musical musing.
I think I'd like to study music.
No, I'm not having (another) sudden faculty-insecurity attack, although I understand if that's what you're thinking. I mean, I like making music, but only in an occasional "this is the talent I have with very little practice and only a theoretical understanding of the instrument at hand" sort of way. It works for me. I got, if I do say so myself, rhythm.
What I'd like to study regarding music, which thankfully won't require yet another switch in faculty, is the psychology of music. How we interpret little ripples in the air into grand, sweeping melodies. Why we consider it such an integral part of our lives when no other species seems to even notice it. Why women (still) want to get into Mick Jagger's pants (even though he kind of looks like a corpse.)
Okay, let's cut to the chase. What I really want to know is why people like such dull music! I mean it. You might say "oh, it's subjective", but it isn't, and I can actually prove that, although I'd have to go into a good deal of detail and probably dig out some references and then there would be footnotes and frankly it's a little bit embarrassing (in a totally good way) when you've got footnotes on your LJ post.
Think of it this way. When you're a wee child, you think twinkle twinkle little star is a pretty nifty tune. But by the time you've progressed to some light Raffi, that alphabet song in disguise has become a little bit boring. It's not just because you know it already, but rather because you know it's tricks; you know and can probably count the beat quite easily, you can transpose it without flinching because you understand the pitch differences, and what's more you can do this with any other song of similar complexity. It's the musical equivilent of spot goes to school -- once you've got a handle on that level of music, nothing else of similar complexity is going to impress you very much. In fact, you will probably find it mind numbingly dull.
This pattern of learning continues up past baby beluga and his copatriots, on by s club seven or whatever pre-tweens are listening to these days, and into the exciting world of genre based music, where most people choose favourites. Oddly, choosing a favourite genre of music usually has more to do with what social group you aspire to - many of the future hicks of my junior high days turned to country, just as the city boys preferred rap, the girly girls liked pop, the slightly "cooler" girls liked hip-hop, and the girls who thought they were cool liked whiny, skinny adolescents whimpering about their girlfriends to three-chord common time melodies. Incidently, this probably extends to me as well, though I wouldn't have noticed at the time - I liked what nobody else did.
This is where natural musical education goes to die. Even people who are somewhat good at playing instruments or singing usually don't progress beyond this point, even though there is more complex and interesting stuff out there (always). They stick with their cowboys hats and baggy jeans and pretentious girls with silly hair resolutly, and often until they grow old and wither away.
I actually have my suspicions that this unwillingness to expand has a lot to do with socialization as well. This is where we get into pure "what Carolyn thinks without cross referencing peer reviewed academic journals, but still based on her prior knowledge of human psychology." If our love of music has social and romantic roots (hence the Mick Jaggar lust), then it probably makes sense not to rock the boat. People get offended when you tell them you could write their entire favourite song without hearing any more of it than the first three bars. Nobody likes a pedant. (except atheists and scientists. They love pedants.)
It also, then, makes sense that we resolutly stick to the same genre of music throughout our lives, since that is the genre of our preferred social group. Lets face it, I ain't picking up any potential mates or allies at a hip hop club, even if I'm open minded to the possibility that somewhere out there is a hip hop song that isn't as banal as twinkle twinkle little star.
So most ordinary people, even many of the musically inclined, stop learning to predict how more complicated melodies will resolve themselves. They stagnate. Even a lot of people who listen to what I can almost prove is extremely complex music don't have any appreciation of it, and are just as likely to enjoy that looped tune on the weather network.
I have my suspicions that if anyone bothered to study it (but don't, incidently, because I want to get there first), they would find that non-musicians who challenge themselves to progress past the socially acceptable innate understanding of music are a)more intellectually curious and possibly b)smart asses. Point a is relatively easy to defend, but I must preface it by saying that I don't mean "smarter". You can have all the smarts you want and still lack the desire to explore those smarts (again probably linking back to not rocking the boat), and you can be relatively dim and in a constant state of exploration. I think those point-a-er's aren't willing, or even able to stop that mental exploring, and I think that plays out, perhaps subconciously, in the inability to turn off the music-learning, social acceptability be damned. Incidently, that leads me right into point b - they don't care about being socially acceptable, they aren't able to turn off their intellectual curiosty, and they're probably more than a little annoyed that nobody else seems to be thinking about it very much.
I have nothing other than a little background knowledge to back this up, but I think it's as good a guess as any I've heard. Anyway, I'd like to study it and find out. I'll get back to you.