# Interesting people make interesting music [Discussion]



## Fab (Oct 2, 2022)

Hello,

My friend and I were having a discussion around this I thought it might be interesting to hear more peoples thoughts. If you haven't heard this quote I think it was in a Christian Henson video (I can't remember exactly which one) and the context was about work/life balance, creativity etc.

Thanks,

Fab


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## Arbee (Oct 3, 2022)

It makes for a catchy phrase but not sure it withstands scrutiny. I might argue that confident people make confident music, but "interesting" is a broad term. I might equally argue that talented but otherwise dull, reclusive folk potentially have a deeper emotional connection with their creativity and expression.


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## Henu (Oct 3, 2022)

It's too easy to confuse "extroverted" with "interesting". In that sense, the most loud Soundcloud- warrios spamming their chord progressions must make the most interesting music, which is far from the truth.


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## PeterN (Oct 3, 2022)

Interesting experiences create interesting music.

And the general rule is, if you want something interesting, for the sake of the creative value, stay away from the general information - like: "work, balance, creativity" - its reversely meant as an anaesthetic for the common masses, or, like an evening read for the bored modern city dweller. You need to cross the boundaries of the Matrix, to get the the wells. Most modern artists dont do that -there's no rush at the wells.


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## doctoremmet (Oct 3, 2022)

Some of the music I most revere and find interesting was made by people who made only very few records (Mark Hollis, Kevin Shields, people like that). I wouldn’t be amazed some of my musical heroes would be complete and utter bores to hang around with either


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## gamma-ut (Oct 3, 2022)

My counter-example is Matthew Herbert. Very big picture, high-concept approach to music. It's often not that interesting in itself, just has a shiny cover and attracts a lot of chat around the concept rather than the content.


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## Double Helix (Oct 3, 2022)

New Criticism (guided by the text, nothing else) replaced Biographical Criticism (judge a text via the author's background) for good reason

One example, I respect Richard Wagner's body of work, but given his anti-semitism, I'm not sure I would find him "interesting"


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## Lionel Schmitt (Oct 3, 2022)

Probably fully pointless since "interesting" is hard to assess.
I also don't think experiences or work life balance make you interesting. I'm sure you can remain dull after the most rich experiences. And vice versa. It's all internal at the end.
I personally find very little of the world inspiring but came up with such a large collection of highly inspired ideas over time that I'll never be able to realize all of them. 
And all just from roaming inside myself in my room. The world is mostly just annoying :D
Well, back into Cubase for me :D


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## telecode101 (Oct 3, 2022)

There are a lot of nut jobs who somehow seem to gravitate towards music and trying to make it.


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## Vlzmusic (Oct 3, 2022)

In my experience, the most interesting music is done by people with specific musical gifts, which could seem narrow, if you consider how complex people are in general, not to say about talented ones. The best example would be Prokofiev, which mostly relied on his inner ear to create a "sound" which we easily recognize as his style.


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## Trash Panda (Oct 3, 2022)

Fab said:


> Hello,
> 
> My friend and I were having a discussion around this I thought it might be interesting to hear more peoples thoughts. If you haven't heard this quote I think it was in a Christian Henson video (I can't remember exactly which one) and the context was about work/life balance, creativity etc.
> 
> ...


There are plenty of utterly uninteresting people who make interesting music. Maybe a more accurate idea would be good story tellers make interesting music.


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## Loïc D (Oct 3, 2022)

Charlie Clouser !


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## NekujaK (Oct 3, 2022)

All kinds of people make all kinds of music.


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## MarcusD (Oct 3, 2022)

Unpredictable music is good music. Most of the time, doesn't matter of someones interesting or not. It's whether or not they can keep you guessing while telling a good story.


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## doctoremmet (Oct 3, 2022)

Some of the worst music is also unpredictable. Unpredictability therefore seems a poor predictor of how good or bad music is.


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## MarcusD (Oct 3, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Some of the worst music is also unpredictable. Unpredictability therefore seems a poor predictor of how good or bad music is.


It depends how you look at it... If you can predict where a songs going to go, wheres the fun in listening? Unpredictability isn't bad. It IS bad if the musician has no idea what they're doing. Talented musicians know how to keep you guessing, and still deliver something satisfying.


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## rMancer (Oct 3, 2022)

MarcusD said:


> It depends how you look at it... If you can predict where a songs going to go, wheres the fun in listening?


So can you only ever enjoy a song once? I.e. if you've heard it before, and thus you can predict where it's going to go, you can't have fun listening to it?

Anyway, I think there's a place for predictability. It's all about context; you want something predictable to dance to at the club, for instance. People need to be confident when the beat drops or changes, even if they've never heard that particular song. While it might be amusing to troll people by throwing in the odd bar of 33/16 to trip up the clubgoers, that is sort of a failure to deliver (because the unspoken contract is that the music is intentionally predictable), artsy and "interesting" and "fun" though it may be.


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## RogiervG (Oct 3, 2022)

i don't favor some artist over others (because of the music).
I often don't know who composed/produced it, until i pay attention to the credits.
I like some pieces of music, or don't. Sometimes it's the same composer, having a bad composing day.. and thus dislike the piece, but another piece of the same composer, can really trigger my fancy.


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## MarcusD (Oct 3, 2022)

rMancer said:


> So can you only ever enjoy a song once?



Not at all. If I enjoy a song I'll listen to it lots, because I want understand the genius behind what makes it work so well and why I connect with it. I can appreciate well written, well thought out music. It doesn't have to be complex in nature. When listening to different songs, I want them to be unique from each other, and not share too many similarities or use the same formulas.

As you rightly say, it does depend on the context (as a listener) and what mood you're in... Sure a song can have predictableness like; an instruments rhythm, or a repeating melody - but there needs to be variations (that are not predictable), otherwise a song will flatline if the ideas are not strong enough on their own. If we're talking purely 'what makes good music' - then elements of unpredictability are certainty needed IMO. But that's subjective to the listener anyway.

If a songwriter can; understand their choices and know how to communicate them effectively, using their skills to avoid repeating whats already been over-done, while having a degree of awareness and self criticism - then they're probably going to create some good music, regardless of personality.

(I was being quite generalising / vague using the word "unpredictable" previously, my bad)


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