Conformity in music

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Zeroblue92
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Conformity in music

Post by Zeroblue92 »

Why do we conform to certain types of music's? Is it to be liked by our peers or fear of being rejected from the crowd or something else? I have always found it interesting that people will conform to music because music is so special. Your thoughts?
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Post by Eckhart Aurelius Hughes »

Evolutionarily speaking, music is heavily related to communication and language. Thus, I would guess that we tend to conform to general music trends in parallel to the ways we conform to non-musical language trends such as new slang and the picking up of specialized accents in everyday speech.

Music wouldn't be useful if it didn't play on biologically evolved instincts and neurological features. At least in the recent history of our species, music was often a method of organizing. Anyone can easily see how the use of beats and loud repeating sounds would be an effective way at organizing a group. In ancient tribal days, consider war music, hunting party ritual music or even a big bell used to alert a small village of an invasion. In biological terms lacking the addition of learned human sophistication, consider mating calls by musical creatures or similar rhythmic sounds made that get a group of animals in a pack or such to do something.
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Post by Belinda »

There exists objective evidence that sounds, especially musical(ordered) sounds affect our bodily functions such as brain waves, blood pressure and heart rate. Unfortunately advertisers know all about this as do the annoying people who insert background drumming into dramas and documentaries.
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Post by wanabe »

A person 'conforms' to certain music because it serves a purpose(this could be any thing) for them. ex: The purpose could be being liked by 'the crowd'. ex: The purpose could be for better communication skills via lyrical analysis.

Music(sounds) is a form of communication as has been previously asserted. In this manner, listening to a certain kind of music helps you communicate with others that listen to the same kind music.
There exists objective evidence that sounds, especially musical(ordered) sounds affect our bodily functions such as brain waves, blood pressure and heart rate.
I agree with this assertion, adding only that we don not all react the same; to the same sound. ex: some people like those 'annoying' background drum beats in dramas and documentaries.
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Post by pjkeeley »

Is anyone here a musician? I think you are underestimating how hard it is to truly innovate in music and make something that sounds truly original. Musicians are influenced by the trends in music that they have been surrounded by just like everyone else. However, there are always those who set out to experiment and make music that tries to break away from contemporary trends. It doesn't always get heard in the mainstream because it isn't commercially viable. Much of the conformity to musical trends that you mention is simply due to the fact that most people do not get exposed to the musical underground until new sounds that were once experimental are absorbed by the mainstream.
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Post by Eckhart Aurelius Hughes »

Indeed, I agree with Pjkeeley. This is parallel I think to other art-forms, like culinary art and modeling. The popular music of Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus can be compared to the culinary art of McDonalds and Burger King. The source of conformity in taste and basic reaction to certain patterns of sounds or foods may be biological, but the sophisticated art of these things is, like our verbal non-musical language, something developed and improved by culture, nurture and genius. Unfortunately, we can likely agree that popularity is not the best measure of the exercised talent of an artist.
My entire political philosophy summed up in one tweet.

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I believe spiritual freedom (a.k.a. self-discipline) manifests as bravery, confidence, grace, honesty, love, and inner peace.
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Stirling
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Post by Stirling »

The apex of music is, I think, classical. It has such fullness, complexity and mathematical understanding. Opposed to the likes of Miley Cyrus and the bulk of the popular genre, it simply cannot be touched: it holds on to the simple form, ABA, and rolls over for every possible pop cadence; and it is, further, restricted to the abilities of the voice, and has little academic influence in it, no interesting orchestration - where, now, do we hear Mahler and Richard Strauss, or Prokofiev and Shostakovich in our pop? though I hear a little Chopin nocturne and a French aria in The Resistence. Muse, with their Romantic influence, still does not reach the heights of classical. Classical music, oddly enough, though predictably, is found boring and undesirable. The taste of the public has become so simplistic that the quality of music has diminished; we no longer look for the grand Symphonoy of a Thousand, but a ballad to brighten our day. Poor Wolfgang Rihm; poor Jay Greenberg, aside his prodigious nature;even Steve Reich - these masters held at the bottom of the musical food-chain while Miley Cyrus and Eminem at the top of the charts, having rhyme and no music. But such is a contribution for the biological argument; I myself have missed out.

What am I to say, though? A classical pianist and composer in trainingmy whole eighteen years, I have little understanding for what the popular genre represents for our modern life. I, too, if I ever get the chance, will be famous in obscurity, holding hands with Jay. I suppose I should look into writing for movies. And that is the best a classical musician can do to become known. And my bitterness rambles on...
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Post by wanabe »

pjkeeley,
I agree, but a person who wants to seek out new music that does not conform to mainstream tastes can easily do so via the internet.

Stirling,
Can't you write music for, guitar perhaps, and become known that way by the main stream. Then when you become popular release some classical music.
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There seems to be this undercurrent that conformity in music is inherently bad. It's all art regardless; whether one thinks it's good or bad. You either like it or you don't. There is no point in judging one piece of art against another. It's art, it's for enjoyment, not competition. If competition is what makes it enjoyable to a person however more power to them. If that is the case though, popularity may be the best marker for the talent of an artist.
Secret To Eternal Life: Live Life To The Fullest, Help All Others To Do So.Meaning of Life Is Choice. Increase choice through direct perception. Golden rule+universality principal+Promote benefits-harm+logical consistency=morality.BeTheChange.
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DeathByThought
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Post by DeathByThought »

The music of Miley or Britney isn't just some random "anyone can do this ****" ****. There are professional musicians writing songs for them, a whole army of them. Even though there is a mainstream music genre, writing songs which become hits is still a precise science in most cases. In many others, songs become hits just because of the artist's fame, prestige etc.

Adorno and Horkheimer would explain this phenomena as the mass production of popular culture. It's probably caused by all the tricks capitalism and the progress of technology (and how capitalism uses it to its advantage) have up their sleeves.

But why conform? Everyone has the free will to choose what to listen to and with a bit of effort, it's not hard to find non-mainstream different kinds of music. Maybe it's not conforming but tolerating all this pop stuff that comes from radio and tv. I'm just tolerating what my peers are letting me hear but secretly everyone is listening to alternative and classical music when they are alone. Mainstream music is just a game we play in public.
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