[LAU] Re: We’ve Got the Beat - in Our Genes

On 5/21/25 05:02, Len Ovens wrote:
> On Wed, 21 May 2025, Bengt Gördén wrote:
>
>> I have been practicing music all my conscious life. My father was 
>> basically unmusical but not averse to it. He probably enjoyed that I 
>> enjoyed it. My mother did not show much interest in music except for 
>> a few (about 10-20) singles from the 60s. I played at her 50th, 60th 
>> and 70th birthdays and she seemed happy and content with the way it 
>> sounded. I get a pretty high score on the Barcelona Music Reward 
>> Questionnaire. Maybe there is something further back in my family or 
>> I'm just a mutant.
>
> I would suggest it be the other way around as mutations generally 
> subtract rather than add. All people are musical even if all they do 
> is use it as wall paper. Those who have trouble singing in tune are 
> more likely the ones hit by a mutation... or just lack of 
> training/practice. Something that doesn't stop them from enjoying 
> music anyway.
>
> However, I would suggest a lack of musicality has more to do with 
> social structure and expectations. Culture in other words. In many 
> parts of the world everyone sings if they can or not. Here we have 
> been taught that only musical people do that maybe in large part 
> because music companies (not "record" companies any more, media 
> companies?) make money by telling you that this one person is special 
> and you should buy their music. After all they are a "star" ... "star" 
> being a word to marketting easier and nothing more. So people are 
> afraid to let people hear them make their own music?
>
> Perhaps prerecorded music has more to do with the demise of more 
> musicallity in the general population. I have read that before radio 
> the most common form of enetrtainment was making music as a family or 
> joining a mandolin ochestra.
>
> So maybe being musical is normal. Wanting to create rather than 
> consume is the way humans should be...
>
> For what its worth...
>
> Len

I think the point of the study wasn't how many people had 
parents/ancestors that played music, or that they themselves played 
music. The study was more about some people have an emotional response 
to music while others lack that response.

I do agree that recording technology has changed how non-musician people 
think of music. I think this affects musicians, too. The ability to 
record tracks in multiple takes means music production can now go 
through tracks note-by-note and basically pick the 'perfect' note for 
every time in the finished track.

I think that does two things. First, it produces "perfect" final 
releases. It fuels the idea that "real musicians" play perfectly. The 
final release of a song doesn't include or even mention the fact that 
there may have been hundreds of takes for every track in the final 
release, that what is presented as a single instrument performance (for 
example)  may actually consist of dozens of bits from other takes. It 
fuels perfectionism that can discourage musical people, that don't think 
they're perfect musicians, from even trying.

Second, it carries the message that only a few, rare, special, "gifted" 
people can be musicians. They play perfectly, effortlessly. Add in the 
lies the Romantic Movement popularized, that creative people are 
special, troubled, 'touched-by-the-gods'.

Then consider this against the background that most popular/commercial 
music is produced and distributed through a few big companies that focus 
on promoting only a few artists while basically ignoring everyone else. 
I like to keep in mind that for every big name commercial solo artist I 
hear on the radio, there are 10000 other artists that are better and 
more gifted, just not as lucky. Or they had more integrity and resisted 
industry pressure to be someone else.

I think that many times the difference is the featured artists went into 
selling sex, not music, but that could just be me.

I think all of this conspires to build fences that keep people out, not 
invite them in or empower them to make music.

Fortunately, the tools of music production are readily available now...

-- 
David W. Jones
[email protected]
authenticity, honesty, community
http://dancingtreefrog.com
"My password is the last 8 digits of π."
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