Compare to modern academic music, which will sound unpleasant to an untrained ear
Sturgeon’s law applies to modern academic music, and, depending how you define ‘academic’, may be an underestimation. Much of that 90% is the ‘academic’ part of academic music, and for it, this is not a matter of training on the part of the listener. You can have a superbly trained ear, able to accurately play music by Harry Partch, whose music often involves more than 12 steps per octave, and not ‘get’ it. You can write highly technical music of your own with layers so subtle that the performers don’t notice them for months, and not ‘get’ it. The target ‘academic’ music is aimed at has nothing to do with sounding pleasant.
But yes, there are definitely classes here, and though ignorance of music is hardly a signal at all, knowledge of it is a pretty strong one.
Sturgeon’s law applies to modern academic music, and, depending how you define ‘academic’, may be an underestimation. Much of that 90% is the ‘academic’ part of academic music, and for it, this is not a matter of training on the part of the listener. You can have a superbly trained ear, able to accurately play music by Harry Partch, whose music often involves more than 12 steps per octave, and not ‘get’ it. You can write highly technical music of your own with layers so subtle that the performers don’t notice them for months, and not ‘get’ it. The target ‘academic’ music is aimed at has nothing to do with sounding pleasant.
But yes, there are definitely classes here, and though ignorance of music is hardly a signal at all, knowledge of it is a pretty strong one.