Music--classic or dud?

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Music as soundtrack to your life-I find that if I use restraint and leave behind my headphones there are all manner of sounds that I had previously been unaware of. Classic-the radiator in my room makes a noise like a digital frog! The sound of a city is huge and exciting! Dud-Hearing people on the train. They are boring and loud and grumpy. Also, actually hearing the sounds that my car makes (It's a deathtrap).
Everything also loses it's "epic"-ness and sense of importance. A walk becomes a walk, and not a journey. The movement of people and things no longer seems contrived and beat-matched, but has a certain sad but fascinating randomness to it. PT Anderson/Martin Scorsese/Hype Williams (?) has been canned from directing my life and Robert Bresson has been revived and has taken over their efforts. Still, a fascinating experiment.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Saturday, 25 January 2003 19:37 (twenty-three years ago)

I have read the odd article that goes: 'I went to the gig by x and after that there was heightened awareness of EVERY SINGLE SOUND HURRAH!'

so sounds: classic, apart from ppl who talk too loud on their mobile. kill 'em.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 25 January 2003 19:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Nordic, I assume you're aware this was John Cage's whole point behind his infamous 4'33? Yeah, I find that even though I continue to collect way too many records I enjoy "silence", evironmental sound, more than ever. After letting a record play I never feel anxious to put anything else on. Like now, the record I was playing ended about 20 minutes ago and know I'm just listening to the sound of this construction crew across the way...

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 25 January 2003 19:52 (twenty-three years ago)

"know"=now, geez..

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 25 January 2003 19:52 (twenty-three years ago)

I also found some of these sounds resemble songs. Some London buses make that weird (dog?) noise at the beginning of "Sure Shot" by The Beastie Boys. And my girlfriend was convinced that the radiator (another one) in our last apartment sounded like the intro to "Crickets Sing For Anamaria" by Astrud Gilberto.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Saturday, 25 January 2003 19:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I swear my clothes washer sounds like a muffled human voice saying "New York Times! New York Times!" over and over again...

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 25 January 2003 20:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Brilliant! More more more!

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Saturday, 25 January 2003 20:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Whatever music I play, my life seems to be directed by Mike Leigh, unfortunately.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 25 January 2003 20:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Mr Diamond: We demand a clothes washer remix album.

― teeny (teeny), Saturday, 25 January 2003 20:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Acid house is derived from British plumbing

I think the genius thing about 4'33" is that if its project succeeds its obsoletes Cage himself. you get the feeling, however, that he doesn't actually WANT the project to succeed completely, so there's a kind of bad fath there. you know when you've been listening to pounding pounding music all night and you get home and have ZERO instinct to turn on the stereo? i'll write my own rests, Mr Cage!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 25 January 2003 22:00 (twenty-three years ago)

so everybody's always talking about that cage song? record? what is it, just silence, am i to understand? just checking

― ron (ron), Saturday, 25 January 2003 22:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Bearing in mind I listen to Noise, EVERYTHING sounds like music to me! A huge gathering of shopping trolleys sounding like a snare drum machine on a spazzattack, cars going by sounding like synthfag music rising & rising, water trickling & gushing in a stream sounding like etc etc

― Guerillas On The Piss, Saturday, 25 January 2003 23:03 (twenty-three years ago)

The music of the internal combustion engine!Especially the V12 Ferarri at full tilt.Makes your ears bleed like Lemmy..........

― Eugene Speed (Eugene Speed), Saturday, 25 January 2003 23:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, ron, the piece is 4 minutes 33 seconds of "silence." But it was in fact performed! Pianist walks onto stage, takes a seat at the piano, starts a stopwatch. After 4'33, stops watch, gets up from piano, performance over. The point being, of course, that there is never any real silence. There is a heightened sensitivity to the sound of people coughing, shifting uncomfortably in their chairs, rustling their programs, etc. There is the famous anecdote about how, in the beginning, Cage was so interested in the idea of silence he arranged to enter an anechoic chamber (supposedly a completely silent place) at Harvard, and discovered he heard the sound of his circulatory system..

Tracer, I thought acid house derived from Phuture's "Acid Tracks" (which is derived from...?). Or Mr. Fingers' "Washing Machine", which kind of brings the conversation back around... So you see, teeny, someone already beat me to it :-)

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 25 January 2003 23:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Cage was so interested in the idea of silence he arranged to enter an anechoic chamber (supposedly a completely silent place) at Harvard, and discovered he heard the sound of his circulatory system.

I like this. Our entire existence is governed by the marking-time rhythm of our heartbeats. Hence the fundamentality of the rhythm of music to our psyches.

It's all numbers, y'see.

― Venga, Saturday, 25 January 2003 23:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic-the radiator in my room makes a noise like a digital frog! The sound of a city is huge and exciting!

