Have You Ever Experienced Radical Changes in Your Musical Taste?

[Florestan]

And now that Progress itself has been swept away we are free to pick and mix from the music and ideas of any period that take our fancy.

Absolutely. In this respect we live in the Golden Age: a thousand years of music are just one click away.

[Florestan]

And of course, one doesn't have to subscribe to musical mysticism in order to enjoy its products: I can perfectly well like Scriabin's piano sonatas while not giving a fig about his theosophical ramblings. 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I'm willing to give Discipline another chance.

OK, I gave it another listen.

I do remember one thing.
It took hours and hours but...
by the time I was done with it,
I was so involved, I didn't know what to think.
I carried it around with me for days and days...
playing little games
like not listening to it for a whole day
and then... listening to it.
to see if I still liked it.
I DID

[Karl Henning]

OK, I gave it another listen.

I do remember one thing.
It took hours and hours but...
by the time I was done with it,
I was so involved, I didn't know what to think.
I carried it around with me for days and days...
playing little games
like not listening to it for a whole day
and then... listening to it.
to see if I still liked it.
I DID

I was inordinately jazzed when this album first came out!

[pjme]

this Andre Rieu fellow

Here is André Rieu senior. He was an interesting conductor with a quite broad repertoire. There must be plenty of recordings in Dutch and Belgian radio archives.

....apart from that: I've never experienced a need to radically change my musical tastes.  I love human (and animal...) voices, definitely prefer Bach on harpsichord(s), have learned to appreciate & love Haydn, Rossini, Verdi.

[Jo498]

IIRC Rieu sen. was credited on some early (proto?)HIP recordings with other Dutch or Flemish musicians. I remember being puzzled by the name years ago because I knew only of the "new waltz king" Rieu.

[Florestan]

IIRC Rieu sen. was credited on some early (proto?)HIP recordings with other Dutch or Flemish musicians. I remember being puzzled by the name years ago because I knew only of the "new waltz king" Rieu.

Rieu Jr. is just as classically trained as his father, he has been a pupil of Herman Krebbers at the Maastricht Conservatory and of André Gertler at the Brussels Conservatory, graduating the latter with "Premier Prix". I don't know how many of his critics can present similar credentials.

His concerts (or rather events) are much closer to the original ones of Johann Strauss-Vater and Johann Srauss-Sohn than the Wiener Philharmoniker travesty.

[71 dB]

I WILL say that whatever is popular today is likely to be very bad given the sordid state of modern culture.

Popular culture has been stagnating, but that doesn't mean everything sucks. In a stagnating culture innovators, pioneers and creative people become more visible. Others start copying those people and for a while the culture looks blossoming until the new ideas are recycled and repackaged too many times and stagnation follows.

The most interesting thing for me in popular culture in the recent years has been The Backrooms/Poolrooms which is primarily a visual concept, but combines dreamy/nostalgic/tranquil soundscapes/music with the visuals.

I also like Vaporwave music which has been a thing for a decade or so...

[pjme]

IIRC Rieu sen. was credited on some early (proto?)HIP recordings with other Dutch or Flemish musicians. I remember being puzzled by the name years ago because I knew only of the "new waltz king" Rieu.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1514389-Andr%C3%A9-Rieu-2

[ritter]

...

His concerts (or rather events) are much closer to the original ones of Johann Strauss-Vater and Johann Srauss-Sohn than the Wiener Philharmoniker travesty.

Do we really have to equate popular culture with kitsch???!!!

[AnotherSpin]

Do we really have to equate popular culture with kitsch???!!!

The problem is that kitsch lovers don't see the difference between kitsch and real art. They think that kitsch is real art. Does it bring a tear to your eye? Then that's it!

To prove something to them, you have to get down to their level. And at their level, they're invincible.

[Florestan]

Do we really have to equate popular culture with kitsch???!!!

I don't know what you mean, but consider: the Strausses conducted their orchestras with the violin bow and played along; the audience danced, moved around, ate and drank; they came specifically for having a good time, they obviously had it and loudly manifested their satisfaction whenever they felt like it; the venues were often pack crowded (in the US Strauss-Sohn and his orchestra played before a crowd of 4,000 people). Now please tell me, what is closer to that, Rieu's concerts or the Wiener Philharmoniker Neujahrskonzert?

