OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34801885

The good news is that, in their hearts, people are aware of this. All who have had the experience of teaching music appreciation know it to be so. The first step is to introduce the precious commodity of silence, so that your students are listening with open ears to the cosmos, and are beginning to forget their addictive pleasures. Then you play to them the things that you love. They will be bewildered at first. After all, how can this old geezer sit still for 50 minutes listening to something that hasn't got a beat or a tune? Then you discuss the things that they love. Had they noticed, for example, that Lady Gaga in "Poker Face" stays for most of the tune on one note? Is that real melody? After a while they will see that they have in fact been making judgments all along - it is just that they were making the wrong ones. When Metallica appeared at the 2014 Glastonbury festival there was a wake-up moment of this kind - the recognition that these guys, unlike so many who had performed there, actually had something to say. Yes, there are distinctions of quality, even in the realm of pop.

Roger Scruton is a famous buffoon tbf

I'm assuming that the dude who wrote that is ignorant of a lot of contemporary vocal music that is built upon man-made sound-effects and drones.

In 2009, Scruton wrote and presented the BBC2 documentary Why Beauty Matters,[17] in which he argued that beauty should be restored to its traditional position in art, architecture and music. In an article for The American Spectator subsequent to the programme's broadcast, Scruton claimed he had received "more than 500 e-mails from viewers, all but one saying, 'Thank Heavens someone is saying what needs to be said'".[18] In an Intelligence Squared debate in March 2009,[19] held at the Royal Geographical Society, Scruton (seconding historian David Starkey) proposed the motion: "Britain has become indifferent to beauty" by holding an image of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus next to an image of the British supermodel Kate Moss, to demonstrate how British perceptions of beauty had declined to the "level of our crudest appetites and our basest needs".[20]

ah I see, he's a knob

exactly

finally someone to defend the value of metallica

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/573718.stm

The next step is to introduce the idea of judgment. The belief that there is a difference between good and bad, meaningful and meaningless, profound and vapid, exciting and banal - this belief was once fundamental to musical education. But it offends against political correctness. Today there is only my taste and yours. The suggestion that my taste is better than yours is elitist, an offence against equality. But unless we teach children to judge, to discriminate, to recognise the difference between music of lasting value and mere ephemera, we give up on the task of education.

when somebody like Scruton makes an argument like this they have to neatly side-step the very real likelihood of being confronted by somebody equally as qualified and discriminating as themselves who profoundly disagrees with them about what constitutes "lasting value"

is all of this happening now because kids called him Scrotum in school

I'm assuming that the dude who wrote that is ignorant of a lot of contemporary vocal music that is built upon man-made sound-effects and drones.

― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Monday, November 16, 2015 4:49 PM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm assuming that this dude doesn't sing bass

When Metallica appeared at the 2014 Glastonbury festival there was a wake-up moment of this kind - the recognition that these guys, unlike so many who had performed there, actually had something to say. Which is why I, Roger Scruton, spent the entire day doing beer bongs and screaming METAL UP YOUR ASS at everyone who walked past my tent.

Oh dear god, I heard this fucker on R4 the other day. What a clueless twat. I was waiting for it to filter onto here. He has obviously never taken acid before or had a house music epiphany. I am not saying that is the be all and end all, but he is fatally full of shit. ALL his opinions on music are absolutely fucking ridiculous and completely unsupportable.

ALL his opinions on music are absolutely fucking ridiculous and completely unsupportable.

at one point he mentions muzak and then starts complaining about its booming bass notes and having to shout over the top of it in a pub. huh?

someone introduce him to saer

I have or had a book of his on aesthetics, I got it for the lols i guess since I knew he was a buffoon. He analyses Losing My Religion and judges it wanting as it doesn't have any inverted triads.

buffoon with arbitrary rules about what constitutes being melodic hmmmm

rogeir scruton

This sounds like the shittiest book.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3f/Sexual_Desire_%28first_edition%29.jpg

He always makes me think of Popeye Scruton, the headmaster in the early Adrian Mole books.

Is Scruton a member of UKIP?

Wow what a truly barmy comment on Metallica, and then ending with the 'clear the noise' comment - so want Scruton to review their back-catalogue.

xxp stevie, pretty sure that was deliberate by Sue Townsend.

hahaha awesome. mission accomplished, sue!