This is why I don't ever use walkmans. The sounds around me are an important part of the life of the city that I walk through, and I feel as though I'd be missing out if I instead decided to play the same sort of music I'd be listening to at work to block out the chattering of my coworkers.

That said, one of art's functions is to render aspects of the world unfamiliar and hence new, to recalibrate your senses, and for that reason I often feel much more attuned to environmental sounds after a show, or after a long session listening to LPs in my apartment. I think that's as it should be.

I think Cage's piece makes this point better in theory than in actuality. Hearing a room of a few hundred people whispering and coughing is not very exciting in itself.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 26 January 2003 00:06 (twenty-three years ago)

i think on the first performance (probably at black mountain college) the hall was quite small, and everyone found thwmselves listening to rain outside and a distant car or train or something => maybe it works better w.small halls, where less ppl are more likely to control being silent? the first performer happened to be a pianist (david tudor) (who i am sure "performed" grippingly enough that ppl kept shut up — cage was SO FUCKING LUCKY IN meeting tudor) but it's actually scored for any instrument

the anechoic chamber was surely at the tokyo expo (well anyway that's where stockhausen went into it)? and cage heard two sounds not one, one high, one low, his nervous system and his blood pumping

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 26 January 2003 01:32 (twenty-three years ago)

(cage was SO FUCKING LUCKY IN meeting tudor)

"lucky" ha ha you are giving the late Mr. Cage fits of joy

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 26 January 2003 01:41 (twenty-three years ago)

the anechoic chamber was surely at the tokyo expo

Nope, 'twas Harvard. Listen to yr copy of Indeterminacy mr. Fact Checker d00d :-)

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Sunday, 26 January 2003 02:02 (twenty-three years ago)

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 26 January 2003 02:18 (twenty-three years ago)

so where can I buy myself one of these anechoic chambers?

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 26 January 2003 04:42 (twenty-three years ago)

go camping somewhere on a quiet night. you can hear your heartbeat.

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 26 January 2003 04:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh blimey. Posting in a slightly altered state = not my strong point.

― Venga, Sunday, 26 January 2003 10:17 (twenty-three years ago)

but it's actually scored for any instrument

That made me laugh. mark s is on a roll with making me laugh, it's good.

I love to hear other people talking, people I don't know. I always eavesdrop. It's a bad habit but I like catching little bits of people saying things, and thinking what their comments could possibly have meant. This is why I rarely use headphones - the only time I use my discman or mp3 player is in bed, when I'm not really ready for sleep but I'm trying to go to bed anyway, the music and the darkness kind of lulls me a little...otherwise I don't like it.

I like the screeching of the subways too. It annoys me when I see people putting their fingers in their ears, as if it's a bad thing to hear something very loud and abrasive. It isn't!

― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, 26 January 2003 10:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Sometimes when I'm on public transport, I close my eyes and focus very intently on the sounds around me. Occasionally a particular sequence of sonic events has the same effect on me that a really emotionally powerful moment in music does; makes my hair stand up on end followed by a short but intense high.

― Andrew (enneff), Sunday, 26 January 2003 16:58 (twenty-three years ago)

''but it's actually scored for any instrument
That made me laugh. mark s is on a roll with making me laugh, it's good.''

well, that was cage's instruction though yes it is funny.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 26 January 2003 17:10 (twenty-three years ago)

My favorite thing about camping is finding a nice fat dry rock in the middle of a stream miles from highways and anything else that might make noises, and sitting down on it and just listening to the stream whisper tricklings and to not-so-distant animal sounds and to the wind rustling leaves in the trees above or on the ground.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Sunday, 26 January 2003 17:21 (twenty-three years ago)

seven months pass...

I think I need to spend more time without music playing in the background. Lately I have been too busy stuffing myself full with music and web grazing. My attention is much more collected if I am sitting quietly reading a book.

― Al Andalous, Monday, 22 September 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm so addicted to music anymore that without it playing almost all semblence of "mood" disappears and I'm left an emotionless void of numbness.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 22 September 2003 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

my friend is an electric engineer at Harmon speakers. i went into his work where they have an anechoic chamber. it's pretty fucking tweaky. it's a room with tons of layers of angled foam. so pretty much there's no way the sound can bounce off of any surface. you walk in and it almost feels as if the air is sucked out of your ears. i had to really concentrate on what my friend was saying. it almost makes your eyes water. i could imagine being in there by yourself w/no lights on being very hallucinatory.

― JasonD (JasonD), Monday, 22 September 2003 17:13 (twenty-two years ago)

sometimes I think I should take a break from music. but that would make my job very very difficult.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 22 September 2003 18:09 (twenty-two years ago)

[does geeky dance to Erick Sermon/Marvin Gaye's "Music"]

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 22 September 2003 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

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