'The thing that blew my mind first hearing the Strokes was that they were the closest I had heard rock come to classical,' she says. 'Their music is extraordinarily orderly and composed. It's almost

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Well, I suppose most people interpret "classically trained" as implying some formal course of study, as distinct from just "taking lessons" -- you say that and people tend to imagine the musician either studied at a conservatory or at least went for an undergraduate major in music. (Though there's slippage there, too: I assume you could take a degree in another aspect of music without ever spending much time on classical music or common practice in particular.)

Ha, the funny part is that there are plenty of places where someone would say "hey, I have a college education" and mean community college (wasn't that on the Matos stepdad thread?) -- situations where someone's presuming that kind of education to be a rare thing in general. That might be another problem with the way "classically trained" gets used. There's this idea that formal training is a rare thing in rock (which it doesn't actually seem to be, but whatever) -- but when you're talking about Tori Amos or something, I'm not sure there's any context that should lead anyone to be surprised or impressed by training. I can't really think of any style of music right now where people should be surprised to find training.

P.S. Steve, yes, OTM on arrangements -- I've always assumed the thing is that the average brain can pretty easily hold a melody and chord structure and see all that at once, whereas the more complex an arrangement gets, the more you need an actual musical language to codify and symbolize it all in your head. (Maybe there's the odd untutored genius who can hear and conceptualize that kind of thing just as raw information, but most people surely need tools to keep it under control.)

nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 6 July 2006 01:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Indeed. Although it has to be said that Brian Wilson, one of pop music's greatest arrangers, had no formal music training. Though this was said to have made things difficult for him in the studio, as I imagine it would; he had to laboriously explain each part of his compositions to the other Beach Boys and the various session musicians by singing it to them or repeatedly demonstrating on the piano.

Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Thursday, 6 July 2006 01:49 (seventeen years ago) link

trees wins.

Marmot 4-Tay: forth-coming, my child. forth-coming most righteous champion (mar, Thursday, 6 July 2006 03:04 (seventeen years ago) link

marmot, this is not about winning. jeez!

trees (treesessplode), Thursday, 6 July 2006 03:15 (seventeen years ago) link

oops, my bad.

Marmot 4-Tay: forth-coming, my child. forth-coming most righteous champion (mar, Thursday, 6 July 2006 03:48 (seventeen years ago) link

two years pass...

the strokes should do some ken russell "lizstomania" style mozart biopic to really fuck with regina spektor.
this thread is balls

velko, Sunday, 27 July 2008 04:52 (fifteen years ago) link

Yes, I am indeed being patronizing and complaining about everyone's attitude, because I think people's attitudes in here are stupid and sucky and bullshit.

-- nabisco (nabisco), Saturday, July 1, 2006 7:48 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link

lol i love this fucken post

when nabisco stops bein polite and starts gettin REAL~

cankles, Sunday, 27 July 2008 08:03 (fifteen years ago) link

is that guy an aspie? who makes numbered lists?

bug, Sunday, 27 July 2008 09:59 (fifteen years ago) link

ha nabisco got really mad on this thread!

max, Sunday, 27 July 2008 14:04 (fifteen years ago) link

two years pass...

Apparently this thread inspired Owen P.'s cover of "Hard to Explain" for Stereogum.

jaymc, Tuesday, 26 July 2011 17:01 (twelve years ago) link


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