Your friend's Zappa encounter

Hi,

The term you want is "anti-commercial", which is very obvious by his many satires on many products and also on a lot of things on the TV airwaves in Southern California. 

TODAY, a lot of this stuff is not "accessible" because no one takes a look at history to help make sense of so much music the world over ... SF "happened" because the local free form FM radio was THE THING back then with a couple of DJ's helping a lot of new material not only get on the air, but also get concerts in various places. Today, a Party at the G. G. Park, could not even get started and the police would think that the new homeless group has arrived ... again!

This is the hard side of studying "progressive" and a lot of musical events and scenes, going back hundreds of years ... none of it makes sense ... until you also explain, and help get a kid's attention to the different possibilities ... though in this case someone at school with a woke mentality would say you are subverting the kid with bad ideas! The same mentality/media that killed all the "psychedelic" generation!

I think, and I try here ... hard ... to explain that some of the critiques in many of the comments here are inappropriate and sad ... they take the music out of context. Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and many other artists make a lot more sense when they are viewed as the "ROMANTIC" artists ... just like Shakespeare and Marlowe and others are considered "RENAISSANCE" artists. This, would IMMEDIATELY help the youngster realize that things were different then ... that what they are hearing is NOT something that would likely be heard today ... specially with the "de-sanctified" group deciding that the content is not right for any teenagers in the state of fluoride, like it was for a general that ordered the bomb sent! (fun movie with Slim Pickens riding the bomb!)

Hi,

This is strange to me ... having had the experience with Space Pirate Radio going back to its start in 1974, there are/were two kinds of folks in the listenership ... those who like to listen to things, and those that are brainwashed by the hits they like, or as you see on the street and in many cars, loud rap ... or around here, lots of Spanish speaking salsa and tortillas!

And, at times, it seems to not be anything in between. 

Given Guy's history with his show, the only folks that "didn't get it" or "didn't like it" were the folks that tried to convert Guy to another automaton playing all the hits and nothing but the hits. They treated him like dirt for a long time, because of his choices of music, and in the end, he added MORE to their play list than they will EVER admit. 

Guessing/expecting any friend to feel this or like this or that, is weird ... the best, and only thing you can do is play what you like and not worry about your friend. In the end, he/she will either come around and understand/appreciate new stuff or they want ... but I have to tell you that chatting and saying hello to folks that have heard a lot of Space Pirate Radio going back to 1974 is a treat and then some ... we weren't the only ones, that loved the new music!

You kinda have to let music just flow on its own ... and new folks will pick up on different things or they want ... and probably go back to the boomboom style! oh well ... maybe one day they will "get it" and learn something about themselves and other music out there in the stratosfear of their minds! 

Hi,

If I was normal, like many others, we wouldn't have a "progressive" board at all! Or "progressive" anything!

Saperlipopette! wrote: ... If I wanted someone to start appreciating painting or classical music - much as I love them - I wouldn't start by introducing them to Mondrian or Schoenberg. It's just common sense to me.

Based on my experience, it doesn't matter what we choose since the tastes vary so much and folks get slapped with some sounds or music, that somehow they can relate to, and end up liking. The only bother, I suppose was the bunch of stonies that asked for Led Zeppelin, man ... and they had the album on top of it! That's stoned, for sure, and not about the music I don't think!

I got used to sound effects with The Goons, and later hearing Guy have fun with them (all those BBC sound effects records got their due in a 1000 speeds) ... made it easier to hear a lot of stuff that was weird and off the track ... it was harder, for example, for me to get into Tangerine Dream (took a week!!!) than it did to listen to Faust, which in my book was a lot of fun, and the same with Frank Zappa being so anti-commercial (very obvious on his satirical stuff in 200 Motels and other works) ... and the different folks that still listen to Guy's show, per chat on the twitch thing ... makes you wonder what got them into it.

I really think that there is no telling what is going to snap someone's ears on ... it just happens for many, though one could say psychologically that it is because of this and that ... and I'm not even sure of that anymore. 

Nowadays, it is much harder I think since a lot of folks are so commercially bound that they are having a hard time hearing anything else, and that would be the same thing with the examples of the music. I, for one, loved Stravinsky the first time I heard it ... Leonard Bernstein doing The Rite of Spring ... I think that album is either 1963 or 1964, to give you an idea ... and at that time I mostly liked Puccini, Verdi, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and such. Stuff that you could say was more melodic, which made The Rite of Spring completely anti-melodic (so to speak!).

Frank Zappa is a variety shop, which makes things tougher for a lot of listeners, thus one likes this album, but hates 200 Motels, or one likes the early and weird stuff because so much of the rest is more attuned for a little sales, so he could keep doing things, but that did not explain his forays into Europe to do classical music, which America hated and would not touch ... and other than one or two folks no one listens to it one could state.