# Petition to ban "emotional"



## SupremeFist (Oct 6, 2020)

Can we please stop using the word "emotional" to describe certain music? I get emotional over all kinds of pieces for all kinds of reasons. I hate the way "emotional" has become a music keyword for simplistic kitsch romanticism or whatever. Who's with me?


----------



## easyrider (Oct 6, 2020)

I’m all emotional now...musing over buying Soundirons emotional piano.....


----------



## JLKooistra (Oct 6, 2020)

SupremeFist said:


> Can we please stop using the word "emotional" to describe certain music? I get emotional over all kinds of pieces for all kinds of reasons. I hate the way "emotional" has become a music keyword for simplistic kitsch romanticism or whatever. Who's with me?


That's quite an emotional argument you made, so, now I feel semantically stuck


----------



## JohnG (Oct 6, 2020)

I hear you, @SupremeFist but it turns out people absolutely love emotional, exactly as you've described. Some people clearly equate "emotional" with "what I like."


----------



## Jimmy Hellfire (Oct 6, 2020)

Yeah, the irony in the usage of the term is slightly irritating.

Emotional is the new epic. Dump your spiccato, break out the flatulando. BRAAAM is yesterday, YAAWN is tomorrow.


----------



## CT (Oct 6, 2020)

Only if we also ban epic, analog warmth (etc.), next-generation, deep sampling....


----------



## SupremeFist (Oct 6, 2020)

One of the most emotionally complex and enriching pieces I know is the Shostakovich Sonata for Cello and Piano, but that would never be included on an "emotional" Spotify playlist. :(


----------



## FinGael (Oct 6, 2020)

SupremeFist said:


> Can we please stop using the word "emotional" to describe certain music? I get emotional over all kinds of pieces for all kinds of reasons. I hate the way "emotional" has become a music keyword for simplistic kitsch romanticism or whatever. Who's with me?



Probably getting hated but I'm with ya on this one. Shrinking the word to mean only that one particular style of music, sounds to me pretty much as stupid as naming some style or genre as "Beautiful Music".


----------



## SupremeFist (Oct 6, 2020)

Mike T said:


> Only if we also ban epic, analog warmth (etc.), next-generation, deep sampling....


Well the first two at least make more sense sense to me and the last has some kind of objective technical implication...


----------



## CT (Oct 6, 2020)

SupremeFist said:


> Well the first two at least make more sense sense to me and the last has some kind of objective technical implication...



What's not objective about "The Most Epic Emotional Beautiful Heartwarming Music In The World?"


----------



## YaniDee (Oct 6, 2020)

How about the 100+ genres of 'EDM"? Every week there's a new one (change one bar of the hi hat part, and you have a new style!)..They used to just call it "dance music"





__





List of electronic music genres - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org


----------



## Henrik B. Jensen (Oct 6, 2020)

No need to get emotional about it!


----------



## MGdepp (Oct 6, 2020)

This will go to the Emotional Zone of the forum, soon ...


----------



## patrick76 (Oct 6, 2020)

I remember in the old days we called this music, "emo". Now we have to spell out the entire word "emotional" AND it is describing a different style of music! Plus, I think I missed the bandwagon and it is already probably too late to try to cash in on this trend.


----------



## Jaap (Oct 6, 2020)

Means I can't keep my my Emotional Avantgarde Cyber Classical Jazz Flute list?


----------



## Jaap (Oct 6, 2020)

SupremeFist said:


> One of the most emotionally complex and enriching pieces I know is the Shostakovich Sonata for Cello and Piano, but that would never be included on an "emotional" Spotify playlist. :(



Oh thank you for reminding me again about this piece. Been far too long since I heard that!


----------



## JohnG (Oct 6, 2020)

Jaap said:


> Means I can't keep my my Emotional Avantgarde Cyber Classical Jazz Flute list?



No, you can't. I'm surprised you even asked.


----------



## Consona (Oct 6, 2020)

SupremeFist said:


> Can we please stop using the word "emotional" to describe certain music? I get emotional over all kinds of pieces for all kinds of reasons. I hate the way "emotional" has become a music keyword for simplistic kitsch romanticism or whatever. Who's with me?


Totally!

I always laugh so much when a youtube video has that EPIC EMOTIONAL MUSIC title, and it's just loud and boring.


