Outline, Stephen Davies, “Rock versus Classical Music”

 

1.       OVERVIEW

2.       Rock & Classical do not have distinctive aesthetics

3.       James Young’s criticism of Baugh

4.       DAVIES REJECTS BAUGH’S FORM/MATTER DISTINCTION

5.       Can’t listen to music w/o concerning oneself with form (=the structuring of sound)

6.       Doesn’t make sense to say a person might listen to music in terms of one and not be aware of the other (formal and non-formal)

 

7.       Rock no less formal than another other kind of music

8.       Expressive character of music often depends on its structure (form)

9.       Formal/non-formal not= intellectual/non-intellectual

10.     DAVIES THINKS MOST OF BAUGH’S ALLEGED DIFFERENCES ARE MISTAKEN

11.     Rejects idea that those who listen to classical music do so intellectually whereas rock engages feelings and noncognitive response

12.     Person appreciates rock does not listen to it, but has a physiological reaction to the noise it makes?

13.     Davies rejects idea that rock is more intimately connected to dance than classical music

14.     Some rock music is primarily aimed at arousal of physiological response

15.     But many types of rock invited attention more to lyrics, melodies, expressiveness or self-conscious playing with conventions of genre than to the “materiality” of their sounds

 

16.     Baugh thinks rock is concerned with performances (singer, not song) and classical with the work (song)

17.     Baugh thinks playing right notes far less important in rock than classical

18.     ONTOLOGY OF MUSIC: THICK OR THIN, PERFORMANCE, RECORDING, OR MUSIC

19.     Thick versus thin music:

20.     Is appreciation of rock more performance based than classical?

21.     RECORDINGS AS PRIMARY WORK OF ROCK (NOT OF CLASSICAL)

22.     Perhaps what distinguishes rock is that primary work is the recording (Gracyk’s view)

23.     Recordings are thick with properties

24.     Piece (artwork) of this kind is not for performing, it is for playback

25.     On this view, rock is distinct from classical which remains mainly for performance

26.     Classical accepts electronic works but these are a minority rather than mainstream

27.     Rock pieces depend essentially on electronic medium for creation and dissemination

 

28.     MUSICIANSHIP IN ROCK AND CLASSICAL

29.     Inappropriate to view rock as employing a crude version of classical technique (Davies agrees with Baugh)

30.     Davies rejects Baugh’s claim that classical technique involves mechanical, heartless efficiency

31.     Rock musicians virtuosity? (Given use of sampling and synthesizers)

32.     Use of sampling and synthesizers raise doubts about rock’s musicianship

33.     Classical music has different conventions about use of technology

34.     DISTINCTIVE ROCK AESTHETICS? NO

35.     At high level, principles of evaluation and appreciation are not radically different

36.     At low level, we attend to different features in appreciating and evaluating

37.     Rock is a broad classification and includes many different genres and styles, some of which require distinct aesthetics at low level

38.     Classical also covers many kinds some of which have distinct low level aesthetics

39.     Properties as specific as ones Baugh points to fail to capture difference between rock and classical, for they apply only to much more fine-grained types

40.     Differences between the broad categories are likely to be rather trivial and not deep/distinctive enough to be basis for different aesthetics

 

41.     SOME DIFFERENCES DAVIES SEES IN ROCK AND CLASSICAL

42.     Generalizing wildly!,

43.     Rock prefers dirty timbres and bent pitches more than classical

44.     Distinct techniques to some rock instruments, e.g., special timbrel qualities on electric guitar via volume and feedback.