The Tyranny of Pop Music

[ahinton]

My reference to the volume … perhaps we are safer calling it a dial …. was related to my suggestion that any music can be turned into muzak just by turning its volume down sufficiently. To which the response was words to the effect that volume has no affect on the emotional impact of a piece of music, to which I replied "So what's the point in a volume dial then? Also what's the point in amplifying pop music?". I'm not saying that pieces like Wagner's Ride of the Valkaries are ideal piped music with the volume turned down but I reckon they do have less and less impact on the listener the quieter they are played until they become background music.

I believe that you have missed the point here, which is tht piped music does not only have to be at a limited volume but also consist of largely bland and unchallenging material more likely (and doubtless intended) to dull that excite the senses; accordingly, your "suggestion that any music can be turned into muzak just by turning its volume down sufficiently" is patently untrue and would be demonstrated to be so if the piped music played at any audible volume in a public place happened to be Erwartung or Die Soldaten, for example and I would hope that this would not have to be put to the practical test in order for you to accept this. Piped "background music" is by definition unobtrusive by virtue of the nature of its content, however obtrusive it may be by its mere ubiquitous presence.

Your response to the assertion that "volume has no affect[sic] on the emotional impact of a piece of music" is likewise largely unfounded, as long as the music concerned is sufficiently audible to evoke such responses in listeners who are concentrating on it. Upping it by, say, 5 or 10 decibels will make no material difference to that impact beyond the possibility of eliciting the listener response that it is louder than the composer probably intended; imagine, for example, those places in Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony marked pppppp being notched up to ppp...

I'll overlook your spelling of the Wagner...

[ahinton]

When all is said and done (sincere apologies in advance for the horrid, teeth-jangling phrase)

So why use it if it so offends you?

there are even worse things in modern life for Mr Scruton to get his own jangled teeth into ... the supermarket Christmas TV adverts, for example.

That would be up to Mr Scruton to decide, surely? (whether to get his teeth into them, that is)...

John Lewis/Waitrose predictably lead the way

"Led", surely? Never knowingly underplumbed?...

in the nauseating guff stakes, but surely the most appalling have to be those Tesco adverts which never fail to astound one in their level of appallingness, each one even more appalling than the already appalling ones that went before.

Repetition. I cannot comment on the Tesco ads as I've not seen them and I don't watch much advertising anyway.

Mr Scruton would be truly appalled as well, I'm sure.

Again, that would be up to him. I'm not sure that he'd quite be "appalled", but I rather doubt that he'd take very kindly to your telling members of a public forum what you're sure he would think, especially without having directly consulted him first!

[jean]

#57

Yes, I missed that.

From the other link in that post:

...the surreal phenomenon of "metarock"—the art of reinterpreting rock songs into dreamlike, string-laden, easy-listening alternatives. The author also adds an afterword about some of the actual musicians who arranged and conducted Muzak® sessions—respected names like Nelson Riddle...

But I was wrong; I had thought that the original Musak was produced without reference to any pre-existing music at all.

[Lat-Literal]

Yes, I missed that.

From the other link in that post:

...the surreal phenomenon of "metarock"—the art of reinterpreting rock songs into dreamlike, string-laden, easy-listening alternatives. The author also adds an afterword about some of the actual musicians who arranged and conducted Muzak® sessions—respected names like Nelson Riddle...

But I was wrong; I had thought that the original Musak was produced without reference to any pre-existing music at all.

Trite But Complimentary Muzak

This was the rhythm of shopping when there was a sixth of the traffic on the roads and as a consequence far less pressure on the defence (of everyone's oil consumption) budget.

Fewer people were travelling to work at 5am in the morning simply to thunder along at 70mph on 30mph roads.

And young people even of Carnaby Street appearance had the opportunity to bob elegantly if purposefully to background muzak (and intrigued older film crew) around Harrods:

Horst Jankowski - "A Walk In The Black Forest" (1965) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS15ACUhTww

[Lat-Literal]

Further Distinctions:

Very Sophisticated Easy Listening

This would be the one in Morrisons from 1989 I have found the most calming:

Sir Van Morrison - Have I Told You Lately - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFF1wJN75Z0

"fill my heart with gladness, take away my sadness, ease my troubles that's what you do"

Sound Reflection of Modern Norms

And this is what Morrisons staff want as they feel that the former is "boring":

Beyonce Knowles-Carter - Grown Woman - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3MjxWn5W9M

(2013 - that would be 24 and 24 - 1965/1989/2013)

"i'm a grown woman and I can do whatever I want"- "I walk with a vengeance"

Cue car driving style trolley madness from both sexes!

http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/12867541.Top_10_new_songs_for_Morrisons_supermarkets/

I accept even I might go elsewhere in search of a sense of some communion but many will no doubt speed to there "independently"!

[MrGongGong]

Yes, I missed that.

From the other link in that post:

...the surreal phenomenon of "metarock"—the art of reinterpreting rock songs into dreamlike, string-laden, easy-listening alternatives. The author also adds an afterword about some of the actual musicians who arranged and conducted Muzak® sessions—respected names like Nelson Riddle...

But I was wrong; I had thought that the original Musak was produced without reference to any pre-existing music at all.

Here's one for Scrote

[P. G. Tipps]

Why do these pop-music 'artists' prance about making funny faces and noises as if they were on some narcotic "trans-chimp" trip ... ?

I see quite enough of that sort of behaviour in my own family, thank you.

