blog
Carvin' it Up...
Postman, N. and Weingartner, C. (1966) state, "Nothing is anything until we call it something; then it "is" whatever we call it." (p. 33 par 4)
You see as humans we must grasp things and force them into, as I have stated elsewhere, cognitively bite-sized pieces. As artists and fans, we find it necessary to react to these bite-sized pieces and where applicable ~ attempt to break them or redefine them...here are just a few examples:
Wikipedia. (2008).
You see as humans we clang around in an attempt to be understood, even when we do not realize that we are doing so. It is our need to communicate that forces us into a method for that communication ~ a tangible medium. Poets use ink and words that ordinarily are not cohesive. Composers place visible representations of noise into a physical medium ~ the score. Sculptors, Painters, Guitarists, Pianists, and et. al have their respective mediums. At this point my method of communication would be an input box on a form.
This type of communication is a blog entry and incidentally is part of my instinctive, and well polished, knack for stating the obvious. Goffman, E. (1963) made mention that a man does not stop communicating merely because he has stopped talking. This brings about the necessity for kinesics and PGM [posture gesture merging] which are fancy words for body language.
At this point, I approach a conundrum. What is the difference, as per body language, between a jazz trumpeteer and a thrash metal guitarist? Or, a first chair concert violinist and Les Claypool? Performance wise, they are exhibiting much of the same types of kinesics and pgm. Albeit, the first chair concert violinist will probably be seated while the lead man of Primus slams his left foot into the stage while donning pink long-handles and a cowboy hat.
It is my contention that eventually the continuum of genre will disintegrate or become so disturbingly spelled out and distilled that if the performer changes key, they have launched the whole of the piece into a completely different category. This sounds ridiculous now, but refer to the small list of genres offered above.
References
Goffman, E. (1963). Behavior in public places (notes on the social organization of gatherings). New York, NY: The Free Press.
Postman, N. and Weingartner, C. (1966). Linguistics: a revolution in teaching. New York, Ny.: Dell Publishing Co., Inc.
Wikipedia. (2008). [Category: list of music genres]. Wikipedia. Retrieved June 8, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_music_genres
You see as humans we must grasp things and force them into, as I have stated elsewhere, cognitively bite-sized pieces. As artists and fans, we find it necessary to react to these bite-sized pieces and where applicable ~ attempt to break them or redefine them...here are just a few examples:
Wikipedia. (2008).
You see as humans we clang around in an attempt to be understood, even when we do not realize that we are doing so. It is our need to communicate that forces us into a method for that communication ~ a tangible medium. Poets use ink and words that ordinarily are not cohesive. Composers place visible representations of noise into a physical medium ~ the score. Sculptors, Painters, Guitarists, Pianists, and et. al have their respective mediums. At this point my method of communication would be an input box on a form.
This type of communication is a blog entry and incidentally is part of my instinctive, and well polished, knack for stating the obvious. Goffman, E. (1963) made mention that a man does not stop communicating merely because he has stopped talking. This brings about the necessity for kinesics and PGM [posture gesture merging] which are fancy words for body language.
At this point, I approach a conundrum. What is the difference, as per body language, between a jazz trumpeteer and a thrash metal guitarist? Or, a first chair concert violinist and Les Claypool? Performance wise, they are exhibiting much of the same types of kinesics and pgm. Albeit, the first chair concert violinist will probably be seated while the lead man of Primus slams his left foot into the stage while donning pink long-handles and a cowboy hat.
It is my contention that eventually the continuum of genre will disintegrate or become so disturbingly spelled out and distilled that if the performer changes key, they have launched the whole of the piece into a completely different category. This sounds ridiculous now, but refer to the small list of genres offered above.
Goffman, E. (1963). Behavior in public places (notes on the social organization of gatherings). New York, NY: The Free Press.
Postman, N. and Weingartner, C. (1966). Linguistics: a revolution in teaching. New York, Ny.: Dell Publishing Co., Inc.
Wikipedia. (2008). [Category: list of music genres]. Wikipedia. Retrieved June 8, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_music_genres
Comments
All of this would not be that interesting except for the important additional hypothesis that the framing exercise is part of an "iterative" process to create structure and order in our society [I leave for another discussion whether the structure thus developed is "good" or "not so good".]
Which gets to the main point of your own "framing" exercise here:If you accept my contention that "framing" , while individually initiated, is "iterative", the continuum of genre does not disintegrate, but is rather ever refined - and not disturbingly so. I do agree, however, that unless the "taxonomy" lends itself to discovery it may be a ridiculour exercise.
In connection with the foregoing, here are some further thoughts on this subject (and an amusing chart on the taxonomy of rock and roll):
http://chrismolla.fuzz.com/blog/entry/Musical-Taxonomy-The-Genre-Thing
http://www.historyshots.com/rockmusic/index.cfm
http://www.fuzz.com/fan/TheCapitalClinic/blog/entry/Taxonomy-of-Music-in-the-Long-Tail-Era
Thanks for reviving this subject. Cheers, TCC