[AnotherSpin]

I don't know what you mean, but consider: the Strausses conducted their orchestras with the violin bow and played along; the audience danced, moved around, ate and drank; they came specifically for having a good time, they obviously had it and loudly manifested their satisfaction; the venues were often pack crowded (in the US Strauss-Sohn and his orchestra played before a crowd of 4,000 people). Now please tell me, what is closer to that, Rieu's concerts or the Wiener Philharmoniker Neujahrskonzert?

Q.E.D.

[Madiel]

Have you guys experienced any such radical change in your taste?

No.

EDIT: Honestly, I'm conscious that I started evaluating music for myself (rather than listening to what my sister put on, or maybe my parents) by the age of 9 (maybe some before then, but there's a bunch of pop music I know came out in that year), and many of the evaluations I can remember from then still hold up 40 years later. There are probably things here and there where my view has changed a lot, but overall I think many of my choices as to what I like and what I don't like are highly consistent.

Of course, over that period of time I've heard new things that I hadn't heard before. Including music that didn't exist 40 years ago. I mean, Taylor Swift wasn't even born yet.

[Florestan]

The problem is that kitsch lovers don't see the difference between kitsch and real art. They think that kitsch is real art. Does it bring a tear to your eye? Then that's it!

Your pontificating on behalf of real art (whatever that might mean) is misplaced. People who attend Rieu's concerts do not expect, let alone demand, that they be elevated intellectually and spiritually by concentrating on, or analyzing, complex music; they attend because they want to enjoy themselves by listening, and maybe dancing, to light, accessible music originally written precisely to this purpose. And they get what they pay for: Rieu doesn't advertise his orchestra as symphonic or philharmonic, he doesn't perform symphonies, string quartets or oratorios and does not pretend to be Oistrakh or Celibidache. He is an entertainer who advertises and delivers entertainment to people who are willing to be entertained by him and pay for it. That this kind of entertainment is not to the liking of the self-appointed guardians of the artistic purity of music is immaterial and their dismissal of Rieu and his audiences is a bit ridiculous. In this respect, one can paraphrase H. L. Mencken and say that musical snobbery is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be waltzing in a stadium.

[ritter]

This thread has gone really off-topic... 

[Florestan]

This thread has gone really off-topic... 

It has experienced a radical change of topic. 

[AnotherSpin]

Your pontificating on behalf of real art (whatever that might mean) is misplaced. People who attend Rieu's concerts do not expect, let alone demand, that they be elevated intellectually and spiritually by concentrating on, or analyzing, complex music; they attend because they want to enjoy themselves by listening, and maybe dancing, to light, accessible music originally written precisely to this purpose. And they get what they pay for: Rieu doesn't advertise his orchestra as symphonic or philharmonic, he doesn't perform symphonies, string quartets or oratorios and does not pretend to be Oistrakh or Celibidache. He is an entertainer who advertises and delivers entertainment to people who are willing to be entertained by him and pay for it. That this kind of entertainment is not to the liking of the self-appointed guardians of the artistic purity of music is immaterial and their dismissal of Rieu and his audiences is a bit ridiculous. In this respect, one can paraphrase H. L. Mencken and say that musical snobbery is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be waltzing in a stadium.

Your pontifications on behalf of kitsch doesn't resonate with me. I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't listened to your Rieu and I don't intend to. Life is infinite, there is no point in cluttering up infinity with nonsense.

[Opus131]

I think there's something inherently wrong with people who aren't looking to be "elevated" in any way, either intellectually or spiritually.

I consider this Rieu character to be a predator, ruthlessly exploiting the infantility of the average person of today for his own personal gain. I find the whole affair to be quite grotesque. He is the equivalent of a televangelist in my book. The people who follow those false preachers, like that Joel Osteen character, are also quite "happy". Am i supposed to respect that too?

[Opus131]

This thread has gone really off-topic... 

Well, radical things are being said, so it's still 50% on topic.