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A place for discussion of general audio, music and related topics.
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There must be something wrong with me

January 22nd, 2022, 4:34 pm

I do not want to speak ill of the dead but Meatloaf just sounds like noise to me

Re: There must be something wrong with me

January 22nd, 2022, 4:38 pm

Pelliott321 wrote:I do not want to speak ill of the dead but Meatloaf just sounds like noise to me


Opera sounds like noise to me.... Different strokes for different folks..

Roscoe

Re: There must be something wrong with me

January 22nd, 2022, 4:45 pm

The brain is amazing how with sufficient repetition, what is initially noise eventually becomes meaningful.

ray

Re: There must be something wrong with me

January 22nd, 2022, 5:16 pm

maybe so but I cannot take too much of it at any one time. There must be 100 albums on Qobuz and I start a track and there is a back beat so I start listening the off he goes and it becomes noise

Re: There must be something wrong with me

January 22nd, 2022, 6:21 pm

I saw on TV recently an old interview with him where he essentially said it is all about the words, not the music. That is where he concentrated.

Re: There must be something wrong with me

January 22nd, 2022, 7:31 pm

The he should have written a book

Re: There must be something wrong with me

January 22nd, 2022, 11:34 pm

Pelliott321 wrote:I do not want to speak ill of the dead but Meatloaf just sounds like noise to me


My wife would like a word with you.

Seriously, Berg sounds like noise--until you take some time to understand it.

Re: There must be something wrong with me

January 23rd, 2022, 8:07 am

Pelliott321 wrote:The he should have written a book

Agreed. But many people do not read books any more. Just look at the rise of rap which is essentially a story with a beat in the background.

Re: There must be something wrong with me

January 23rd, 2022, 12:14 pm

tomp wrote:
Pelliott321 wrote:The he should have written a book

Agreed. But many people do not read books any more. Just look at the rise of rap which is essentially a story with a beat in the background.


But rap is actually a way of expounding poetry, of word play, using rhythm (in both the words and the supporting beat) as the conveying musical element rather than using melody with harmonic support. It may not be to your liking, but I would consider this directly analoguous to recitativ in opera or oratorios. There have been through centuries in music the debate over the importance of the text vs other musical elements (melody, harmony, polyphony, etc.). I have to agree with Grover that you need to understand the music before you can appreciate it. Once you begin to understand what is happening and its meaning, they you have a structure that can make it sound like music rather than just noise. You may not like it, but it makes sense and can then say, hey, I hear what they are doing here. You can also begin to appreciate the good (inventive, complex, unique, meaningful) vs the formulatic "copy cat" pieces in the genre.

I do not listen to "pop" music, but when exposed to it (such as background music outside the home), I always try to figure out what the happening with the music, turn on my analytical brain. It actually helps me deal with music I would rather not listen to otherwise.

David

Re: There must be something wrong with me

January 23rd, 2022, 1:04 pm

I'm not a Meat Loaf fanboy but that guy has a beautiful voice. The brilliance of his catalog is Jimmy Steinman. Had they never collaborated, the world would have never heard of Meat Loaf other than the ubiquitous dinner entree. Steinman recognized that operatic quality of his voice and wrote a catalogue of songs that were perfect for it. Yesterday, I listened to Bat Out Of Hell II on my stereo at a pretty reasonable level and thought it sounded surprisingly good compared to his other recordings, and the songs are magnificent.

Like most pop and rock recordings, his records weren't meant to be listened to on a highly resolving Audiophile stereo system. Try ripping one onto a cd (my cars don't have connectivity) and playing it in your car next time you're driving on the interstate for an hour.:-)
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