Graham/lwtcdi wrote a lot of things that made good sense, but lost it
here:
quoted 2 lines For starters, I don't really believe all this crap about music having> For starters, I don't really believe all this crap about music having
> soul. This may offend some people,
Don't worry, I'll take the bait.
BTW, people who have seen "Dead Poets Society" will notice a striking
similarity in this discussion (hence the subject title).
quoted 5 lines but the only things that matter are> but the only things that matter are
> diversity and originality. This is what forms so called emotion or soul
> in music (for me). When artists excel at these two, the music becomes
> soulful. It's certainly not some kind of magical force or channel of
> emotions into music or anything like that...
*sigh*
See, that's precisely what you get from overanalyzing and
intellectualizing the music (the chin-stroking syndrome, anyone?).
The main purpose of music is to *express* emotion, to *provoke*
emotion. Emotion is not something that can be rationalized in
terms of diversity and originality. Oh yeah, this track has 79%
diversity and 91% originality, so now I can calculate it's
emotion. Exaggarated as this may sound, this *is* what you're saying
basically.
Emotion is about FEELING! Have you never been nearly moved to tears
by a track? Have you never felt shivers down your spine when hearing
certain intros ?
THAT'S emotion! THAT'S soul!
Otto
"Oh captain, my captain"