Fandom Gruff ┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ) UNFLIPPED THREAD

[Bridge]

If anything I honestly just feel bad for you guys considering you're missing entire different aspects of music cause of your standards.

"Classical" isn't an "aspect of music" however. It is a discipline, or more like a philosophy that encompasses a huge range of different sounds and moods. Not trying to impugn your taste in music or anything, I don't care either way, but if you only think Mozart when you hear the word "classical" then you are only looking at a very small portion of the genre. I don't think anyone really has a practical definition for "classical music" but it is much more flexible than you probably think.

If any of that was directed at me, then I'd have you know I listen to a huge number of different genres other than classical, including blues & jazz, progressive rock, funk, some old school hip hop, occasionally metal and all kinds of world music. I don't think I am missing out at all by not respecting a genre that is largely manufactured (literally). Like you said, it's a matter of taste. I think discussions like this could do without the heavy-handed condescension, true, but you have to realize that pop music is inferior to almost everything else. I usually don't say stuff like that, but I just can't acknowledge it as a valuable contribution because it usually doesn't express anything and it is very clumsily crafted. It's largely composed by ghost writers who don't give a shit about anything artistic and are paid to construct (yes, construct) catchy melodies and harmony and arrange them. Then session musicians, who don't often care about the music, come in to sight read whatever parts are handed to them and then all of the raw data is handed to a audio engineer who makes everything sound perfect and completely sterile, and then it is released. Sometimes not even the "artists" themselves even care and sometimes they have no say in anything related to the music (depends on the type of contract they sign).

Why should that be respected just as much as music written by someone who has a real passion for what the end result will be? Admittedly, orchestral musicians sometimes do not care at all for the composer's intentions either, but they are connected to the music directly, as in their effort directly affects the end result (of course CD versions are always polished though, but not nearly as much). I don't mean to sound pretentious (I realize I completely do), but there is absolutely no one who admires pop for its expert attention to detail and how well thought out it is (apart from how it's designed to make money (masterfully at that)). Please explain to me how cookie-cutter music written for people who don't care is completely equal to meticulously crafted music for people who do. Honestly, my patience for the whole "all art is subjective" mindset has its limits. Like, I consider simple folk tunes to be essentially comparable to the most intricate of orchestral compositions because both are essentially part of their own language and are honest and usually written by passionate people. Pop is based mostly on deception.