DropD

Ligeti used ocarinas in his violin concerto, they're cool.

Lady Gaga's music is infinitely more complex than 99% of the music I've seen posted on this site. There's a reason she is a millionaire and you all just copy paste early period Beethoven sonatas

Threads like this are just an excuse for people who create things no one likes to somehow rationalize the reasons why they are not liked by belittling the creations of others they deem inferior. This whole discussion is fruitless and will always be rife with pretentious self-aggrandizing rhetoric, and no person of worth should pay it any mind. You ask "Is Justin Bieber art?" and I ask "What does it matter, neither of your creations can feed the hungry or clothe the naked," so get over yourself

By the way, AntiA, what's you're saying is the equivalent of saying... "Well if the African slaves had such great religions before they were captured, why did so many of the African-American slaves convert to Christianity, and why is a country like Haiti practically 99% Catholic?? If Christianity weren't better they wouldn't have converted!!!"

Let me get this straight...AntiA.. Are you implying that imperialism and conquest function in the same way as a free market of goods, services and ideas? Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament#History

He isn't saying that though, if I understand this correctly, SSC can feel free to elucidate his own points. You see AntiA, when, say, a belligerent tribe decides to attack and take over another tribe, the whole purpose of the conquest is to eradicate most, if not all, of the defending tribe. If you're in the defending tribe and certain aspects of your culture are destroyed, including art and music, that information probably isn't collected, probably not written down, and you won't be able to pass down that information...because you'd be dead. I know that's abstracting the situation from real events a bit, but it isn't THAT FAR OFF from what generally happens throughout history. It really is just incredibly naive of you to say, "Well there was never any war over music, so how do you know," that's obviously not what SSC or I am talking about. I'm not on the up and up when it comes to cultural hegemony and all whatnot, but we KNOW that these things happen when conquest occurs. They're more like externalities than anything, collateral damage. The main mission was to take Nation-State X's mineral deposits and their crops, but usually in the process a lot of, umm, death occurs, and destruction of property. This isn't like...radical Marxist/Hegelian historical methodology or anything, it's just...it's loving there. I LOLed when you said this...

Hey guys, I'm a newbie, but this topic intrigued me I just want to say, first off, that I agree mostly with what SSC has been saying. While James H and AntiA are entitled to their opinions, as the old saying goes, they are not entitled to their own facts. It's fairly glib to say something like... ...do you see how that might be taken as ignorant, or glib? Conquest and imperialism are pretty endemic to human history, so it's not really a slight against European empires (or any other empires and dynasties which have existed in the history of mankind), it's just an iteration of the truth. European emigration to the Americas wasn't peaceful, war was had, we know all know this. I really hope your schools did a better job at instilling critical thinking skills and facts than you're showcasing on this thread, JamesH and AntiA.