Zero People (was: ambivalent feelings)

[Matt Davignon <mattdavignon@gmail.com>]

Mark Sottilaro<zerocrossing@gmail.com> was like:

> I know zero people who are into  instrumental music who are not 
>musicians.

pish-posh! You're just not paying attention to a bunch of genres of
wildly popular instrumental music:

classical
jazz
techno (especially IDM, d&b, and "trance")
ambient
new age
movie scores
and heck, I'd count 20 minute Grateful Dead jams too, even if they're
bookended with vocals.

I'd agree with a sentiment that you seem to be heading towards, which
is that a lot of people choose the music they listen to based on
non-musical reasons. People who don't pay too much attention to music
often pick something because they like the stage persona of the
singer.

On the other hand, if you look at bands and albums people really like,
many of them are due more to the qualities of the music than the
lyrics or band's image. (Look at the success of Pink Floyd, Radiohead,
Jimi Hendryx, M.I.A, Talking Heads, Nirvana, prog rock and probably
even most 80's synthpop.) That suggests to me that a good deal of
people have an ear for sounds whether they know it or not.

Matt Davignon
Tour! www.ribosomemusic.com
Rigs! www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt