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Confirming our expectations based on the Savanna-IQ interaction hypothesis, we found intelligence to be a significant predictor of the preference for instrumental music, but not of the preference for vocal-instrumental music. Furthermore, we revealed the significant role of cognitive use of music as a predictor of the preference for instrumental music. We conducted factor analysis of the Scale of Music Preferences, and revealed five factors: reflective, popular, conservative, intense, and sophisticated. We also found the cognitive use of music to be significantly correlated with the preference for instrumental music, as well as music of reflexive, intense and sophisticated factors.
I wonder if it is due to what music we are exposed to the most.
Plus I think musical enjoyment for most people has more to do with the emotion and memory of lyrics than it does the actual music.
Why wouldn't instrumental music evoke as much emotion and memory as vocal music? I don't find that true at all, in fact just the opposite. While I enjoy both and was exposed to both at a very young age, I seem to prefer instrumental. My parents had music playing most of the time, either radio (which included the vocals of the day) or phonograph (instrumental classical as well as vocal). When you think about it, music without vocals leaves more to the listener to imagine and infer...what the composer was trying to convey, creating an atmosphere, etc. IMHO that involves more of your brain which can intensify your response to it. Vocal music tells you what the composer had in mind directly.
Why wouldn't instrumental music evoke as much emotion and memory as vocal music? I don't find that true at all, in fact just the opposite. While I enjoy both and was exposed to both at a very young age, I seem to prefer instrumental. My parents had music playing most of the time, either radio (which included the vocals of the day) or phonograph (instrumental classical as well as vocal). When you think about it, music without vocals leaves more to the listener to imagine and infer...what the composer was trying to convey, creating an atmosphere, etc. IMHO that involves more of your brain which can intensify your response to it. Vocal music tells you what the composer had in mind directly.
I agree, it can and does for me.
I am just saying for most people who like vocals, it is more about how the felt, usually during high school. It isn't so much about the music.
Ask most people what the "best" music is and they will say the music during their high school years. It has little to do with actual musicianship or quality of music.
Why wouldn't instrumental music evoke as much emotion and memory as vocal music? I don't find that true at all, in fact just the opposite. While I enjoy both and was exposed to both at a very young age, I seem to prefer instrumental. My parents had music playing most of the time, either radio (which included the vocals of the day) or phonograph (instrumental classical as well as vocal). When you think about it, music without vocals leaves more to the listener to imagine and infer...what the composer was trying to convey, creating an atmosphere, etc. IMHO that involves more of your brain which can intensify your response to it. Vocal music tells you what the composer had in mind directly.
I kind of disagree, there's huge disparities in what songwriters mean, and listeners hear.
Take London Calling by The Clash, its Joe Strummers fear of drowning, about the River Thames overflowing its banks. It's not politics.
Born in the USA isn't a rah-rah for America, but a condemnation of the experience of Vietnam veterans.
Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind isn't an upbeat pop-rock fizzy drink, it's about drug addiction in relationships and the lengths people go to satisfy that addiction.
Imagine by Lennon is in his words the communist manifesto put to music.
Those are right off the top of my head that very few people pick up what the songs subject is.
But there's hundreds, and like any form of literature, its naive to assume what is being written/said/sung is only face value. So I disagree that vocal music tells you what the lyricist had in their mind directly, if it did it would be really short.
Like S.O.D.'s Anti- procrastination song. Lyrics reproduced in full in the below quote...
Yes, of course lyrics are interpretable, and oftentimes they add yet another interesting layer to the piece. But I bet the interpretations of Chopin's 3rd sonata are tenfold of Lennon's "Imagine." (pretty tune that it is)
Read any album review in Pitchfork or the like and observe what the writers tend to focus on: the lyrics or the biographies of the artists. I read a review of Jay Z's recent record and I don't think there was a single reference to the music. As someone who loves music, I find that utterly confounding and even a little bit appalling. When push comes to shove, the music (i.e. harmonies, development, melody, rhythms, etc) should always be the primary focus. That's what classical and jazz critics focus on, and for that I'm grateful.
Yes, of course lyrics are interpretable, and oftentimes they add yet another interesting layer to the piece. But I bet the interpretations of Chopin's 3rd sonata are tenfold of Lennon's "Imagine." (pretty tune that it is)
Read any album review in Pitchfork or the like and observe what the writers tend to focus on: the lyrics or the biographies of the artists. I read a review of Jay Z's recent record and I don't think there was a single reference to the music. As someone who loves music, I find that utterly confounding and even a little bit appalling. When push comes to shove, the music (i.e. harmonies, development, melody, rhythms, etc) should always be the primary focus. That's what classical and jazz critics focus on, and for that I'm grateful.
What does any if that have to do with musical complexity, or interest, that reviewers focus on lyrics doesn't change the complexity or interest in the musical piece, that's a failure of the reviewer, not the artist.
If you're dependent on critics to tell you how to interpret a piece of music, you're probably not really a music lover. I certainly don't need anyone to tell me what any piece of music is or how to interpret it, and I'm more than able to break it down to the nuts and bolts of chord progressions, time signatures, tempo, but that's not why I like a piece of music.
What does any if that have to do with musical complexity, or interest, that reviewers focus on lyrics doesn't change the complexity or interest in the musical piece, that's a failure of the reviewer, not the artist.
If you're dependent on critics to tell you how to interpret a piece of music, you're probably not really a music lover. I certainly don't need anyone to tell me what any piece of music is or how to interpret it, and I'm more than able to break it down to the nuts and bolts of chord progressions, time signatures, tempo, but that's not why I like a piece of music.
The point is that conversations around popular music oftentimes have very little to do with the music itself. Critics are vital to any art form because they start the conversation about the art in question. Music is a special and complex language, and some people have taken the time to learn that language and wish to communicate in it. For instance, knowing about and then hearing the ultra bizarre meter changes in The Beatles' "Happiness is a Warm Gun" illuminates the music so much more than telling us that it's simply about Yoko.
I wonder if it is related to the side of the brain that controls speech.
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