Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site unc.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!mcnc!unc!sherouse From: sherouse@unc.UUCP (George W. Sherouse) Newsgroups: net.music Subject: sound and vision - something for everyone Message-ID: <6783@unc.UUCP> Date: Sun, 19-Feb-84 12:01:34 EST Article-I.D.: unc.6783 Posted: Sun Feb 19 12:01:34 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 19-Feb-84 20:13:31 EST Organization: CS Dept., U. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill Lines: 88 Excuse me if this rambles, but I'm not sure what it's about. I think (I'm not sure, mind you) that I've been had. It has started me to thinking about the whole concept of the evocative power of music. Begin at the beginning, George. Of late I have found myself occasionally watching/listening to MTV in the hope that something of interest to *me* will be aired. I am rewarded very rarely. A psychologist friend of mine, who incidentally has also been sucked in by MTV, explains that this type of reinforcement schedule is a particularly effective one and is the reason pinball/video arcades can make a profit. The idea is that you take the "just one more" risk so many times that you wind up with a tremendous investment in obtaining what you want and are thus tremendously rewarded when you finally get it. Nobody can make a case for MTV (or indeed most radio) being anything other than a promotional vehicle for the recorded music industry. Who among us has not been infected by some particularly incidious hook and wound up buying the associated vinyl only to find that it does not sustain interest? Well, it seems that video promos go one step further. They attach an *IMAGE* to the hook. For me music has always been a particularly evocative form of communication. Usually, again for me, it evokes an ambience rather than any particular wordly image. I recall my early experiences in elementary school music class where the teacher tried in vain to get me to see the swans dancing or whatever. I get the sense of competing music lines or parts but not of direct correlation between musical pieces and physical actions or characters. The same still holds true. I get images of constantly changing geometric forms or sense particular moods or ambiences from the music I listen to, with the character of the images and/or moods depending on the type of music. Now edging closer to the point, I have noticed that of the very few "rock videos" I have seen and *enjoyed* only about half accompanied music which I would have chosen to listen to otherwise. A prime example is "TV Dinner" by ZZTop. While I have nothing in particular against ZZTop, I have just never found their genre of music terribly appealing. However, their video for this song (which, for the blissfully uncabled, features a small Creature-From- The-Black-Lagoon-type fellow who emerges from a TV dinner to help himself to the TV remote control, potato chips, beer, etc.) is so funny that it stands on its own. Another case in point, and the spark of this discussion, is the "Blinded by Science" song/video by Thomas Dolby. I find both the song and the video moderately amusing for modern pop, to the extent that I bought the LP (sucker!!!) for a little light diversion. I found two particularly disturbing things upon listening to the LP. One is that I cannot shake the images from the video. More to the point, I CAN'T SEEM TO HEAR THE SONG FOR ALL THE CONFLICTING IMAGES. Second, I am not particularly engaged by the rest of the LP, and so am forced to wonder about my judgement of the aforementioned tune. THE POINT (I think): The use of images to sell music seems to me to be a very powerful tool, more so than I would have guessed. It bothers me that I can be so easily influenced in something which I am normally very critical about. It makes me wonder anew just how TV commercials influence me unduly. And what about the flip-side? How does a choice of background music effect the way I perceive an image or a radio commercial? This is, of course, well-worn turf but topical nonetheless. AN ASIDE POINT: Does everyone else get images from music? What kind? Do you see the wolf chasing the duck? Or do you see geometrics like I do? What about the setting for a vocalist? Is he/she suspended in a space created by the music (my vote) or leaning on a piano or what? Good tunes to you, (the real) George W. Sherouse"...I couldn't act naturally if I wanted to."