Ok, I know this has been doing the rounds, but I need to post this up here just in case you've missed it. Some guys in the 90's did some crowdsourcing of their own - they asked people to describe their kinds of music they hated the most, and what they comprised of. And then they wrote some music that fitted this description. Lifted quote alert: The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and "elevator" music, and a children's choir sings jingles and holiday songs. The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commercials and elevator music. Therefore, it can be shown that if there is no covariance--someone who dislikes bagpipes is as likely to hate elevator music as someone who despises the organ, for example--fewer than 200 individuals of the world's total population would enjoy this piece. So in a way this is an early version of crowdsourcing and just goes to show that it's not the data itself that's important, but what you do with it. What is great about the piece is that it is DEFINITELY unique, wheras the song these guys wrote based on what is POPULAR was very dreary indeed. KomarMelamid_The-Most-UnwantedSong.mp3 Is it genius, or is it crap? Who knows, but it made me laugh till my eyes bled. I wonder what an up-to-date version of the most hated music in the world would be like? Hmm I feel a side project coming on...
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed