CD80: An Introduction to Non-Classical Music

I was talking to my friend N1c0las today - particularly intelligent, but as a result of being completely embedded in being a violinist/med student, is aware of naught outside the purview of classical music. Upon being pushed by his sister, he's apparently ventured into the realm of popular music and settled on Lady GaGa and Muse.

If, hypothetically, you were making a mix or two of music for someone going into the realm of pop in all its glory and confusion (and this includes rock and r'n'b and indie and and and...) completely blind, what would you pick and where would you start? Chronologically? The greats? The best of current music? That which is popular? That which is critically acclaimed? Things that are similar to classical? Owen Pallett?

I'm kind of cobbling a disc or two together, but I'm at a loss, and I figured it would be an interesting intellectual exercise anyway. What say you, fellow denizens of ILM?

is there a timeframe here or the whole history of popular music?

Miles. Beatles. Orbital. Slayer. Wu.

I have no time frame in mind. I'm asking what would YOU do.

Or rather, I can ask him once he gets back from doing laundry.

But his own wants aside, I'm kind of curious...I think like "how would j0rdan s. program a musical tabula rasa' says as much about j0rdan as about music, no?

He must have some idea of popular music, though, surely he goes to shops and suchlike where non-classical music is just part of the environment?

mine would pretty much be all neptunes/timbaland productions

my gf is basically like this w/r/t classical music. (bruce springsteen came into her store the other day and she had no idea who she was talking to...)

she's very willing to listen to anything that I play for her, but she usually just finds it simple/repetitive.

FWIW of the hundreds of things I've played for her, the only things she's grown to like enough to want it on her ipod: lots of beatles stuff, 'odyssey and oracle' and 'paris 1919'.

ps my gf is not geir

I would include:

something from OK Computer
Slint
My Bloody Valentine
Neutral Milk Hotel
Pixies and/or Pavement
The Orb
Aphex Twin
Public Enemy
Can

Pavement, Spoon

Some stuff I'd include:

"Paris 1919" - John Cale
"Isobel" - Björk
"The Donor" - Judee Sill
"Sequent C'" - Tangerine Dream
"The Rip" - Portishead
"Chimacum Rain" (demo with sounds) - Linda Perhacs
"Oh Allah" - Alice Coltrane
"Arch Carrier" - Autechre
"Seagreen Serenades" - Silver Apples
"Life in a Glasshouse" - Radiohead
"St. James Infirmary" - Louis Armstrong
"Ballad of Sister Sue" - Slowdive
"Vitamin C" - Can
"Cargo Culte" - Serge Gainsbourg
"The Boiling Fjords Orchestra" - Phonophani
"We Need a Resolution" - Aaliyah
"Deep Red Bells" - Neko Case
"Riding High On A Windy Day" - The Paragons
"Electric Relaxation" - A Tribe Called Quest
"I Believe In You" - Talk Talk
"Rock steady" - Alton Ellis
"Reunited" - Wu-Tang Clan
"Silently" - Blonde Redhead
"Sea Song" - Robert Wyatt
"I’m Going To Live The Life I Sing About In My Song" - Mahalia Jackson
"Blue Flowers" - Dr. Octagon
"By This River" - Brian Eno
"Archangel" - Burial
"Sinnerman" - Nina Simone
"Amo Bishop Roden" - Boards of Canada
"Ark of the Covenant" - The Congos
"Comme a la radio" - Brigitte Fontaine
"1000 Umbrellas" - XTC
"Group Dancers" (or anything from Black Saint & Sinner Lady) - Charles Mingus
"Mon amie la rose" - Françoise Hardy

I would take him to da club and see what he responds to. Obv. go to a bunch of nights from cheese to esoteric.

Does he seriously have no knowledge of michael jackson, beatles, madonna? how did he come by Gaga?

Assuming he knows nothing, here are the obvious picks to school him some:

1. Me & The Devil Blues - Robert Johnson
2. Memphis Tenessee - Elvis and Chuck Berry versions
3. I Wanna Hold Your Hand - Beatles
4. You Can't Always Get What You Want - Rolling Stones
5. All Along The Watch Tower - Jimi Hendrix
6. Sex Machine - James Brown
7. Take The A-Train - Duke Ellington
8. So What - Miles Davis
9. Take Five - Dave Brubeck
10. Good Vibrations - Beach Boys
11. something good by Burt Bacharach
12. Heroin - Velvet Underground
13. Atomic Dog - P-Funk Allstars
14. Anarchy In The UK - Sex Pistols
15. I Feel Love - Donna Summer
16. Blue Monday - New Order
17. How Soon Is Now - The Smiths
18. Le Freak - Chic
19. You're Gonna Get Yours - Public Enemy
20. Man Machine - Kraftwerk

Missing some heavy rock and metal in there, but might scare him off.

takes him from year zero to techno.

Going to a club & the radio would be a good call, gives some automatic context and seeing other ppl respond/being part of a crowd will be interesting at least.

Sounding someone out is key, its awesome how unpredictable a lot of ppl's taste is. Trying to find non-classical music that has features in common w/ classical music is probably as likely to annoy as appeal, ime you need ppl to find new ways of listening so I think they should try the deep end at least a few times.

anyway I would play them a lot of DJ sets, songs qua songs aren't the hard part imo

non-classical music that has features in common w/ classical music

But all pop music has a lot of features in common with classical inherently. Or do you mean likeness in terms arrangements, like strings & things?

Owen's record probably isn't such a bad choice! it has the advantage of being quite excellent too!

20 tracks would be almost impossible, I'd choose the greatest stars and not care so much about the groundbreakers that stayed underground in their time

1. Tutti Frutti - Little Richard (Important rock'n'roll groundbreaker)
2. Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley (The man who brought it out to the (white) masses)
3. I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles (choosing one song by The Beatles is impossible, but this arguably changed music more than their psychedelic 1966-67 work did)
4. Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (because he has to be in there)
5. Good Vibrations - Beach Boys (Letting this represent Beach Boys, psychedelia and sunshine pop altogether)
6. Reach Out I'll Be There - Four Tops (archetypical Motown)
7. Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin ("Stairway To Heaven" is more famous, but this is more representative and influential)
8. Money - Pink Floyd (because they - and representing prog - need to be in there, even if picking one song from that album takes a bit of the entirety away from it)
9. Heroes - David Bowie (might have been "Life On Mars" or "Starman" - hard to pick one song from such a chameleon)
10. Anarchy In The UK - Sex Pistols (Punk....)
11. Good Times - Chic (Arguably the best disco song ever)
12. Don't You Want Me - Human League (combining commercial and artistic success, this may be the most representative example of 80s synth/new romantics)
13. Thriller - Michael Jackson (because he was Michael Jackson, and because this is a great and classic song)
14. The Message - Grandmaster Flash (the first rap hit not to contain nothing but self bragging, and still a better song than virtually anything that followed)
15. Battery - Metallica (sort of sums up everything they - and metal - are about)
16. Papa Don't Preach - Madonna (just had to pick something by her, and this is important in a lot of ways - and also one of her biggest hits)
17. Little Fluffy Clouds - The Orb (Letting this one represent dance/electronica. Prodigy were more commercially popular, but not so musically typical of the electronica/dance genre)
18. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana (the grunge/"alternative" track obv.)
19. Wonderwall - Oasis (Representing song oriented retro pop/rock in general from Britpop to 2000s Coldplay etc)
20. Umbrella - Rihanna (Token 00s mainstream R&B megastar)

Oh, and, yes, of course the 60s, 70s and 80s were more important than anything else. :)

mine would pretty much be all neptunes/timbaland productions

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 27 April 2010 21:41 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

i like this thinking. you could feasibly just convince him that music pre- and post- these productions was shit.

I now see I have forgotten Stones... Oh well, I guess there's enough 60s/70s stuff there anyway...

xp to turangalila

I think trying to [app]ease someone into digging something that has its own distinct context by focusing on what common features you can find w/ something more familiar, rather than those that are different is less likely to get someone to really engage w/ it. Ppl might be able to use their old standards to approve of something new, but what is that?

neptunes/timbaland is a good idea, covering a really narrow area might work.

xp yeah, agreed. Thankfully no one's really suggested shitty "symphonic" rock so far. :)

push your friend into the mud
call him a pussy
and tell him that if he doesn't bring your sabbath cd back tomorrow, he's "dead meat"