'Geeks unite' journals, kurt cobain 1991
Why Listen To Complex Music?
by W. Walter
1
How many times have you heard somebody blurt out, "I don't understand this music" when they were confronted by something they weren't familiar with or didn't immediately like? This sort of statement isn't always intended in a literal sense, but why should one have to "understand" music? Is it imperative to "understand" music in order to like it? Can anyone ever truly "understand" a piece of music? Does an uneducated listener really "understand" anything about music on even a basic level? These points are completely open to debate, because there are shadows of doubt surrounding all of them.
2
With even the dopiest, lowest-common-denominator Pop tune, one will never truly know the true motivations or become privy to the deepest subtexts of intention by the artist. The nature of the human experience is far too nebulous to ever conclusively analyze art. Regardless, we can sure amuse ourselves trying! Although some music seems so desperate to wear a badge of transparent earnestness on its sleeve, there remains a constant guarantee of misinterpretation by the public at large. The net effect of artistic work often grows larger than the original intent of the maker, regardless of how focused that impetus may have been at the point of creation. The experience of music to a listener is wholly subjective at every level. One can only filter all of this sound information through one's own perception, needs, likes, wants, education and standards. Many people project their desires onto art, looking to find a symbol for their own platonic ideals. No two individuals will ever share the exact same ideal or absolutely agree on every single possible matter of taste.
3
I have listened to a lot of what many other folks probably consider "difficult", "challenging" or "complex" music. None of these attributes are qualitative in the sense that they are automatically equivalent with music being "good". Just because music is complex doesn't mean I care for it: most of the intricately sophisticated serialism by a composer like Milton Babbitt leaves me cold despite the fact that I respect and relate to the incredible rigor of his compositional methods and constructions. I am not concerned with any notions of "ultimate" complexity, nor am I only interested in "complex" music. However, there are many examples of recorded work I have consistently revisited over the decades which have pushed various levels of structural, melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, timbral and conceptual sophistication.
