Why Dissonant Music Sounds 'Wrong'

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Seems very Western based. I think we are just used to the present tunings is all. How do people in other musical traditions react to the same tones?

What the article calls "dissonance" doesn't bother me much, I like a lot of it. But certain forms of distortion (e.g. electric guitars) rip my ears off. Tastes vary from the mainstream all the time.
 
Seems very Western based. I think we are just used to the present tunings is all. How do people in other musical traditions react to the same tones?

What the article calls "dissonance" doesn't bother me much, I like a lot of it. But certain forms of distortion (e.g. electric guitars) rip my ears off. Tastes vary from the mainstream all the time.

Yes mine do, all the time. I have always liked Gamelan, Japanese and Chinese opera, etc. , and Hendrix.
 
"For consonant intervals the overtones of the two notes tend to coincide as whole-number multiples, whereas for dissonant intervals this is no longer the case: they look more like the irregular overtones for sounds that are ‘inharmonic’, such as metal being struck."

They mean a flexible metal plate, right? Because a metal bell being struck will produce very pleasant harmonics.

One conclusion that can be drawn in respect to sound reproduction is that harmonic distortion is generally more tolerable than non-harmonic.
 
Once again, if we may assume that Heerens and de Ru are right with their interesting paper "Applying Physics Makes Auditory Sense" then a physical backing for the observations would exist, with the hearing mechanism allegedly first differentiating then squaring the incoming signal before it hits any hair cells. Tons of intermodulation distortion would be the result, even with chords made up with pure sinewaves. Exactly that is shown by Heerens&deRu and anyone can recreate their experiments (they supply a software on their website).


While people may enjoy dissonant music genres (I do) I still think that in everday life consonant sounds are generally preferred for this reason, as well as the 1/f-relationship between level vs. frequency.
 
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I would argue that experimental music such as this is not meant to sound pleasant, quite the contrary. It can however be enjoyed for it's artistic value and as such it's truly beautiful and inspirational.

It will be interesting to see how something like this will be perceived by people outside of it's cultural content. For example what will happen if we play a nursery rhyme on a piano as opposed to Einstürzende Neubauten to a native islander who has had no contact with Western culture?
 
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I would argue that experimental music such as this is not meant to sound pleasant, quite the contrary. It can however be enjoyed for it's artistic value and as such it's truly beautiful and inspirational.

Sorry but this sounds to me like BS. Enjoyed for its artistic value? So, people should start enjoying things because of their supposed artistic values? Good luck trying to convince an opera hater of its artistic value. Nah... if you like something it is because it appeals to your senses, I don't know in which way. Maybe because there's a mantra thing going on there, a kind of hypnotic induction, it gets you in the 'mood'. A friend dragged me to one of their concerts. OK, unusual 'instruments' and yeah, it doesn't sound like the Beatles but I didn't find the music pleasant to my senses; ergo I didn't like it, ergo artistic value my *** .

*I enjoyed the way Blixa destroyed his guitar amp though, used his axe as a spear. He wasn't happy with its sound. I understood.

* From EN I only like one LP, can't remember the name but they kept the metal banging to a minimum.
 
I would argue that experimental music such as this is not meant to sound pleasant, quite the contrary. It can however be enjoyed for it's artistic value and as such it's truly beautiful and inspirational.

I have an equation for the enjoyment of music:

life experience aka age x (memories / thoughts at the time of listening) x mood = level of enjoyment

Which when it comes down to it, at the right place at the right time, in the right mood, in the right frame of mind, you can enjoy anything.

What really strikes me as shocking is that you cannot do anything like this music video anymore, people are just not that interested in developing new ideas as much as they were back in the 80s. I seriously doubt you could gather the group together to do this again.

To top it off, where it was filmed is now probably a set of housing apartments or a shopping mall, I hate the fact that this world is overpopulated! I used to be able to just walk anywhere and on any part of land and not be bothered and gain inspiration, not anymore! I now have to put up with joggers and people with dogs surfing for pussy/dick. No longer can I find a simple rock to sit upon and read against, instead people will drive up and screw each other in the back seat of their cars.

