song titles - changing your perception of the song?

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Global Communication say on their album sleeve:

"Numbers are chosen to identify separate tracks because names tend to bias the listener by pre-defining images, places and feelings. This gives the listener the freedom of imagination to derive whatever he/she wishes from the music."

pretentious twaddle, perhaps, but it got me thinking. does the song title of an instrumental piece change your perception of it? i'm not sure it does for me, although perhaps it has some effect. i'm pretty useless at remembering song titles anyway, these days. i could only name the titles of two or three songs from my most played albums of recent months.

Also interesting to consider the extent to which GC are willing to let their music be interpreted in any way the listener pleases (i.e. i'm sure some artists would be very keen to create one specific mood or image or place in a song). how do any of the ILX musicians feel about this?

opinions, please...

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 3 June 2003 12:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I had an answer formulated, but then I realised that you already *were* talking about instrumental music.

As a musician, as far as I'm concerned, titles are throwaway afterthoughts anyway. Usually they're just a handle, the most repeated lyrical phrase in the song. I'm personally a big fan of the New Order method of naming songs after something not neccessarily related to the lyrics or music at all.

I mean, if you are successful as a musician, if you have a specific mood or image in mind which you want to communicate to the listener, you will be able to do this through the music, rather than relying on the artificial cue of the title.

(This is the exact opposite of my view on visual art or literature - title is *everything* in these cases.)

― kate, Tuesday, 3 June 2003 12:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I talked to a member of a local instrumental group once, and he said they used to have terrible arguments over naming tracks, with people often coming up with ridiculous/pretentious/overly long names for song.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 3 June 2003 12:53 (twenty-two years ago)

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