Dear Reader: Before you read this paper, please consider the following requests. First, and most importantly, listen to at least 1 minute of Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica. It is available on YouTube for free. Consider that this bizarre, atonal, virtually unlistenable album is regarded as one of the most influential rock albums of all time, and was ranked No. 60 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums. Finally, considering Captain Beefheart’s unlikely place in the rock pantheon, ask yourself whether music must be “good” in order to have value.
Upon listening to Trout Mask Replica, most people would be unlikely to describe this music as “good.” Absent any context, even the name of the band, “Captain Beefheart and …show more content…
By contrast, most of the songs on Trout Mask Replica are atonal (lacking coherent melody) and highly polyrhythmic (containing conflicting rhythms). After hearing only the first 30 seconds of the first song on the album, finding a steady beat or consistent melody is nearly impossible. This is utterly opposite to popular music, which begs the question, why has the album achieved such high regard? As Rickard asserted, repetition and patterns are paramount factors in creating musical beauty, and Trout Mask Replica is far from good if it is graded on those scales. Why, then is Beefheart-esc music a success among some people, while simultaneously a failure among the majority of the public?
A life-science writer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Anne Trafton reported on two researchers who asked a similar question. Music is made by assembling patterns of tonal consonance and dissonance which build tension and provide relief. While dissonant chords (common in Trout Mask Replica) are still used in music, they are often much less pleasant than consonant chords, which are consequently more
Upon listening to Trout Mask Replica, most people would be unlikely to describe this music as “good.” Absent any context, even the name of the band, “Captain Beefheart and …show more content…
By contrast, most of the songs on Trout Mask Replica are atonal (lacking coherent melody) and highly polyrhythmic (containing conflicting rhythms). After hearing only the first 30 seconds of the first song on the album, finding a steady beat or consistent melody is nearly impossible. This is utterly opposite to popular music, which begs the question, why has the album achieved such high regard? As Rickard asserted, repetition and patterns are paramount factors in creating musical beauty, and Trout Mask Replica is far from good if it is graded on those scales. Why, then is Beefheart-esc music a success among some people, while simultaneously a failure among the majority of the public?
A life-science writer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Anne Trafton reported on two researchers who asked a similar question. Music is made by assembling patterns of tonal consonance and dissonance which build tension and provide relief. While dissonant chords (common in Trout Mask Replica) are still used in music, they are often much less pleasant than consonant chords, which are consequently more