That is a big claim to make. Western music elevates traits of music that they've identified as important, and undermines aspects of music that they've not paid attention to. For ex: western music (pre-20th century) cared a lot about Harmony & melody, but IMO, was little lacking in their understanding of rhythm, jamming and the power of space (silence). More here(I know, ignore the title, it has good substance.)
Now, the 17-21st century were a golden period of prosperity and time for the West in a manner that the east simply couldn't compete. I don't think it is fair to compare the recent exponential flourishing of western music in a couple of the richest places on earth (Vienna, USA) to places that were struggling to make ends meet in the east.
My theory is that just as the west looks to a few locations for their artistic direction (NYC, LA, London, Paris, Vienna), East-Asia largely relied on China and India as the their sources of artistic direction. (especially SEA, Japan, Korea). Indian classical & contemporary music comfortably goes toe-to-toe with anything western classical or contemporary music throws at it, but Indian classical has failed to flourish over the last 400 years for obvious reasons. Chinese classical music on the other hand, stagnated from colonial humiliation and was destroyed like all classical structures due to communism. So now you have this naïve blank slate that appears pretty bad when compared to contemporaries elsewhere. The rest of the continent despite its best efforts could not recover from having its 2 main sources of aesthetic understanding collapse. (Japan was less affected, as 2 centuries of isolation forced it to come up with it's own aesthetic identity separate from Indian-inspired Buddhism or Chinese cultural influence)
is sufficient music-listening necessary to fully appreciate complex music
I believe so. I have had an interesting journey with pop. I used to find it bland and only listening to progressive (almost deliberately complex) music for a decade. Those 10 years made me a discerning listener, listening for atmospheric queues, syncopation, tension-release and the precision of good production. Now that I can discern good pop from bad pop, I've begun to appreciate the magic and the power of simple yet effective tools.
The specific things that took a lot of learning were:
What is a pocket, why do people like dancing ? -> it unlocked my enjoyment of funk & Rap (Only after I learned to play the drums)
What does an odd-time signature actually do emotionally -> Unlocked tension/release and African-style music (After listening to a lot of prog)
What is the "free feeling" & stank-face ? -> unlocked my enjoyment of blues, jazz, Indian-classical(After actually jamming with people in real life)
What is atmosphere ? -> unlocked my enjoyment of western classical. (After brute forcing my way through Black metal and Black gaze. I hated it until I started loving it. Also, attending real life concerts. It just hits different.)
What is production -> unlocked my enjoyment of pop (after trying to get a note to sound just-right when I was tuning my guitars and drums)
That being said, the best works can be enjoyed by noobs and experts alike. Lose yourself, Comfortably Numb, Hotel California, Pavrotti's Nessun Dorma, 10,000 days part 2, All along the watch tower or Certain Ragas are universal experiences.
I have gone through a similar journey with soccer. From being a kid that loved flamboyant tricksters like Ronaldinho, to now appreciating players like Fabregas or Berbatov who use the basics to absolute perfection. I can also finally appreciate players who seemingly stand in the right spot every time. (Busquets, T.Silva, Giroud, Jorginho). That being said, just like great music, even an idiot can see the greatness of Messi.
what’s happening when we hear a song (for a lot of people: Satie’s gymnopedie) and it brings us a new emotional state?
Like all aesthetics, there are some universal cues (symmetry, Height, Clear face) and some that signal higher-level societal phenomenon. (Japanese like crooked teeth, attraction for thin frail sickly-looking women in China and western modelling, attraction towards lighter skin to signal class and not needing to work in fields in India)
is too much music bad because it desensitizes us to the significance of real life sound cues?
I refuse to buy that. If anything, music makes me a more discerning listener towards real life sound cues as well. But yeah, don't wear headphones everywhere and aurally separate yourself from society.
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Notes -
That is a big claim to make. Western music elevates traits of music that they've identified as important, and undermines aspects of music that they've not paid attention to. For ex: western music (pre-20th century) cared a lot about Harmony & melody, but IMO, was little lacking in their understanding of rhythm, jamming and the power of space (silence). More here(I know, ignore the title, it has good substance.)
Now, the 17-21st century were a golden period of prosperity and time for the West in a manner that the east simply couldn't compete. I don't think it is fair to compare the recent exponential flourishing of western music in a couple of the richest places on earth (Vienna, USA) to places that were struggling to make ends meet in the east.
My theory is that just as the west looks to a few locations for their artistic direction (NYC, LA, London, Paris, Vienna), East-Asia largely relied on China and India as the their sources of artistic direction. (especially SEA, Japan, Korea). Indian classical & contemporary music comfortably goes toe-to-toe with anything western classical or contemporary music throws at it, but Indian classical has failed to flourish over the last 400 years for obvious reasons. Chinese classical music on the other hand, stagnated from colonial humiliation and was destroyed like all classical structures due to communism. So now you have this naïve blank slate that appears pretty bad when compared to contemporaries elsewhere. The rest of the continent despite its best efforts could not recover from having its 2 main sources of aesthetic understanding collapse. (Japan was less affected, as 2 centuries of isolation forced it to come up with it's own aesthetic identity separate from Indian-inspired Buddhism or Chinese cultural influence)
I believe so. I have had an interesting journey with pop. I used to find it bland and only listening to progressive (almost deliberately complex) music for a decade. Those 10 years made me a discerning listener, listening for atmospheric queues, syncopation, tension-release and the precision of good production. Now that I can discern good pop from bad pop, I've begun to appreciate the magic and the power of simple yet effective tools.
The specific things that took a lot of learning were:
What is a pocket, why do people like dancing ? -> it unlocked my enjoyment of funk & Rap (Only after I learned to play the drums)
What does an odd-time signature actually do emotionally -> Unlocked tension/release and African-style music (After listening to a lot of prog)
What is the "free feeling" & stank-face ? -> unlocked my enjoyment of blues, jazz, Indian-classical(After actually jamming with people in real life)
What is atmosphere ? -> unlocked my enjoyment of western classical. (After brute forcing my way through Black metal and Black gaze. I hated it until I started loving it. Also, attending real life concerts. It just hits different.)
What is production -> unlocked my enjoyment of pop (after trying to get a note to sound just-right when I was tuning my guitars and drums)
That being said, the best works can be enjoyed by noobs and experts alike. Lose yourself, Comfortably Numb, Hotel California, Pavrotti's Nessun Dorma, 10,000 days part 2, All along the watch tower or Certain Ragas are universal experiences.
I have gone through a similar journey with soccer. From being a kid that loved flamboyant tricksters like Ronaldinho, to now appreciating players like Fabregas or Berbatov who use the basics to absolute perfection. I can also finally appreciate players who seemingly stand in the right spot every time. (Busquets, T.Silva, Giroud, Jorginho). That being said, just like great music, even an idiot can see the greatness of Messi.
Like all aesthetics, there are some universal cues (symmetry, Height, Clear face) and some that signal higher-level societal phenomenon. (Japanese like crooked teeth, attraction for thin frail sickly-looking women in China and western modelling, attraction towards lighter skin to signal class and not needing to work in fields in India)
I refuse to buy that. If anything, music makes me a more discerning listener towards real life sound cues as well. But yeah, don't wear headphones everywhere and aurally separate yourself from society.
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