# Generic classical music?



## Kajmanen (Jun 30, 2017)

There isn't a single genre of music that doesnt suffer from this in my opinon. But why is it that so much of an artists/composers/genre falls into the generic group? There's so much music that sounds like other music, in some cases great music, but doesn't have any charachter or identity of its own ie generic.

Why is there so much genereic music out there and what in your opinion is something generic classical music?


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Good point you make. Well, it is a bit generic; but it's still a good point. 
And I think this will continue as long as people continue to have generic ears to listen to music with. And generic fingers and mouths to play it with. On generic instruments. Produced by generic record companies or in generic concert halls or auditoriums. Or out on the generic street, for that matter.
Face it! We live in a generic world on a generic planet -- Generic Earth, for God's sake! -- so what do you expect? Something non-generic? It ain't happenin', Mack.
And that's all I have to say.
Hope I wasn't too generic.


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## BabyGiraffe (Feb 24, 2017)

Traditions, culture, avaliable instruments, aesthetics...
Anyone with good ear and some music theory knowledge can imitate any composer from any era.


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

Kajmanen said:


> what in your opinion is something generic classical music?


what is generic here being that of video games' you recently started a topic dedicated to.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Then there are your generic "seen 'em before" iconoclasts, rebels, revolutionaries, one-of-a-kind types. All the same.


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## Kajmanen (Jun 30, 2017)

Zhdanov said:


> what is generic here being that of video games' you recently started a topic dedicated to.


Yeah, alot of video games are generic, aswell as alot of classical music, food, cars etc.


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

Kajmanen said:


> There isn't a single genre of music that doesnt suffer from this in my opinon. But why is it that so much of an artists/composers/genre falls into the generic group? There's so much music that sounds like other music, in some cases great music, but doesn't have any charachter or identity of its own ie generic.
> 
> Why is there so much genereic music out there and what in your opinion is something generic classical music?


I am going to deny the premise here. I think the closer one gets to the music the less generic it sounds and the more a particular piece is placed in a particular time or particular genre or particular composer. Its almost like you have to listen a lot to build the mental book shelves and cubby holes which later will be used to carefully place each listening experience.

So for example, one can hear a lot of string quartets and either like them, or not, but not really hear them. But with time you start to unravel that "generic" thing, and you can hear that this is likely Haydn early on before his innovations in obbligato accompaniment, and so on.

It is a lot like watching a professional sport you are not into. Like say NASCAR. I can almost hear you saying "so what, a bunch of cars go around in a circle, make a lot of noise, sometimes crack up into fireballs. Kind of the same old same old." Now talk to a NASCAR fan, who knows about the drivers, knows about the cars, knows about racing strategy on and off the track, knows the history, listen to such a person talk and the sport is anything but generic.

So my answer would be that every piece of music (classical or not) that I find "generic" is because its something I am not familiar enough with and don't have the mental cubby holes made yet.

I am sure you know and appreciate the details of the game music you have shared in other threads, and find it anything but generic. Where, to be honest, I poked around at a lot of youtubes, and found it overwhelmingly generic. The only distinction I could find, really, was that in some cases the sounds were totally synthetic and in other cases the music seemed to be performed by real instruments.

I am really into traditional Irish fiddle tunes, which my father always called "all that yiddle on the fiddle stuff".

I hope this helps.


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## Vox Gabrieli (Jan 9, 2017)

Name two popular classical composers that sound alike and why you would possibly believe that. Once you give five examples I will proceed to tear those opinions apart.

If you can't bother creating good threads with lasting topics following our universal logic and reason, then stave off the itchy tendencies to say things other may consider dumb or offending out of complete spite.


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

Kajmanen said:


> Yeah, alot of video games are generic, aswell as alot of classical music


well, here's a example of generic classical -






- still a lot better than any games music.


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

Gabriel Ortiz said:


> If you can't bother creating good threads with lasting topics following our universal logic and reason, then stave off the itchy tendencies to say things other may consider dumb or offending out of complete spite.


Don't attribute to malice what might better be explained by lack of experience. Well I might be wrong, but its a more helpful place to start.


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## Kajmanen (Jun 30, 2017)

Zhdanov said:


> well, here's a example of generic classical -
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yeah, thats an excellent examle of generic classical. No charachter whatsover. And no, its not better than any game music. You havnt heard all game music and if you had you'd still be biased against it.

Yawn. Bye.


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

Kajmanen said:


> thats an excellent examle of generic classical. No charachter whatsover.


quite the contrary, its got character in abundance, just lacks novelty.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Zhdanov said:


> quite the contrary, its got character in abundance, just lacks novelty.


You want novelty? 

You must pump out a lot of show tunes then right? :lol:


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

ST4 said:


> You want novelty?


no, i personally don't, but what made you think i do?


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

Kajmanen said:


> Yeah, thats an excellent examle of generic classical. No charachter whatsover. And no, its not better than any game music. You havnt heard all game music and if you had you'd still be biased against it.


Look, folks have been trying to meet you half way. Well I have anyway.

Do you not see that I could, with as much justification, say exactly the opposite. We disagree due to differing experience. Like I said I have listened to a lot of game music youtubes, since you started posting, and, I have yet to find anything that appeals to me.

This Duneyevksy piece would not be my favorite, but its got everything on any game music, IMO.

It is almost impossible to be objective comparing something one is intimately familiar with to stuff one is just getting into. Just no way.


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Why is everyone turning against this poster just because he made a couple of posts about video game music? It seems to me that those posts were actually driven by a genuine curiosity to hear TC's thoughts.

All I can say to Kajmanen is that you seem to be struggling a little with classical and need to listen to the major canonical works with fresh ears and maybe it will click. If it doesn't and it still seems generic and you _still_ think video game music is far superior... then... well... 

In the meantime, could everyone please stop this strange vitriol against the poster who isn't attacking anyone and is merely asking a question.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

There's an enormous amount of "generic " music from every period . In the Baroque era , there are such giants as Bach and Handel, but an enormous amount of ho hum sewing machine works by their lesser contemporaries . I know Vivaldi fans will be furious, but his music has always sounded very generic to me . He has a distinctive voice of his own, but as Stravinsky supposedly said, he didn't write 500 concertos. He wrote the same concerto 500 times . I know this is an exaggeration , but I wouldn't rank Vivaldi with either Handel or Bach . There are also some pretty god works by other Baroque composers such as Telemann and others .
It's the same in the classical period . Haydn ,Mozart and Beethoven are the giants of this period .
Whether Beethoven is a Romantic composer or not is a controversial issue , but his music is certainly firmly grounded in the tradition of Mozart and Haydn .
There were also many contemporaries of theirs who wrote generic classical period music . Tons of them. But Salieri is actually a much better composer than he is often given credit for being .
There's also tons of generic music in the 19th and 20th centuries . A lot of music by composers of 
last 50 years or so sounds like generic movie music . The kind of stuff which might be okay for adventure or horror movies , but not something that's interesting on its own . Of course, there's absolutely nothing wrong with first rate music by quality composers for films .


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