----------



## shponglefan (Oct 6, 2020)

YaniDee said:


> How about the 100+ genres of 'EDM"? Every week there's a new one (change one bar of the hi hat part, and you have a new style!)..They used to just call it "dance music"



In fairness electronic music isn't the only kind of music with that issue. Have you seen all the genres of rock music?  





__





List of rock genres - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org


----------



## Bluemount Score (Oct 6, 2020)

Can we please ban all _Next Generations_ and_ New Chapters_?


----------



## JLKooistra (Oct 6, 2020)

Au contraire! Let everyone abuse, misuse, trivialize the description "emotional music" as much as they'd like, let 'them' have it. (I'm all for abusing stuff myself every so often) 
Counter petition: from now on, we'll use "evocative music"!


----------



## easyrider (Oct 6, 2020)




----------



## Reid Rosefelt (Oct 6, 2020)

But what will I play with Emotional Violin?


----------



## ptram (Oct 6, 2020)

Guys, let's discuss about this topic – but please don't become over-emotional!

Paolo


----------



## Greg (Oct 6, 2020)

Lol I know what you mean but if you saw what ranking in the top or near top of google / youtube for those keywords does to your channel you would understand the obsession.


----------



## gsilbers (Oct 6, 2020)

Emotional Epic Strings (EES)

coming soon... 

With 27 Emotional articualtions


----------



## Kony (Oct 6, 2020)

So what term would people use instead of "epic emotional" to make the distinction that a track's not "epic bombastic"?


----------



## Living Fossil (Oct 6, 2020)

TigerTheFrog said:


> But what will I play with Emotional Violin?



Whatever you play, don't quantise it. You want to keep the emotions authentic.


----------



## dflood (Oct 6, 2020)

Mike T said:


> What's not objective about "The Most Epic Emotional Beautiful Heartwarming Music In The World?"


Don’t forget Cinematic


----------



## jononotbono (Oct 6, 2020)

It should be shortened to Emo.

"Whoh, Dude! Have you checked out Emo Strings yet? They made me cry and I haven't even got to school yet!"


----------



## tf-drone (Oct 6, 2020)

Hope they will do the Emo Screams as well (I want to do a Diamanda Galas mockup).

And, when I listened to a bad a kitschy new age thingy today, I thought 'What a emotionally unemotional recorded emotional crap', with nauseous emotion of course.


----------



## Marsen (Oct 6, 2020)

Emotional...on the edge of epic...preorder now if you can hold the tears...


----------



## MSutherlandComp (Oct 6, 2020)

I’m willing to bet that it’s at least partially due to people key-wording every library track as “epic emotional such-and-such”. It gets hits!


----------



## dpasdernick (Oct 6, 2020)

Simply replace the word Emotional with the word Horny.

For instance "Horny Strings", "Horny Orchestra", or my personal fav "Horny Drummer"

Problem solved.


----------



## chimuelo (Oct 6, 2020)

Took years to get rid of developers calling every instrument Ultimate.
Emotional can stay a little longer on the condition we agree to not bring back Ultimate.


----------



## BlackDorito (Oct 6, 2020)

Jimmy Hellfire said:


> Emotional is the new epic. Dump your spiccato, break out the flatulando. BRAAAM is yesterday, YAAWN is tomorrow.


... and flatulando is how I felt after the baked beans tonight. 

The term 'emotional' can mean just about anything. Back in the day, the term 'absolute' music was used to refer to the Classical period, and the implication was that there was subdued emotion (not true). The Romantic period was supposed to be the emotional period, with ladies throwing themselves at the feet of Lizst and Paganini. But every form of music causes an affective (emotional) response in humans.


----------



## CT (Oct 6, 2020)

dpasdernick said:


> Simply replace the word Emotional with the word Horny.
> 
> For instance "Horny Strings", "Horny Orchestra", or my personal fav "Horny Drummer"
> 
> Problem solved.



Who leaked the titles of my upcoming libraries?


----------



## Rasoul Morteza (Oct 6, 2020)

Frankly artists should be banned from using adjectives altogether! Haven't you heard them saying avant-garde 20 times in a paragraph?


