This post was inspired by extensive watching of Adam Neely’s videos. Especially the one above. Adam Neely is Youtuber and bassist who is interested of complex and experimental music. Watching his videos has given me ideas and made me appreciate complex music. But video above goes way further than his normal videos. It is about Maryanne Amacher's album Sound Characters (Making The Third Ear). You can listen it below. I highly recommend watching video above before watching video below.
This is extreme case where you need to know how you need to listen the music and what you want to get it. It should be listened loud and then you ears make extra tones which are the point of the music. If you don’t know this music just sound digital noise. When you are told how the music should work you start to get it a little. You can see this on video above. This extreme case but same applies to Adam Neely’s own music to lesser extent.
It makes his music work better if you know what he is doing in song. I don’t know is part of his Youtube goals to teach people to listen his music. Mostly he is teaching and discussing about concepts used in his music genres and what he finds interesting. Videos give something something even if you don’t plan to listen his music.
This made me think how much you should know before you can enjoy the music. There are artists who seem to make music for very specific audiences who understand the technical and conceptual aspects of the music. There is classical music which everyone can understand and like. There is also classical music where you need to understand what composer is trying to achieve to enjoy it. Or at least it makes you appreciate it more. Best case would be if all the concept and technical difficulty is there but you don’t need to understand any of it to enjoy the music. Or just make simple music which people can enjoy unless they need higher level concept and technical difficulty.
I don’t need higher concepts or technical difficulty on my music but sometimes those can make music better. Sometimes I wonder do people think how accessible their music is or do they make it for people who already knows the language of the genre. Is thinking about accessibility selling out?