(no subject)
dear pitchforkmedia.com,
i am getting increasingly annoyed with certain things your writers appear to do incessantly, and might i add, incorrectly. What is this, you ask? Well, its mainly reading a review on your website and coming across the fiftieth time you have incorrectly used academic music terminology to describe some indie rock band. This was easy enough to ignore the first couple of times, however, your journalists/writers appear to not know what they are talking about, and it would seem that there is no real reason for said writers to describe things in the manner in which they do (ostinato, theme and variation, and the most outrageous-tone poem) [yes, there are more, however i do not remember the rest and do not have the patience to re-read your website enough to locate all the instances of which i am writing about]). the only reason i can guess that your writers insist on using such terminology in such an inappropriate context (i refuse to believe yet another indie rock band has composed a "tone poem," and i will further elaborate on the outrage i have at your incessant use of the term "tone poem" in such a context later) is to appear to sound or look smart by using these words. here is the thing: i doubt a majority of the people reading your website on a daily basis know or care what a tone poem is, what rhythmic or melodic ostinato consists of, or what the formal qualities of a theme and variations actually denotes. yes, its going too far to assume that all of the people who read your website do not know these topics, however, it is pretty safe to assume that most of them (i.e. standard indie rock fan) do not care about classical music all that much, and even if they do, they most likely do not care enough about it to use tendencies and pratices within the cannon of classical music to describe indie rock music. so, why bother using this terminology?
to further express what im trying to say, i have included a definition of the term "tone poem":
tone poem
n : an orchestral composition based on literature or folk tales [syn: symphonic poem]
or
symphonic poem
n.
A piece of music, most popular in the late 19th century, that is based on an extramusical theme, such as a story or nationalistic ideal, and usually consists of a single extended movement for a symphony orchestra. Also called tone poem.
okay, so with these definitions in mind, it should be obvious why you are using this terminology incorrectly. It seems silly to use terminology designed to describe early english classical music and late nineteenth century music to analyze the newest Arcade Fire album (not sure if your authors actually used tone/symphonic poem to describe this particular album, however this illustrates how silly this juxtaposition sounds). Maybe it could be construed, in some backwards sort of way, as something similar to a tone poem because the album is based on lyrics, or because there was some sort of story that the band attached to the music, but, both of these examples do not meet the requirements of the above mentioned term. A tone poem uses a per-existing piece of literature, possibly a poem, and sets music to that, and i find it hard to believe that this terminology is even remotely correct when talking about the Arcade Fire, The Rapture, Neutral Milk Hotel, etc (or some fucking thing like that). "the Erlking" is a tone poem, the Arcade Fire is not, so lets drop the half assed attempts to incorporate fucking old fashioned terminology into contemporary music, whatever its genre/ilk (Erlking is pretty fuckin' bumpin' by the way...[sarcasm]).
Now, please do not think that this is a call to dumb down your reviews or other writings, for the intellectual approach to your writing is what keeps me interested. Your writers are obviously intelligent, critical, and knowledgable people, however drop the inappropriate applications of classical music terminology in indie rock/electronica/etc. Seriously, have you heard tone poems? They really are not good, so you cannot even rescue your usage of the term that way either. Just stop it, please. Thankyou,
love,
casey anderson
i am getting increasingly annoyed with certain things your writers appear to do incessantly, and might i add, incorrectly. What is this, you ask? Well, its mainly reading a review on your website and coming across the fiftieth time you have incorrectly used academic music terminology to describe some indie rock band. This was easy enough to ignore the first couple of times, however, your journalists/writers appear to not know what they are talking about, and it would seem that there is no real reason for said writers to describe things in the manner in which they do (ostinato, theme and variation, and the most outrageous-tone poem) [yes, there are more, however i do not remember the rest and do not have the patience to re-read your website enough to locate all the instances of which i am writing about]). the only reason i can guess that your writers insist on using such terminology in such an inappropriate context (i refuse to believe yet another indie rock band has composed a "tone poem," and i will further elaborate on the outrage i have at your incessant use of the term "tone poem" in such a context later) is to appear to sound or look smart by using these words. here is the thing: i doubt a majority of the people reading your website on a daily basis know or care what a tone poem is, what rhythmic or melodic ostinato consists of, or what the formal qualities of a theme and variations actually denotes. yes, its going too far to assume that all of the people who read your website do not know these topics, however, it is pretty safe to assume that most of them (i.e. standard indie rock fan) do not care about classical music all that much, and even if they do, they most likely do not care enough about it to use tendencies and pratices within the cannon of classical music to describe indie rock music. so, why bother using this terminology?
to further express what im trying to say, i have included a definition of the term "tone poem":
tone poem
n : an orchestral composition based on literature or folk tales [syn: symphonic poem]
or
symphonic poem
n.
A piece of music, most popular in the late 19th century, that is based on an extramusical theme, such as a story or nationalistic ideal, and usually consists of a single extended movement for a symphony orchestra. Also called tone poem.
okay, so with these definitions in mind, it should be obvious why you are using this terminology incorrectly. It seems silly to use terminology designed to describe early english classical music and late nineteenth century music to analyze the newest Arcade Fire album (not sure if your authors actually used tone/symphonic poem to describe this particular album, however this illustrates how silly this juxtaposition sounds). Maybe it could be construed, in some backwards sort of way, as something similar to a tone poem because the album is based on lyrics, or because there was some sort of story that the band attached to the music, but, both of these examples do not meet the requirements of the above mentioned term. A tone poem uses a per-existing piece of literature, possibly a poem, and sets music to that, and i find it hard to believe that this terminology is even remotely correct when talking about the Arcade Fire, The Rapture, Neutral Milk Hotel, etc (or some fucking thing like that). "the Erlking" is a tone poem, the Arcade Fire is not, so lets drop the half assed attempts to incorporate fucking old fashioned terminology into contemporary music, whatever its genre/ilk (Erlking is pretty fuckin' bumpin' by the way...[sarcasm]).
Now, please do not think that this is a call to dumb down your reviews or other writings, for the intellectual approach to your writing is what keeps me interested. Your writers are obviously intelligent, critical, and knowledgable people, however drop the inappropriate applications of classical music terminology in indie rock/electronica/etc. Seriously, have you heard tone poems? They really are not good, so you cannot even rescue your usage of the term that way either. Just stop it, please. Thankyou,
love,
casey anderson