Posted on 02/04/2021 8:45:41 PM PST by nickcarraway
Play Nickelback on Amazon Music Unlimited (ad) What’s the most annoying sound in the world? Some might reply it’s fingernails on a chalkboard, someone vomiting, their ex’s snoring or Nickelback.
In a recent Gizmodo article exploring the question, a professor of audio arts suggested that a far more important question was why we find certain sounds annoying, and offered an interesting argument about a connection between noises we don’t like and an “underlying natural beauty” of the universe.
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The resulting suggestion was that perhaps we should make a point of listening to music we don’t like if we want to understand life better.
“The ‘most annoying sound for a human’ is a surprisingly evasive concept that depends not only on who the human in question is, but also on that person’s circumstances and emotional state,” said Florian Hollerweger of Columbia College Chicago. “I think of it as a beautiful testimony to the raw emotional power that sound commands over us – not only on the negative end of the spectrum, but also with regards to that most beautiful of sounds: music.”
He noted that changing circumstances and emotions applied to music as much as natural sounds - “the same strong reliance on context explains both the ‘ugliest’ as well as the ‘prettiest’ sounds.” To Hollerweger, that was evidence that both good and bad sounds are “really just two manifestations of a larger underlying natural beauty, which we humans can become a part of and nurture (through music, for example), but which ultimately exceeds the value judgements that we can’t quite seem to be able to do without.”
The experience of his research, Hollerweger said, was that “one human’s ‘most annoying sound’ may well form the basis of another’s most precious music,” echoing the timeless principal that one person’s food is another person’s poison. He suggested that we could learn more about ourselves and others by trying to work out more about our own tastes.
“Perhaps once a COVID-19 vaccine is widely available, you might want to attend an experimental music concert near you, to see which of these two groups you belong to ... or whether there is room in between," he said. "British composer Trevor Wishart, for example, created a stunningly complex and highly recommended piece of music entitled ‘Imago’ from a single clink of two glasses.”
You can try Wishart’s ear test below. Meanwhile, Nickelback’s back catalog is also on sale.
“... perhaps we should make a point of listening to music we don’t like if we want to understand life better.”
Is this some academician’s ploy to get me to listen to SloJo, Camela, and the rest of the Dims?
Good point! That’s very annoying! ;D
Maybe Nickelback is the Hawaiian Pizza of music— easy to ridicule, and yet it has a following.
lol
The lonely hearts club band told me that years ago
Yeah, it’s almost like NB is the anti-Led Zeppelin; I’ve heard others riff on ‘em elsewhere.
I seriously almost started hating LZ ‘cuz SO many gushing drones were all, “I wanna learn guitar, man! I wanna be able to play ‘Stairway To Heaven’!” And very often that was the ONLY Led Zep tune they could name, which just made it all that much MORE annoying.
It realty did get to the place where, if you were asked “Who’s the greatest rock band of all?” the textbook answer was “Oh, Led Zeppelin, man; hands down.” Never mind that a follow-up question about John Bonham would likely elicit a quizzical, “Who?” from most.
So, yeah, I’m feelin that lament about Nickleback.
I’ve always wondered where the Beatles would have ended up if Yoko Oh No never happened?
I liked the concept of a group singing that song. Gregorian didn’t quite cut it. I would like to see what a full choir could do with it.
LOL - that was awful. And it has a million and a half views since 2011.
I jumped around a bit on the linked “ear test.” It’s just a collection of sounds of the sort that one might encounter on a movie soundtrack, not music but rather background ambient noises to create or reinforce a mood. This is useful enough in movies, but I’d be a hard sell on the idea that we should call any of this “music.” Such an assertion, I suppose, is consistent with the modernist tendency to want to be so “inclusive” that one refuses to draw any lines at all, which leads to the view that anything we hear is “music.” That’s a familiar enough metaphor, usually used with ironic intent; the phrase “music to my ears” can be applied to just about anything, from car crashes and explosions to babies crying to the whistling of the wind. But what’s the point of playing this kind of game other than as ironic metaphor?
And 'The Goodbye Look' is from Donald Fagen's solo album 'The Nightfly'. One of my favourites.
Thanks for those.
Yes. It’s like a virtue signal of some sort. A way to purchase the illusion of intelligence and sophistication.
Thumbs up to infinity.
I've gone 'outside' a few times when soloing. People just looked at me weird.
Mmmmm-kayyyyyy........
Orphic Oxtra - Skeletons Having Sex on a Tin Roof
The girl in the video is the band's clarinet player.
Please don't try to force me to listen to noises just because you like them. I don't. Over the years I have been able to understand most speaking. It takes significant concentration, so it's usually not fun. It is worst when there is background noise. Most of the times this 'background noise' is what others call 'music'.
What people call 'singing' is ALL noise to me. In my entire life, I have never understood more than one or two words in any song over the radio, and most of the time it's zero words. The thing that few people understand is that I hear things best when the volume is as low as possible.
I don't need to have the speaking turned up, I need to have the background turned down. That's the reason for this rant. I am typical of many people, especially older ones. What you call pleasing, I call NOISE.
If music is being played, I find the lack of Bach annoying.
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