Why the Record Industry Doesn't Stand a Chance

Newhouse News Service ^ | Aug. 19, 2003 | JAMES LILEKS

[discostu]

I learned about nuance from the artists I listened to. Bob Fripp (head man for King Crimson a top notch rock-fussion/ progressive rock band) had a great column in one of the guitar mags, where everybody else focused on playing techniques he focused on compositional techniques and sometimes even mental preperation for composing (I remember a great column he wrote about the proper state of mind to be in to write a discordant melody change). Frank Zappa, being a composer of spoof music, could go on at length on how to write a song of a certain style because you can't do a good spoof of a genre unless you can write a good song in that genre. Danny Elfman (formerly Boingo's headman, now a big movie soundtrack guy, does all of Tim Burton's movies) provides some interesting discussion.

But it's true, you've got to train the ear the seperate the wall of sound into something that makes sense, you've got to learn to see the bricks to understand how they make a wall. Time, patience and curiosity will generally get that done, but most casual music fans aren't willing to put forth that much effort, which is why intricate music will never really be popular music.