Experimental Music: A Brief Excoriation

Albert Einstein defined madness as repeating the same action over and over again and expecting a different result; so it is amusing to observe experimental musicians repeatedly producing the same type of experimental music for the last two centuries, with the same drearily unlistenable results. For example, you are probably familiar with the American composer John Cage, arch exponent of the mystifyingly popular musical style known as "not very good." One of Cage's most famous pieces is a four-and-a-half-minute rendition of silence, unimaginatively entitled 4'33", that, although obviously superior to any of his other compositions, remains a profoundly conceited exercise in modern banality; a musical equivalent of the Emperor's non-existant new clothes in three non-existent movements. So surely experimental musicians should stop experimenting now? The results of their many experiments are here and the experiments have been proven to be a total and indisputable failure. In other words, the theory and practice of experimental music has disappeared up its own anus like a sort of reverse fart; albeit a silent-but-deadly fart in John Cage's particular case

Comments

[Laurent]

Experimental music tries to defy the laws of nature that music is based on, one of those is the one of higher harmonics in tones that have to more or less coincide in order to sound agreeable to us.

[Irene]

True, and well put.
I personally think the same is true for jazz music.

[brownedbear]

Fitting, isn't it, that the most vacuous of poseur composers dedicated a song to the most audaciously moronic of artists, Duchamp? What's the sound of a toilet flushing?

[Giric]

I believe it was first invented by Lawrence Welk. Can we burn all accordians?

[Giric]

Music for crack heads.

[Giric]

You know I wasn't familiar with John Cage, but now I am, and wish I wasn't. This should come with a medical warning label. Fingernails on a chalkboard, accompanied by discordant bagpipes, and a car alarm all rolled into one.

[American fez]

The accordion is one of my favorite instruments. Check out the music of Astor Piazzolla.

[Giric]

There is no doubt that Astor Piazzolla is indeed a virtuoso of the accordion, and his music is very hauntingly beautiful, but it seemed so sad, it made me want to weep. It is certainly not the type of accordion music I grew up on, so I stand corrected. There is a place in this world for such soul touching, masterfully played music and I happily apologize for my hasty judgement.
My experience with the instrument has been of a much more limited and unmusical variety, my brother and a distant relative, never becoming masters of the craft, yet always played at family get together's and it set my teeth on edge. Then there was my grandmother, who was tone deaf, who had a fixation on Lawrence Welk and when we visited her, her house was always inundated with the sound of his, "Champagne music," and nasty polka's. I naturally avoided contact with the dreaded sound of the accordion, however I could, when I grew up.

[Christian Louboutin replica]

True, and well put.