August 12ths

 

8/12/2018

Music is “pleasurable” in its capacity to handle both consonance and dissonance in the traditional sense, as well as variations in timbre and texture. We all hear a tritone as being “dissonant” or in a state of suspension that will eventually “fall” into consonance. But that’s too simplistic: since the classical era, music has been redefined and extended in more “artificial” ways, such as electronic music or remix, that has nothing to do with whether something is consonant or dissonant for the purpose of somehow “resolving” it. A tritone or a minor second can be used in isolation without resolution as they are in rock and jazz for example. Personally, I think tension-release is more universal than consonant-dissonant, as it can include other things besides harmony, such as making things sonically dense, then quickly contrasting it.

8/12/2021

Recently, there was a study done that showed that if musicians released more music they would become more recognized. There were two categories: musicians who had a signature style and musicians who were more eclectic. The increase in the volume of releases in both categories showed (at least in this study) that they would have become more recognized.

This again redounds to the idea of proper intentions. I like to approach my art at the deepest levels. When I go back and look at the music that I wrote pre-internet, I like the feeling of them, even if recorded on a cheap cassette 4-track. But there will be other future technologies that will force us to feed the machine instead of our souls, or just to make interesting work.   

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Whether different musical genres affect customers’ purchasing decisions will depend on the industry and which musical genres fit with the branding, just as certain colors or fragrances are chosen. Grocery stores vary, but lately I’ve been noticing that one large chain has been playing Cranberries songs, and I thought that perhaps playlists are now driven by metadata and keywords, which in the grocery industry would include food items. Other stores seem to play decade-specific playlists, such as Trader Joe’s. The fashion industry will always play the latest pop.

Since everything is now driven by algorithms it is conceivable that stores will customize their playlists according to sales figures. If you keep hearing the same music it has probably been shown that certain playlists increase sales and so they keep playing them.

I am assuming there are studies that have been done with supporting data or literature. It’s essentially a part of the science of persuasion involving knowing how to push people’s buttons.

The other responses mentioned country music which was (at least partially engineered) to be used as marketing bait, and I hear a lot of that in stores. It has become the soundtrack for shopping-as-entertainment.

8/12/2022

One should fully take part in one’s generation. I’m glad I did when I was in my teens and 20s. I was fully absorbed in what was happening in rock ‘n’ roll and not just listening to 40s music. It seems to be common these days for people who were my age in the 70s listening to 70s music. But to be a follower of Roger Waters may presume you’d be listening to Wish You Were Here rather than the current top 40. The problem is that there is no radio, so we can blame technology for pulling the rug from under all the younger generations. 

[8/12/2025: Reaction videos seem to be access points for younger people. There is a young person who sits on a blue 70s-era Schwinn bicycle in front of my library. Each time they're playing something from the 60s or 70s: Hello Goodbye by the Beatles or Born To Run. Those are Access Points as well].