Side comment: I don’t like that the article repeats the myth that Stradivarius has not been excelled. He has; people have reverse engineered several of his tricks (and developed new ones) such that new violins have been produced that are judged equal or superior to his violins in blind tests. (His violins have also not fared especially well in blind tests historically, suggesting quality differentials may be small.)
Of course, as mentioned elsewhere, even if modern violins are superior to Strads it will be almost impossible to erase the history and cultural weight of those Strads. That’s one of the reasons I think it silly to compare MACs to the historical greats; the historical greats have history behind them. Of course they’re more popular.
My position differs from komponisto’s, though, in that I think that if a MAC produces music laymen don’t enjoy, they’re going about music the wrong way. (That is, it seems to me that if the reason humans like music is it’s a superstimulus / augments emotions, those are the right metrics to judge music by, and other metrics shouldn’t call themselves measuring musical quality, but something else.) But that’s a separate discussion we probably don’t need to have now.
My position differs from komponisto’s, though, in that I think that if a MAC produces music laymen don’t enjoy, they’re going about music the wrong way. (That is, it seems to me that if the reason humans like music is it’s a superstimulus / augments emotions, those are the right metrics to judge music by, and other metrics shouldn’t call themselves measuring musical quality, but something else.) But that’s a separate discussion we probably don’t need to have now.
Why not? That opinion komponisto has that differs from yours is the basis for the rest of his arguments on his topic—so it’s pretty damning that he’s constantly searching for arguments he can deploy for why MACs can’t write popular music. “Because they don’t want to escape the poverty that music theory that grad students normally live in?” Sure...
Why not? That opinion komponisto has that differs from yours is the basis for the rest of his arguments on his topic—so it’s pretty damning that he’s constantly searching for arguments he can deploy for why MACs can’t write popular music.
I don’t think this is the right way to look at the issue.
komponisto appears to differ from both of us on how one should judge musical quality. But I agree with him that popular success is not a good metric to use, and am not surprised that he is repeatedly searching for counterarguments to your point if you won’t abandon it.
His argument, as I understand it, is that MACs don’t write popular music because they aren’t trying to write popular music; they’re trying to write music according to their highly specialized standards. My argument is that even if they were trying to write popular music, they would find it very difficult for reasons independent of their quality as composers. It’s telling that of the best-known artists playing classical instruments, the ones that aren’t playing historical greats are playing Metallica. Composers are in a rather saturated field (which explains why they would retreat into specialized standards), and a large component of popularity is popularization rather than raw talent (which cements that specialization as a reinforcer of internal popularity and diminisher of external popularity).
Side comment: I don’t like that the article repeats the myth that Stradivarius has not been excelled. He has; people have reverse engineered several of his tricks (and developed new ones) such that new violins have been produced that are judged equal or superior to his violins in blind tests. (His violins have also not fared especially well in blind tests historically, suggesting quality differentials may be small.)
Of course, as mentioned elsewhere, even if modern violins are superior to Strads it will be almost impossible to erase the history and cultural weight of those Strads. That’s one of the reasons I think it silly to compare MACs to the historical greats; the historical greats have history behind them. Of course they’re more popular.
My position differs from komponisto’s, though, in that I think that if a MAC produces music laymen don’t enjoy, they’re going about music the wrong way. (That is, it seems to me that if the reason humans like music is it’s a superstimulus / augments emotions, those are the right metrics to judge music by, and other metrics shouldn’t call themselves measuring musical quality, but something else.) But that’s a separate discussion we probably don’t need to have now.
Why not? That opinion komponisto has that differs from yours is the basis for the rest of his arguments on his topic—so it’s pretty damning that he’s constantly searching for arguments he can deploy for why MACs can’t write popular music. “Because they don’t want to escape the poverty that music theory that grad students normally live in?” Sure...
I don’t think this is the right way to look at the issue.
komponisto appears to differ from both of us on how one should judge musical quality. But I agree with him that popular success is not a good metric to use, and am not surprised that he is repeatedly searching for counterarguments to your point if you won’t abandon it.
His argument, as I understand it, is that MACs don’t write popular music because they aren’t trying to write popular music; they’re trying to write music according to their highly specialized standards. My argument is that even if they were trying to write popular music, they would find it very difficult for reasons independent of their quality as composers. It’s telling that of the best-known artists playing classical instruments, the ones that aren’t playing historical greats are playing Metallica. Composers are in a rather saturated field (which explains why they would retreat into specialized standards), and a large component of popularity is popularization rather than raw talent (which cements that specialization as a reinforcer of internal popularity and diminisher of external popularity).
Thanks for the link the the song, it’s nifty :)
You’re welcome! It’s my favorite thing by them at the moment.