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Comment by vjulian | Hacker News Reader

In the US, it seems to me that active listening is not encouraged, outside of music study. I find it odd that the average person can watch a movie and subsequently analyze it in a basic framework of plot, arc, protagonist and so forth—-yet when it comes to music there is ignorance and a lack of vocabulary.

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I'm not sure if the average person has the patience to sit through an entire movie anymore either, and not just in the US. Smartphones and social media have shortened our attention spans by making us crave for quick dopamine hits. I used to be able to watch an entire movie uninterrupted, whereas now if the movie is not engaging, I tend to reach for my phone.

Music enjoyment has also taken a back seat, and I usually put it on in the background while I'm focusing on something else, instead of actively listening to it. I think the shift from music being released as part of thematic albums on physical media to individual tracks on online services is part of the reason for this. The average music listener just hits shuffle on a random playlist rather than focusing on a specific band, album or even genre.

I would like to see Quentin Tarantino take on current-day issues. Who else is making movies worth watching any more besides Martin Scorsese? All the good movies have been made. Forbidden Planet was based on Shakespeare and it still shines. Generative AI tools show that it comes down to plots. I watched that Star Wars as a 1950s Panavision sci-fi at least a dozen times.

Martin Scorsese makes the same movie over and over.

Education in the US has devolved to the point where music appreciation is only taught in the most prestigious of private primary and secondary schools, and perhaps in the public schools of wealthy neighborhoods.

I’d like to find out what you think is really the problem. Do you believe inner-city schools aren’t funded enough to sit kids down and make them listen to Bach? Do you think kids in the rough parts of Milwaukee are just waiting for a bright-eyed teacher to play the right tape for the class? Every one of those kids has access to YouTube. Spotify is free. It isn’t the 1980s anymore, and “lack of access” isn’t why some groups like classical while others prefer drill music. Universal global access to high art and the tools of cultural creation have dispelled a great many blank-slate myths.

dunno if vocabulary and theory background actually is useful for appreciation/experience

btw, i'm still waiting an EDM club/rave with non damaging volume levels where no one is allowed to talk on the dance-floor

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