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From: elf@utcsrgv.UUCP (Eugene Fiume)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: sound and vision - something for everyone
Message-ID: <3322@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 20-Feb-84 12:23:50 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.3322
Posted: Mon Feb 20 12:23:50 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 20-Feb-84 12:31:38 EST
References: <6783@unc.UUCP>, <3316@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: CSRG, University of Toronto
Lines: 31

Some good points have been made regarding the connection between music and
image.  Oscar remarked, and it is worth reiterating, that in many rather
poignant cases, a powerful image has been associated with a musical piece
after the fact.  If the image is particularly evocative (I'm singin' in the
rain, just singin' in ...), then somehow a little "music post-processor" is
installed, so that we then have trouble disassociating the music from the
image.

It seems to me that music videos are at heart just another attempt at giving
a piece of music a programme.  We already have a precedent for this in rock
music: the concept album.  (Programmatic music has been around in music of
all ages, of course--particularly in late-Romantic.)  The concept album
seems passe now, and it isn't a coincidence that there's an alternative.
If only videos weren't so god-damned dumb...

It also demonstrates the focus on singles in today's music market.
Has someone decided that we don't listen to albums any more?  Maybe we don't.
I avoid purchasing short EP's, long EP's, singles, extended singles, re-mixed
dubbed originals, and single-play-then-disintegrate records.  I like records
of the 35-40 minute variety--and I play them in a very novel way: I put on
side 1 (or A), and then after 17 minutes or so, I turn the record over and
I play side 2 (or B).  But I have digressed.

If there are any psychologists out there, you may wish to explain why we
accept novelty in visual art much more readily than in music.  This always
seems to have been so (e.g. witness our readiness to accept 20th Century
art forms, vs. analogous musics).  This may provide a clue as to why we can
readily connect a new image to a pre-existing piece of music.  Funny, if you
are capable of doing the reverse, you'd probably be called a composer.

			Eugene Fiume