Paedantic Basterd

No rush!

Salami

It's 20 past ten over here and I'm tired of waiting, Burning Down. But I really want to read this!!!

blankety blank

I would advise that you just forget all that 'information', and discard it. Free that portion of the brain for more music. Music has always reflected 'cultural' ideals, and, tribal cultures usually used music as an appeal or appeasement to the various 'gods'.

Mating rituals in humans were rarely individual rites. And, as for animals, i.e birds, science understands them less than they understand us.

Your comments appear to address the issues with far more logic and reasoning than the comments quoted by the various 'sources'. It seems that the authors fail to take into account the biggest influence on modern music. Money. Record companies create 'sex idols', and pop music is designed to appeal to teenage girls. And, that all began with Elvis, who never wrote or co-wrote a song his entire career. And, he is the 'king'?

I won't rant. I agree with most of your comments. I would, however, toss the book in the trash file. Music has not 'evolved'. It has undergone several changes, which, then simply are classified under different or new genres.

Disco did die a quick death, thank heaven But, it can still be heard in techno dance pop. If one were to consider that 'evolution', I suppose that would be a valid opinion. And finally, it is said that 'emo' grew out of the post-hardcore punk scene, but, I cringe whenever I read that

Oh well. I suppose I could write a book here, but, I digress

peace


steve

Guybrush

I'm impressed!

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Something Completely Different

Salami

Although this is a good point, and one I do agree with, I think that on the other hand the art of music in it's most basic form is a desire to be creative. That may be influenced by sex, and more importantly money, but at the end of the day it is exactly the same cerebral process as designing computers: creativity.

Guybrush

The thread is about the evolution of music so it is not about the present as much as it is about our evolutionary history and why we evolved a capacity and desire to create and enjoy music. Generally speaking, any ideas involving the stress of touring, record labels, money and other present day stuff will just be irrelevant.

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Something Completely Different

blankety blank

I would not disagree with that wholeheartedly. There are 'artists' who desire only to be creative, and, then there are the corporate 'song slingers', who churn out hits for the Justin Biebers and all the New Kids on the Blocks.

I have a lot of respect for Lady Ga Ga. Can't stand the music, but, she is an artist.

What separates an artist from a performer is simple for me. Do they create their own music? If so, then, kudos to them. If not, they belong in the same trash heap as the 'king'.

Make sense?

peace

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The passing traveler stops for food and music.

Paedantic Basterd

At this point I would just like to note that the remaining 8 chapters of the book are very informative and factual, and completely worthwhile. Typically books such as this one end in the air, as the research has come to an end and they are looking to the future of discovery on the topic. I just happened to disagree with Levitin's hypothesis.

Stephen

I think there are probably a bit of both accident and adaptation at work. My guess is that music is an adaptation/ extension on the development of language. Enjoying it on a deeper emotional level may be an accident of brain chemistry. Maybe a common form of synesthesia where it accidently triggers pleasure centres in the brain?

blankety blank

So, is chapter 9 the last chapter, or, are there 17 chapters? You say remaining, so, I would assume 8 more, but, I can't assume. You know what that does

I'm glad you found it informative and worthwhile. It would have sucked if you read it, and, found it worthless, right

I personally have rather negative views concerning psychoanalysis. I minored in psychology, and, would have been better served to minor in underwater basket weaving.

I just have this thing about science and attempting to analyze the brain, when man has evolved into a sub sub species.

Single-cell organisms can carry the whole genetic code, and then some, and man still offers sacrifices to gods he created, and goes to war, because my god is better than your god.

We're dumb dumbs on the lowest rung of the dumb dumb scale. I bet somewhere someone is betting on how long it takes us to blow ourselves up, and laughing their cosmic as*es off.

It's all mind dude. If we do not evolve Spiritually and mentally, we're done. Stick a fork in us, and, feed the buzzards.

Rant is over I do respect one maybe two in the field. Jung. And, Jung. And, Nietzsche was actually pretty heads up on things. Freud, Reich....wackjobs. But, to each his own opinion, right?

I respect your insight, and, your capacity to critically think, so, we can agree on the fact that neither of us fall into that category

This just reminds me a great song. I wonder how the creativity of Alice Cooper can be measured. I gotta start a thread on Alice. He was a maniac. And, I have not seen one reference on this forum to his creativity.



peace

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The passing traveler stops for food and music.