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Re: (TV) Matter of Taste / Wrong / Can't Dance / Non-Musician-Angle



Maurice wrote:

I don't necessarily see it as a badge of honor, but rather as
something that opens possibilities.  Does music "progress" only when
people play an increased number of notes per unit of time?  Of course
not.  What I appreciate are the *right* notes.  If there are only a
few of them per unit time, then someone with a particular artistic
"vision" or sensibility could possibly play those notes at the right
time without much technique.  Technique and mastery are certainly
important for doing some things--doing more difficult things, doing
things more reliably, doing them with authority--but I'll take vision
over mastery, if I had to choose one.  (And happily for us all, there
are examples of people with both.)

>Do people on this List honestly buy or listen to cds on which non-musicians
>'perform'?

Well, sure.  http://tisue.net/jandek/

Sometimes there's an element of drama that comes out of hearing
people struggle to realize their sensibilities, and when they hit it,
the hard-won-ness of it all can be quite thrilling.

One case in which I think a band's music became less interesting as they became "better musicians" is that of R.E.M. (Admittedly, Mike Mills and Bill Berry were probably solid journeymen musicians from the start, so I'm probably talking primarily about Peter Buck here. Not knowing how to write "proper songs" seemed to give them greater freedom in the early days. Have they done anything as musically odd but effective as "9-9" since Murmur?

- Jesse
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