----------



## bill5 (Oct 6, 2020)

I guess I lead a sheltered life, never notice "emotional" being over-used. Or maybe it's that I work in corporate America and have become used to idiotic trendy catch phrases that are beat to death and annoying as hell.


----------



## gyprock (Oct 6, 2020)

What we should ban are the lame improvised examples, usually emotional, when a YouTuber is demonstrating a new sample library and decide to meander over the keyboard for just a little too long instead of just moving to the next patch. Culprit patches are usually cello or French horn. I’ve often thought of creating a playlist of the worst improvised segments from the previous year.


----------



## Fredeke (Oct 7, 2020)

I submit "cheesy"


----------



## FinGael (Oct 7, 2020)

dpasdernick said:


> Simply replace the word Emotional with the word Horny.
> 
> For instance "Horny Strings", "Horny Orchestra", or my personal fav "Horny Drummer"
> 
> Problem solved.


Horny Horns? (And Ho Ho Ho(ly) Christmas Edition)


----------



## CGR (Oct 8, 2020)

How about "Impassive Strings" or "Impassive Piano" . . .


----------



## CGR (Oct 8, 2020)

Here's an example of Emotional vs Impassive music, from the great Dudley Moore & Peter Cook:


----------



## TGV (Oct 8, 2020)

Let's start using a new word instead. I propose "cinemotional", as in "Great Introductory Offer on these High Resolution Legato Cinemotional Bass Flute samples".


----------



## Polkasound (Oct 8, 2020)

Fredeke said:


> I submit "cheesy"



Absolutely not. That adjective is essential to my line of music.


----------



## Saxer (Oct 8, 2020)

SupremeFist said:


> Can we please stop using the word "emotional" to describe certain music? I get emotional over all kinds of pieces for all kinds of reasons. I hate the way "emotional" has become a music keyword for simplistic kitsch romanticism or whatever. Who's with me?


Damn! I just used it in another thread before reading this!


----------



## cqd (Oct 8, 2020)

People just shouldn't describe their own art just generally..
The whole "I wanted to capture the experience if looking out my window depressed on a rainy saturday.."
Feck off..
Leave it up to whoever hears it..


----------



## Fredeke (Oct 8, 2020)

chimuelo said:


> Took years to get rid of developers calling every instrument Ultimate.
> Emotional can stay a little longer on the condition we agree to not bring back Ultimate.


We'll get there ultimately.



cqd said:


> People just shouldn't describe their own art just generally..
> The whole "I wanted to capture the experience if looking out my window depressed on a rainy saturday.."
> Feck off..
> Leave it up to whoever hears it..


I agree. I suck at tagging my own music for genre. (I don't even like coming up with titles.)


----------



## Romy Schmidt (Oct 8, 2020)

Synonyms


----------



## Lionel Schmitt (Oct 8, 2020)

Nope.
I find it to be pretty descriptive, in production music at least. Maybe it's more abused elsewhere.
Generally the title of the piece or cover of the album or additions like epic emotional, emotional underscore etc should give additional clues about what kind of emotional we're talking about.


----------



## Saxer (Oct 8, 2020)

dpasdernick said:


> For instance "Horny Strings", "Horny Orchestra", or my personal fav "Horny Drummer"


I like that. I want a full orchestra with "Stringy Horns", "Drummy Woodwinds", "Windy Drums" and "Horny Strings".


----------



## givemenoughrope (Oct 8, 2020)

But if the samples aren't just dripping with (Dr. Evil air quotes) "Emow-shun" then how will I delude myself into thinking that I somehow imbued them with any musical intention?


----------



## Fredeke (Oct 12, 2020)

Romy Schmidt said:


> Synonyms


I second _hysterical_.


----------



## ag75 (Oct 18, 2020)

Thank you for bringing this up. I role my eyes every time someone asked for an “emotional” this or that. 🤦🏻‍♂️


----------



## Robert_G (Oct 19, 2020)

I wonder if Harmonic Subtones should rename their 'Emotional Solo Strings' series....lol. 
If they removed the word 'emotional', they would be left with just 'cello' 'voila' and 'violin'. That's boring.

Who cares if someone uses descriptive words for their music....


----------



## Fredeke (Oct 19, 2020)

Has anyone ever named a library '_casual _something' ?
I would love to hear some casual strings, for a change.


----------