You usually get shouted out of even your own region by people caling it stupid and idiotic, or police calling it dangerous and unnecessary/silly. And to top it off my region has now severely cut back all of the arts courses in the TAFE institutions of this state (NSW) purely because the mining sector is the only one raising students that make money anymore.

We are cutting our own throats! and I'm not even a TAFE student anymore! so this is an unbiased comment!

So what part exactly about modern music, modern understanding of music, and modern enjoyment of music HAS ANYTHING TO DO with innovation anymore? and why the hell does that article even exist? I've got my bets on it being CHRISTIAN FUNDED! Just like EVERYTHING is these days. and has NOTHING to do with the Scientific method or Science.

Everybody these days is owned by someone else, that company you've been eating food from for decades, is probably owned by a large multinational christian owned corporation.

I find it funny not because its laughable but because laughing is the only way I know how to cope, that we are not allowed to cross-reference politics and topics of discussion on online forums but when it comes to corporations being owned by political parties they will STIFLE our innovation, destroy our future, and POISON us at the same time, and yet, we're not allowed to talk about it? What are we, children? We should all be mature enough to have a serious discussion about the politics surrounding music.

Not here of course, that would be bad.

I should add finally, that in my experience and all throughout my life since I was 12 I have listened to bands like KMFDM, Metallica, Korn, NIN, etc and many others, because I enjoyed it on an emotional level, if the lyrics and the tones of the music hit my neurons just right I can get a short burst of anger and emotions and let them out instead of bottling them up inside, and that relaxes me, and in other times I can have passages of music and lyrics which sooth me and tell me everything is alright, and this is with Industrial music or with rock music.

And at times I will listen to music that will raise my emotions up into the clouds, and other times I will have music that will lower me to go and get a bottle of JD or Stolychnya, it all depends upon what I am going through during that day/week/month/year.
 
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In either case, its music, its been around for many many years, and if we let corporations and politically biased institutions sway us into thinking that human beings as a whole are simply a mathematical equasion which can be solved by a few paid off Scientists, then we have much bigger things to worry about than simply music, because this isn't just an attack on our Music anymore, its an attack on our freedom to enjoy who we are.

This story 'screams' political/religious motivation right in the title "Why Dissonant Music Sounds 'wrong", almost like its a sin to listen to Dissonant music..........

It seems to me that a couple of papers have been turned into this story inorder to loosely base a politically/religious biased story upon fact just so that some preacher somewhere can go:
"hey look here fellow followers, I have found something which might interest you, my /good friend/ and fellow christian colleage in the /scientific/ sector has published this story about how the mind does this or that bla bla bla under the influence of dissonant music, and your kids aren't evil after all! yay for science!"

We are individuals, we are human beings and we all have a story to tell, and all of our stories are unique, but I see that as time goes on most of them are becoming like the same old stuff that corporations/industries put out and produce, and frankly I can't tell the difference between that and the mind control of billions of people on this earth, Through the use of television, radio, newspapers, and stories /just like these/.

OH and if it wasn't for music like KMFDM, I'd be pushing magazines door to door today, and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, from 6AM till Noon, I would probably have 3 kids, be mortgaged to the tune of 1/2 a MILLION dollars, be married to someone I hate and be just as dumb as my parents.

Instead of Single, happily enjoying any music I want to from classic to crap, eating healthily, doing what I want when I want with my own money, and having no commitments financial or otherwise.

Michael Jackson set me free, and I repaid him by buying his Bad album on 180g vinyl. Ironically he used to be a JW.

Here is the article you should've posted: Dissonant music brings out the animal in listeners, say UCLA researchers: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/dissonant-music-brings-out-the-234656.aspx
 
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In either case, its music, its been around for many many years, and if we let corporations and politically biased institutions sway us into thinking that human beings as a whole are simply a mathematical equasion which can be solved by a few paid off Scientists, then we have much bigger things to worry about than simply music, because this isn't just an attack on our Music anymore, its an attack on our freedom to enjoy who we are.

Dissonant music brings out the animal in listeners, say UCLA researchers / UCLA Newsroom


I see we have struck a nerve.

DIAMANDA GALÁS | Wild Women With Steak-Knives (The Homicidal Love Song For Solo Scream) - YouTube
 
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