Re: "Dragging Instruments Around" meets "laptop live"...

[ernesto schnack <schnack@mailbolt.com>]

On Mon, 17 Mar 2003 00:38:03 -0800, Jesse Ray Lucas 
<jlucas@neoprimitive.net> wrote:
> It seems to me that most people who aren't musicians don't actually
> *listen* to music.  They *watch* music.  If music is on at home or in the
> car, they are usually not aware of anything other than the words.  If the
> music is such that it asserts itself into the forefront of the 
> environment,

I think it's just that most people simply aren't that interested in 
listening to music in its pure abstract form.  Most music made throughout 
history is either in support of a story (songs, drama, movies) or for 
dancing, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. If you play 
instrumental music meant exclusively for listening and don't provide some 
context that people can relate to and make it more concrete, then less 
people will be interested.  Most people just need something to grab onto.  
Like one of my teachers says: "Play Schoenberg to somebody on the street, 
they'll think it's noise; play it in a horror movie and they won't have a 
problem with it."  It also reminds me of a time I played one of my ambient 
loop pieces to a non-musician friend and she referred to it as "underwater 
music".


Ernesto
 -- ernesto schnack
http://schnack.does.it