On Mar 27, 2008, at 12:03 PM, dhbailey wrote:
Chuck Israels wrote:
On Mar 27, 2008, at 3:28 AM, dhbailey wrote:
Most music appreciation classes leave the class members with the
impression that the historical music history periods all produced
only masterworks by superior composers and fail to address the
fact that much of what was written during those periods is no
different from much which is written during our own lifetimes --
Crap.
I think that every course, middle school, high school or college
level, should be required to begin with the statement of
Sturgeon's Law. And that it should be asked time and again on
exams so that people have a more realistic image of any historical
time period, whether music, literature, dance, or the plastic arts
(painting, sculpture, architecture).
I think I would begin such a class with the statement "90% of
anything is crap. That includes the Baroque Era of music history,
which we will be studying in this class. You're lucky in that we
will be studying the 10% of Baroque music which isn't crap, but I
want you all to remember that while these composers we will be
studying were creating these masterworks, there were many more
composers turning out efficient but hardly worthwhile music that
we won't be studying."
Not to make too strong a case or say that the law was completely
suspended, but it does seem to me that, in reference to American
popular music of (approximately) the first half of the 20th
Century, Sturgeon's percentages need adjustment.
Are you saying that there was a much higher percentage of good stuff
relative to crap,
David,
Yes, that's what I meant to communicate. This was an unusual period
of sophisticated "common practice" in the world of American popular
music and jazz, and I believe that there was a considerably higher
percentage of good quality, durable music than Sturgeon's Law would
predict. Of course, only time will tell. A personal opinion but, I
believe, an educated one.
Chuck
or that 90% crap is rating things too conservatively and that really
a higher percentage than a "mere" 90% was crap, leaving something
like 1% or less of good stuff?
--
David H. Bailey
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Chuck Israels
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