This thread was a terrible mistake

Vil · **Posted:** Sun Apr 22, 2012 7:28 pm

All the "Hot Problems" and "Friday"s of the world are nothing compared to this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN09THSNo_k[/youtube]

corrections · **Joined:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 9:11 pm **Posts:** 27988

pnoom wrote:

I love the game where we try to reduce a complex and multifarious human activity involving innumerable people with wildly divergent aims to a single aim and then try to judge the people engaging in that activity by the light of that one aim and don't care that all such attempts inevitably lead us to tremendously stupid and patently contrary to fact evaluations.

It is a fun game.

corrections · **Joined:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 9:11 pm **Posts:** 27988

Gray wrote:

corrections wrote:

Mitch NZ wrote:

Gray wrote:

The aim of sports definitely isn't to entertain. The term "good at sports" has been used in the same way forever, there's no way it refers to how entertaining you are.

Well then for boo boo's analogy to work, the aim of music has to be to win, if not, it's irrelevant.

Sport has multiple aims. Are you suggesting that music's aim is to entertain?

I might say that the object of music can vary. There is music that is obviously geared to be appealing to the masses and other artists who use music more as a form of self expression.

Well of course it can (as can sports). The point being the analogy works just fine.

corrections · **Joined:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 9:11 pm **Posts:** 27988

joe c wrote:

People wouldn't bother with music if it wasn't entertaining. Meh.

Plenty of people still would. What do you mean by entertaining?

corrections · **Joined:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 9:11 pm **Posts:** 27988

Mitch NZ wrote:

Wow, for a statement that I intended to provoke discussion, it sure did its job.

I'm surprised how riled up you guys get over something so flippant.

And corrections, you're incorrect, people who are bad at sports are frequently entertaining.

If they don't play for a team you support. In any case you missed my point. Some people who are bad at sports are entertaining in so bad its good ways (some are just pathetic). But their entertainment value bears no relation to their awareness of their lack of talent. The most entertaining bad athletes actually tend to be the ones who are blissfully unaware that they suck.

joe c · **Posted:** Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:56 pm

corrections wrote:

joe c wrote:

People wouldn't bother with music if it wasn't entertaining. Meh.

Plenty of people still would. What do you mean by entertaining?

It's fun to play and fun to listen to?

corrections · **Joined:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 9:11 pm **Posts:** 27988

joe c wrote:

corrections wrote:

joe c wrote:

People wouldn't bother with music if it wasn't entertaining. Meh.

Plenty of people still would. What do you mean by entertaining?

It's fun to play and fun to listen to?

Is that the sole purpose for which music exists? Is that always the goal? What do you mean by fun?

joe c · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2012 9:21 am

You're taking the robot thing too far.

nathan · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2012 11:42 am

Vil wrote:

All the "Hot Problems" and "Friday"s of the world are nothing compared to this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN09THSNo_k[/youtube]

corrections · **Joined:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 9:11 pm **Posts:** 27988

joe c wrote:

You're taking the robot thing too far.

I'm being serious. I think you have to answer all of those questions.

joe c · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2012 4:10 pm

corrections · **Joined:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 9:11 pm **Posts:** 27988

joe c wrote:

Nah.

Would people bother with reading if it wsn't entertaining?

joe c · **Posted:** Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:18 pm

Reading =/= music

corrections · **Joined:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 9:11 pm **Posts:** 27988

joe c wrote:

Reading =/= music

You're correct. Music is much older than reading and has purposes nearly as varied. Boiling it down to just entertainment does a disservice to music and fails to understand its development or power.

batman · **Posted:** Wed Apr 25, 2012 1:44 am

I bring up this example at least once a year, but this is the perfect opportunity to do so again. There is a tribe in Papau New Guinea called Kaluli, and to make their traditional music you have to kill a bird and use its bones and feathers in the construction of a hand drum. They believe that birds hold the spirits of their dead ancestors. Everyone gets together and plays the bird drums really chaotically, and at the height of the chaos, everyone bursts into tears because they think they are communicating with their ancestors at that time, and not in a metaphorical connection based on tradition and memory, they are literally having a conversation with their dead parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. So that's a good example of how a person can get a meaningful experience with music without using it for entertainment. It's fun to think that we're all connected and that everyone on earth has similar experiences, but I can't play a drum to communicate with my grandparents.

This thread was a terrible mistake

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