[MrGongGong]

Why do these pop-music 'artists' prance about making funny faces and noises as if they were on some narcotic "trans-chimp" trip ... ?

I see quite enough of that sort of behaviour in my own family, thank you.

?


(Metallica aren't "pop-music artists")

[P. G. Tipps]

Another funny face ... and isn't that frightful 'Heavy Metal' a mere sub-division of popular music?

I wonder what Mr Scruton thinks ...

[MrGongGong]

Another funny face ... and isn't that frightful 'Heavy Metal' a mere sub-division of popular music?

I wonder what Mr Scruton thinks ...

I think it falls into the "tasty" category?

I wonder if Mr Scruton thinks ?

[ahinton]

"i'm a grown woman and I can do whatever I want"

Including inveighing against piped music in public places if desired?

"I walk with a vengeance"

I simply use two legs.

[Lat-Literal]

Including inveighing against piped music in public places if desired?

I simply use two legs.

Now this I like because it really is savvy:

Kirsty MacColl - Us Amazonians

(Not quite the Schwarzwald)

Here in the country we dance and we play
And we pray to our saints and we make love all day
I fell in love with a real city boy
Who's afraid of his nature, afraid of his joy

I punched him out and brought him to this hut
But I know he'll thank me when he wakes up
We got trees, we got snakes, we got acres of sky
His life in the city was making him cry

Come on, come on, darling, be brave for a while
You don't look afraid when you laugh and you smile
I'll be good, I'll be strong
I'll be just what you needed all along

Here in the country we dance and we play
And we pray to our saints and we make love all day
I fell in love with a real city boy
Who's afraid of his nature, afraid of his joy

Us Amazonians know where we stand
We got kids, we got jobs, why do we need a man?
Us Amazonians make out alright
But we want something to hold in the forest at night

Come on, come on, darling, be brave for a while
You don't look afraid when you laugh and you smile
Breathe in deep, stick with me
You'll still be free as you let yourself be

If you're certain, if you're true
I'll be the only country girl for you
I'll be good, I'll be strong
I'll be just what you needed all along

Here in the country we dance and we play
And we pray to our saints and we make love all day
I fell in love with a real city boy
Gotta teach him about nature and teach him about joy

Us Amazonians know where we stand
We got kids, we got jobs, why do we need a man?
Us Amazonians make out alright
But we want something to hold in the forest at night

Here's my boyfriend, he's small, he is blue
He is cold, he is rough, he's appalling that's true
But he's got the power, he's got the fire
To be just like us is his only desire

He'll learn to hunt and I'll teach him to fish
We'll boil up our rice in a satellite dish
We'll plant cassava wherever we can
Us Amazonians always get our man

Us Amazonians know where we stand
We got kids, we got jobs, why do we need a man?
Us Amazonians make out alright
But we want something to hold in the forest at night

[Serial_Apologist]

A E Houseman?

[Lat-Literal]

A E Houseman?

Housman, shurely.

[ahinton]

Now this I like because it really is savvy:

"Here in the country we dance"

Oh, God, not b****y Strictly again!...

And we pray to our saints and we make love all day

What, simultaneously? Not only that, simultaneous dancing and all-day lovemaking likewise sounds to be a potentially hazardous exercise (not that I've ever put that to the test personally, you understand)...

"I fell in love with a real city boy
Who's afraid of his nature, afraid of his joy

I punched him out and brought him to this hut
But I know he'll thank me when he wakes up"

If you fell in love with him, why did you do this? - and how do you know either that he was afraid of his nature or his joy or that he will thank you for your attempt at GBH when he awakes?

"We got trees, we got snakes, we got acres of sky
His life in the city was making him cry"

Lots of places have plenty of visible sky, although I've never previously encountered them being measured in antediluvian acres. Who needs snakes? He could in any case have moved to the coutryside of his own volition without external coercion had he so desired, surely?

"Us Amazonians know where we stand
We got kids, we got jobs, why do we need a man?

How did you get the first of these? And if you don't need a man, why fall in love with one?

"If you're certain, if you're true
I'll be the only country girl for you
I'll be good, I'll be strong
I'll be just what you needed all along"

Who are you trying to kid (apart from yourself)?

But we want something to hold in the forest at night

Wouldn't a vigil do?

"Here's my boyfriend, he's small, he is blue
He is cold, he is rough, he's appalling that's true"

Then why is he your boyfriend?

"But he's got the power, he's got the fire
To be just like us is his only desire"

Then someone needs to rush him back to the city for an urgent course of psychotherapy.

"He'll learn to hunt"

Not if it's in a place where that sort of thing is illegal, persumably...

"We'll boil up our rice in a satellite dish"

While watching Strictly, one hopes.

"Us Amazonians always get our man"

If you don't need one, why so?

"we want something to hold in the forest at night"

Then for pity's sake hug a tree, why don't you?

If that's "savvy", I shudder to think what's not; it seems to be shot through with so many absurdities competing for space with anomalies that not even Mr Scruton's most vociferous detractors would compare it to his writing, let alone assume that it might actually have been written by him! I don't buy it (as you've probably noticed by now) and, if it does anything at all, it perhaps proves the point that one buys from Amazon at one's own risk...

If that's McColl you can think to quote in the context of this thread, then God help both you and the thread!

The only Kirsty for me, by the way, is as Scottish as I am - though, unlike me, she is not Old...

Back to the thread as rapidly as possible, mehopes! I would imagine that even the most fervent anti-Scrutonite might likewise welcome such a rapid return...