*inhale* Music, information, availability and progress *exhale*

Also, as I've liked to notice, one reason why there's more music etc. these days is that there are just simply more PEOPLE these days. Whereas all of us individually are still just one person trying to take what we can in, as we can.

we want our science applied?

also: science proved wrong v music reconsidered.......equally dear? xp

So on one hand you have a minority of people with more access to music than ever, with so much music to listen to that they feel overwhelmed, perhaps. Then the vast majority of the country, who don't read music mags or dig through bargain bins or check all music guide or talk about bands all the time with hip friends, might seemingly have less to choose from than they did 20 or 30 years ago.

I don't believe anymore in sweeping statements or summations about the 'state of music' or the like, though there are certainly noble attempts at same.

I don't know what I believe now. As much as music is supposed to be a universal language, I'd have a hard time convincing anyone (or myself) that that's true. Science, on the other hand, uses math and other languages that are the same, no matter where you learn them. Even though a physicist and a mathematician might disagree over what's important, both of them can talk about things in the same language (though even that is questionable when either one gets too into the more advanced areas of their field). Is common ground an illusion?

x-post

Is common ground an illusion?

The common ground might not be the music but the experience of listening pleasure (and pain). On that front, we can all communicate, though our examples may differ and in some cases contradict what others say.

sweeping statements are useful as fuck. how bad do innovations need to be comprehended? music, even

dumb people relay on the mainstream media dictating to them [radio playlists, mainstream music magazines, music television, sales charts.] - these sources delibrately restrict the flow of information - often to retain/ reinforce capitalist power and control agenda over the masses.

the themes of this thread can be related to:

media theory/ cultural studies / communications theory
cognition and learning
social psychology
information needs theory
personal information management

some academic resources:

Media, Communications & Society 1
2004-5
http://joni.soc.surrey.ac.uk/~scs1ph/scnm101/

Media, Communications & Society 2
2004-5
http://joni.soc.surrey.ac.uk/~scs1ph/scnm201/

I think if you believed that the innovation had practical uses for everyone, that you'd want to let them know. I mean, a lot of scientists aren't under the impression that what they do actually has practical use to people, at least right now. But they still do what they do because they're fascinated by it, and sometimes something unusual happens in that environment that opens up doors to a lot of other ideas.

Interestingly, what also happens sometimes is that, say, a biologist will see something unusual in what the math guys are doing, and realize that it has huge implications for his field - yet the math guys won't see it. They'll just see a neat trick they know, but only believe it applies to them and their interests. This is where I get interested. What if this happened in music? What if I suddenly realized I knew why the last Squarepusher record was "important" (to me, but also, in my mind, potentially to other people)?

Obviously, music doesn't have the burden (or luxury) of "proof" that science does - but if the end result, the end fulfillment seemed important enough, wouldn't you want to tell someone about it? And how would you do this to someone who was totally unfamiliar w/electronic music, for example? Obstacles? Consequences? Worth the time?

well if you were madonna or gwen stefani or someone like that, you'd incorporate what you liked about that squarepusher record make a radio-friendly pop record. and that's one very real way that, for example, weird electronic-music concepts get communicated to people who are totally unfamiliar with the originators of them. and the fact that madonna and gwen stefani and others like them -- and i'm huge fans of both -- can get actual hits by doing so suggests that it's very much worth the time.

replace "make" with "into." oops.

oh shit i always want to tell ppl about it, haha i want to say the way you tell them is w a tv ad or a theme song. practically.....haha xp