Decided to sort out why me I feel distrust towards rock 'n' roll, indie rock and jazz. I'll start from afar.
I recalled that once, after repeatedly listening to the output of the Sonig label, meaning the compilations "comp.", ".ilation" and some other minor stuff, all other music began to seem terribly simple and primitive to me. In principle, it makes sense - Jan Werner, a former member of Oval and current one of Microstoria, the author of the Lithops project, claimed this: "there is nothing more complex than the music of the Sonig label right now". As far as I understand, he meant more complex in terms of internal structure, and partly - in the difficulty of listening and understanding. That is, this music is a classic example of what an unprepared person would call "vile noise that has nothing to do with music", while a music lover - a fan of rock would say "this is some kind of noise".
So anyway, the sounds in it are so densely planted, closely connected and intertwined that to make out anything becomes super complicated. But if you switch to some instrumental easy listening, it immediately becomes exceptionally repulsive - you can hear all the instruments, recorded cleanly and separately. That is, it sounds as if people turned on a drum machine, a few synthesizers, and are playing along to themselves on a guitar or some banjo. Meanwhile, from time to time they reprogram the synthesizer, changing the tempo and instruments, adding and removing effects. This, for example, is often how Vangelis or Enigma sound. I have a question: do they really think that this is how music is made?
Once artem_r dropped a phrase that most people don't even hear the music, but only hear the rhythm and melody (or rhythm and sound?).
I immediately started wondering whether I belong to those who hear and what it even means - to hear music? I started wondering exactly because the ancient rock of the 70s doesn't do it for me.
In modern rock, or rather, "alternative", I'm "hooked" not least by a cool, competently produced sound, harsh and gloomy-sounding guitars with stylish effect processors, dissonances and a jagged rhythm, plus electronic effect-gizmos. And the melody, of course. So what, are all these just external attributes, poppy "hooks" ?
As for electronic music, if it's simple - there I like the groove, the sound, and the mood, that is, the atmosphere created by the track. But if the music is elaborate, like my favorite alternative hip-hop, there also appears an amazement at the variety of samples, their inconceivably organic combination and absolutely otherworldly manipulations with rhythm.
The main question remains - is there something else in music? Something more significant than everything listed above?
Or have I actually listed the most important things, but my ears, ruined by overcompressed and filtered sound, simply don't perceive the relatively soft and natural recordings of the 60s?
P.S. I wrote this text a long time ago, wanted to make it long, but forgot to finish it. So I'm posting it as is.
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