" Cool Stuff " or is it?

First, I must say that this blog entry does not focus on world music directly (and I could have filled this page with esoteric youtube videos) but considers the idea of taste and preference in music. I think that this idea is entirely relevant to our class because it confronts us with a view of our own absurd likes and dislikes and how they prevent us from experiencing what the world has to offer without prejudice. As we have been listening to new and different music I have been thinking about taste and preference. The average American listener would probably not like the following music:



But, what if all music could be just like you wanted it. What if music gave us exactly what we want all the time. What would the results be?

A hilarious and revealing story from the NPR program "This American Life" showcases three composer / scientists Vitaly Komar, Alex Melamid and David Soldier who set out to just that. By surveying 500 Americans with a battery of questions like: what is your favorite instrument, how long should a song be, what are the best topics for a song, what kinds of voices do you prefer, the composers created a made to order song drawing from all of these and more elements:
-- love, soprano sax, humble ambition, tenor sax, a marriage proposal, cheesy electronic drum fills, working the night shift, string swells, power chords, and saccharine male/female harmonies.

The result the composers termed "The Most Wanted Song" an r&b rock styled amalgamation that sounds suspiciously like top 40 adult contemporary pop. I will let you be the judge of whether or not the most wanted song is truly wanted at all.
Play "The Most Wanted Song"




Now imagine you did the same process in reverse. Poll hundreds of people to find out what we dislike most in music, Of course the composers did this as well. The results "The most Unwanted song" Includes high pitched operatic voice, rap, oom-pah rhythms, harp, piccolo, banjo, tuba, cowboy lyrics, holidays and Wal-Mart. In addition things like drastic changes in loud and soft, children's voices, and a length of more than ten minute were listed as peeves by listeners. Funny, this list describes rather accurately the music that most of us are studying. The end result I find to be utterly irresistible, charming and side splitting all at once. And as though to prove we really have no idea what we really want the "most unwanted song" is by far much more interesting and entertaining that the "most wanted song".

Play "The Most Unwanted Song"


Perhaps the best music has a blend of pleasing and displeasing elements. Just the right combination of cliche, dissonance, surprise, and mellow saxophone could produce music that everyone likes. Or we should drop the idea of pleasing everyone and just try to make the music we like. - if we really know what that is.


Visit the "This American Life" episode
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=88

Visit the composers page
http://www.diacenter.org/km/musiccd.html

From the composers page ---
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Notes by the Composer

This survey confirms the hypothesis that today's popular music indeed provides an accurate estimate of the wishes of the vox populi. The most favored ensemble, determined from a rating by participants of their favorite instruments in combination, comprises a moderately sized group (three to ten instruments) consisting of guitar, piano, saxophone, bass, drums, violin, cello, synthesizer, with low male and female vocals singing in rock/r&b style. The favorite lyrics narrate a love story, and the favorite listening circumstance is at home. The only feature in lyric subjects that occurs in both most wanted and unwanted categories is intellectual stimulation. Most participants desire music of moderate duration (approximately 5 minutes), moderate pitch range, moderate tempo, and moderate to loud volume, and display a profound dislike of the alternatives. If the survey provides an accurate analysis of these factors for the population, and assuming that the preference for each factor follows a Gaussian (i.e. bell-curve) distribution, the combination of these qualities, even to the point of sensory overload and stylistic discohesion, will result in a musical work that will be unavoidably and uncontrollably liked by 72 plus or minus 12% (standard deviation; Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic) of listeners.

The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and elevator music, and a children's choir sings jingles and holiday songs. The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commericals and elevator music. Therefore, it can be shown that if there is no covariance someone who dislikes bagpipes is as likely to hate elevator music as someone who despises the organ, for example fewer than 200 individuals of the world's total population would enjoy this piece.