The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #165842   Message #3983119
Posted By: Stringsinger
19-Mar-19 - 12:20 PM
Thread Name: The fine line between MUSIC and NOISE!
Subject: RE: The fine line between MUSIC and NOISE!
It's possible that with loud electronic sounds, a young audience can feel the vibrations of the music which are stimulating physically especially for dancing. This seems to be one of the appeals of rock. Playing at high levels does make the music sound different but often it masks the inability to play well.

Many rock artists and producers lost their hearing by cranking it up in the recording studio where mid range becomes weaker when the ears are fatigued. The large venues
that rock musicians are forced to play requires loud volume to cover the room especially if the sound engineering is not as good as it should be. Many venues have bad acoustics which are compensated for by excessive decibels.

There is a penchant for producing sounds that are interpreted as being exciting
because they are loud. With live symphony orchestras, this might be the case during passages of Berlioz or Beethoven but then there is the contrast in amplitude relieving the loud parts with varying dynamics. With rock, there is no relief.

It's a cultural problem. Flash and pyrotechnics at loud volumes are a way of
alleviating the boredom that many people have in their lives, slaving at meaningless work and alcohol plays a role here too. Clubs often have musicians that attempt to cut through the alcoholic and tobacco haze by banging it home. Loud music is also a
way of releasing anger very much in the way many react to sporting events.

Folkies are generally used to a different way of listening to music appreciating the subtleties of dynamic range created with natural acoustics. At this point in my life
I really prefer to go to house concerts to hear musicians in a more intimate setting.
I guess I'm an old fogey folkie. But it is thrilling to hear a world class symphony orchestra or when they were once available a live jazz or dance band like Basie or Duke
and the unamplified sounds of great be-bop players or New Orleans bands.

It's something about the pure sine wave of electronic guitars that work against interesting dynamics and overtones found in unamplified instruments.

Also, music education is one of the casualties of the general dumbing down of America.
Teachers are underpaid and often unappreciated and we can't expect that many will emerge from an impoverished educational system with sensitivity to the arts.