulation for my fragile little ego are all I need to compensate for my miniscule genitals and self loathing!

Finally all this nonsense about computer games and TV effecting mental development. I played pacman all the time and if it were true that it influenced me then I'd enjoy jumping up and down in a dark room listening to repetitive beats munching magic pills!

Wink

P.S I bet philos has read Steppenwolf!

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2005 5:03 am

I agree with you Brooksy, Philos made some excellent points but...

1.The demographics of music sales are what the industry do and will effect the nature of your record/publishing deal certainly - but the writer cannont start taking the point of view of the listener-it will prevent anything happening unless it has happened before! Our job is more just to get real good at what we do, write about what we as individuals see as our truth, and assume there's enough people in the world similar to us to like it.
2.There is an area of the music industry that works on pure formula - (ie. This producer combined with that writer combined with that choreographer combined with this stylist combined with this budget combined with this market....oh and add an artist of the right colour, age, attitude, sex etc etc etc...) and they are guaranteed a return relative to their investment purely on the basis of exposure to a market their product is designed specifically for. But do they produce music of real emotional content ?(as Brooksy talked about) - I don't think so - They are the junk food of our world. They are to be respected because they do what they do well - they have created a market (pre teenager and bovine morons-ironically enough the emotionally immature and the emotionally inept) and cater to it perfectly. But I wouldn't call them "artists"
3.If you follow a sociologists view of the world then art is both a symptom/reflection of a societies culture and a light behind which a society follows. Music + Money has screwed things up alot but there are still some genuine beacons out there if you look hard enough. Music, as all arts, has a value beyond it's finacial success. It provides a society with a record of emotion that the next generation can tap into (The first time you experience lifes realities (love, hate, death..) you'd asume you were going insane were it not for the mass of songs/books/films out there which let you know - it's normal-but it's painful at times!)
4.I like Philos's parallel between relativity and music - the theory can be applied to alot of the world around us though perhaps complex theory (better known as chaos theory)is a better analogy. The concept of relativity in music in Philos's essay is based on the the individuality of the factors involved, not the constant nature of their energies and the difference of their perspectives-hence complex theory as a better model.
5. I'm boring myself now. Drugs, sex, women, constant adulation for my fragile little ego are all I need to compensate for my miniscule genitals and self loathing!

Finally all this nonsense about computer games and TV effecting mental development. I played pacman all the time and if it were true that it influenced me then I'd enjoy jumping up and down in a dark room listening to repetitive beats munching magic pills!

P.S I bet philos has read Steppenwolf!

Sorry - forgot to sign in! Embarassed

ubw newbie Joined: Jan 4, 2004 Location: Germany Posts: 29

That's right! Please read my sentence exactly: "(e.g. HipHop/Rap and electronic music in USA and Europe)".
e.g. = example given.

In general, this topic "Musical Relativity" does not address the process of music creation.
If any piece of music is produced and offered to the public, the listeners' views and tastes are relevant.

Musical Relativity

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