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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."