This is not technically written but this video is just:

I Just Don’t Like Animal Collective by Sami Jarroush
http://consequenceofsound.net/video/i-just-dont-like-animal-collective/

that entire video series is real garbage

How NOT To Perform A Cover Song

this takes the cake http://observer.com/2015/11/cancelling-paris-concerts-after-attacks-was-the-biggest-mistake-of-u2s-career/

As an A&R representative, Sommer was integrally involved with the success of Hootie & The Blowfish

In any case, U2 weren't the ones who cancelled the gig, were they? They were told they couldn't play.

Yeah but they could have just played in a small venue or busked on the street right? That certainly would have made the terrorists think twice.

haven't read that piece yet but wow, is that the guy from ♥♥♥ hugo largo ♥♥♥ who wrote that?

There is a name I haven't heard in decades. I remember buying Mettle when I was like 15 or something...

Yes he went on to be an MTV VJ for awhile
Then found Hootie

did he sign Gay Dad too?

some interesting nugs in his wiki

As an A&R representative, Sommer was integrally involved with the success of Hootie & The Blowfish, and also worked with The Gits, 7 Year Bitch, Michael Crawford, Duncan Sheik, and Scott Weiland. He was also involved in the very early careers of both the Beastie Boys and Kara's Flowers, producing three tracks for Kara's Flowers in the summer of 2000, shortly before the group changed their name to Maroon 5. These tracks remain unreleased. More recently, Sommer has produced New York City-based rock band The Indecent, and in collaboration with Stuart Chatwood (formerly of The Tea Party), is working on his own project titled Uncommon Folk, which features electric slocore interpretations of traditional American folk songs, and features guest vocals by Glen Campbell, Mavis Staples, Blind Boys of Alabama, Jakob Dylan, and Robin Zander.

also not many can say they signed 7 Year Bitch and Hootie and the Blowfish

He does a regular column for Big Takeover that's usually pretty good. Reminiscences of NYC hardcore in the '80s and that kind of thing.

he was in Even Worse. he's totes got cred from the olden days. he also produced Hetch Hetchy and Hetch Hetchy were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than Hugo Largo. the A&R stuff is just LOL 90's time to get paid stuff.

Why I Will Not Buy Adele’s New Album 25

I'm not much of a writer, but I'm certain I could write a much shorter article about why I'm not buying the new Adele album

It was March 10th, 2011. It was one of those songs that just stopped you in your tracks. Something so different from everything else on the radio at the time that I instantly fell in love. I drove straight to the nearest Target, bought the CD and popped it in my car’s CD player. I can’t say I’ve called many things, but, hell, I called this. Mind you, this was long before the world knew Adele. “Rolling” was still just starting to get played on AAA radio and hadn’t cracked top 40 yet. Go me.

The album was certified as gold in February 2009 by the RIAA. By July 2009, the album had sold 2.2 million copies worldwide. At the 51st Annual Grammy Awards in February 2009, Adele received the award for Best New Artist, in addition to the award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Chasing Pavements", which was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

It was March 10th, 2011. It was one of those songs that just stopped you in your tracks. Something so different from everything else on the radio at the time that I instantly fell in love. I drove straight to the nearest Target, bought the CD and popped it in my car’s CD player. I can’t say I’ve called many things, but, hell, I called this. Mind you, this was long before the world knew Adele. “Rolling” was still just starting to get played on AAA radio and hadn’t cracked top 40 yet. Go me.

hahahaha so he's patting himself on the back for hearing a song on FM radio and buying a CD at Target, fuckin hipsters man

you know who's gonna be big is this drake kid, i keep hearing about him

oh yeah, i hear he's the next Travi$ $cott

the guy who wrote that article performed at my school and i ended up at his show for some awful reason. anyway here is the kind of music he makes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJWi2qJIfds

wait watch this one instead. it's even worse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vaYaTnqsKg

i always forget now if i had him in a class i taught once or if he just had so many signs up around campus that his name was imprinted on my mind

Ari Herstand Will Teach You Guitar

i always forget now if i had him in a class i taught once or if he just had so many signs up around campus that his name was imprinted on my mind
― j., Monday, November 23, 2015 4:09 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm sure he just played there a ton. his music is like ready-made for suburban college kids 'going to their first concert'