From Profundity to Cliché: A Collection of Trite Things People Say About Music

Inspired by the 'aging rock band going back to basics' thread.

You know the kind of things I mean:

“We just record the stuff we want to hear, and if anyone likes it, well that’s a bonus”

“It’s the notes they don’t play”

“Jazz is, like, a conversation”

I assume at some point these kinds of statements might have sounded profound, perhaps even provocative. But now, of course, they are the definition of cliché. Use this thread to discuss, and also as a compendium of similar, err, dancing about architecture.

As a guitarist, I would say my evolution as a player over the years has definitely involved notes I have chosen not to play.

Similar to notes not played:
"It's all about the pauses in between the music" which has been taken to an extreme in 4'33".

By the way I think the bad reputation of cliché - likewise that of prejudice - very often is unjustified. There is almost always more than a grain of truth in it. And one has to be careful when saying in a discussion that something is a cliché. As often it is only a way of trying to let the other's position appear trite or even dubious.

music as "a tonic" or "a balm"

Music is a universal language

some music is definitely tonic

"Emperor's new clothes" is my most hated

Music is a universal language

― Spirit of the Voice of the Beehive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, December 28, 2018 9:17 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes, the more music I hear from different places and times, the more this seems like a blinkered parochial view disguised as an open-minded one

the only time anyone has ever used the word "tonic" in the past decade or so has been A) when describing a piece of music or B) preceded by "gin and"

Especially when describing the root note though

sorry katherine i was just making a bad theory joke

I say "just the tonic" on occasion but is that a Brit thing?

Oh Christ even the dictionary is calling me old fashioned