Cultural conditioning sets limits that define music.
Certainly in free societies this does not have to be the case, and with knowledge and percipience come broader, more critical perspectives than those associated with predictable musical content.
In point of fact, very few listeners, songwriters, and composers take an interest in expansion beyond the generalized commercial and academic horizons, not because audiences would have no interest in such endeavors-- a lack of interest in musical genres and fashions, even the so called "refined" ones, declines precipitously as the listener moves further beyond adolescence-- but because the knowledge of advanced aural compositions, their aesthetics, and their purposes have yet to articulated properly to the public at large. Ambient music, as defined by Brian Eno and others, has indeed been established as such, and with intellectual clarity according to its character.
But it is what I would call the sonic setting composition that is different in nature than ambient music, engaged, as it is, with the perceptions and consciousness of the listener, and created according to an entirely different paradigm. This requires analysis accordingly, and ultimately, a kind of introduction, via informed artists and individuals, into the broader cultural setting. Otherwise one need expect no more than the perpetuation of the state of things in the musical arts.
Certainly in free societies this does not have to be the case, and with knowledge and percipience come broader, more critical perspectives than those associated with predictable musical content.
In point of fact, very few listeners, songwriters, and composers take an interest in expansion beyond the generalized commercial and academic horizons, not because audiences would have no interest in such endeavors-- a lack of interest in musical genres and fashions, even the so called "refined" ones, declines precipitously as the listener moves further beyond adolescence-- but because the knowledge of advanced aural compositions, their aesthetics, and their purposes have yet to articulated properly to the public at large. Ambient music, as defined by Brian Eno and others, has indeed been established as such, and with intellectual clarity according to its character.
But it is what I would call the sonic setting composition that is different in nature than ambient music, engaged, as it is, with the perceptions and consciousness of the listener, and created according to an entirely different paradigm. This requires analysis accordingly, and ultimately, a kind of introduction, via informed artists and individuals, into the broader cultural setting. Otherwise one need expect no more than the perpetuation of the state of things in the musical arts.
