jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) (07/18/84)
Will you take it easy for a change? Read allegra!dep's article again. No reference was made to any specific kind of music (except in the presumably facetious bug-killer line). All he said was, most people prefer mediocrity to excellence. Do you really want to dispute that? Doing so would not seem to be consistent with many of your previous articles. Ah, you say, but his article depends on the context of my original article. Well, read my article again. Is the kind of "popular" music I described the only kind there is? (Of course not.) Is it even the kind *you* like? (I sincerely doubt it.) In fact, you'd probably condemn it as mindless just as quickly as dep or I would. So stop screaming. By the way, for anybody who missed it, my original article *was* a joke. If you thought I was aiming at a serious, or even semi-serious putdown of all non-classical music, take some chalk, go to the blackboard, and write "I will not be paranoid" 500 times. Thank you. Why do most people not prefer excellence? There's no mystery about it and there's NOTHING WRONG WITH IT. Think of how many things there are to know in this world. Think of all the different kinds of human endeavors there are. The vast majority of us are good at only a few. A little arithmetic on this shows that, in any particular field, only a few will really know what is excellent. Does that mean the others shouldn't get what they want? Of course not. But... does that mean that those who *do* appreciate excellence should have to put up with cries of "snob! snob!" whenever they talk about what they like? Guess. If I see another article raving about snobs on this newsgroup, I am going to get net.hit started, I swear I will... Jeff Winslow
jlg@lanl-a.UUCP (07/19/84)
Well, Rich Rosen is up to his old tricks again. I think he only posts to the net to start arguments. A while back he took a survey of why people looked at this newsgroup - he never posted the results. One of his questions was 'what percentage of the notes in this group do you skip?' or something to that effect. My answer WAS none. Henceforth, I will skip any note with Rich rosen as the author. Rich Rosen accuses all classical music fans of being snobs. The tone of his article is 'I you don't appreciate ALL music, you are a narrow minded snob.' But, reading through his articles, I get the feeling that he has an active dislike for quite a lot of classical music. By the way, there is nothing 'so-called' about classical music. It is music that has become classic. You could even apply an unambiguous, objective test to it - it is a classic if is is still widely performed one or more generations after it was written. This definition does not depend upon taste or point of view, and by this definition some of the popular music of today will eventually become classic! J.L. Giles
marantz@null.DEC (Josh HL01-1/S07 DTN 225-4835) (07/23/84)
In reply to: Message from decwrl!decvax!dartvax!merchant of 21-Jul-1984
Now, those of you who try to ascribe greatness to pop music are trying
to call an apple orange. That's not it's job. You want to listen to
some "great" music, listen to Mahler, The Fabulous Poodles, or King
Crimson. Pop isn't trying to be great. It's striving for mediocrity.
Mahler? Of course.
King Crimson? Excellent.
The Fabulous Poodles? Explain please...
-Josh the uninformed.