Raucousness In Music

[Hornbein]

Possibly the single most important thing in the (subjective) evaluation of music is raucousness. I've noticed that most people will listen either only to raucous music or only to non-raucous music. The two groups don't overlap much. Death metal is the most raucous, easy listening (do they still call it that?) with lush strings the least.

It's possible to add or subtract some of the raucousness from music. It centers around 1000 Hertz. Reduce that and what one hears is less raucous, boost for more. This effect is limited but there.

European classical music is non-raucous, with the exception of some violin soloists or Penderecki symphonies.

 

[BWV]

Why is death metal ‘raucous’ and classical music not? Most death metal is very precise music that requires real musicianship to play and the overall aesthetic of metal is not dissimilar to a broad swathe of classical music. Or are you defining the term by the amount of upper partials in the tones- ie distorted electric guitar has a lot, a flute has almost none?

 

[Hornbein]

are you defining the term by the amount of upper partials in the tones- ie distorted electric guitar has a lot, a flute has almost none?

Yes that's it. Tone. Rough tone vs. smooth tone. A highly distorted electric guitar overlaid with screaming is about as raucous as you can get. Kazoos are raucous. Note that Adolf Sax's instruments when used by classical musicians yield a smooth tone, while jazzers are often raucous, Paul Desmond notwithstanding.

Extremely trebly sounds such as The Beatles' use of guitars are raucous.



Are punishingly loud drums raucous? Recently I attended a concert where the bass drum was so loud it was like getting pummeled in the chest. I had gone to considerable lengths to be there but nevertheless left after one number and listened from the lobby shielded by a thick wall. It wasn't much good but it was better than nothing. At the end of the concert there were eleven others doing the same thing. But most must have found it OK because they were still in there cheering loudly. Well I guess not raucous. But who cares anyway.

 

[Hornbein]

I'd say the four most important factors in personal preference in music are raucous vs. smooth, harmony vs. dissonance, tempo, and major vs. minor. Almost everyone prefers harmony over dissonance so we can set that aside. Then we can partition music listeners into eight groups. Viet Nam prefers smooth minor key ballads almost exclusively. Japan is the opposite : raucous fast major key is popular. Subsaharan Africa, smooth major fast. China, smooth major ballads. Black Sabbath and AC/DC fans : slow raucous minor. The Offspring : fast raucous minor. Can't think of anything that's smooth minor fast.

There are a number of famous artists who cover most of these bases during their careers.

 

[DaveC426913]

Well now I want an app that will tell me what category I fall into, just by saying yea or nay to a list of music.

I have always wondered what the connections are between the disparate kinds of music I like. Something about chord/key changes, and something about contrast - I do love a good bridge.

I asked Spotify for my yearly preferences by genre, but it does seem to kind of make up fanciful super-niche genres.

So instead, I did it manually:

 

[BWV]

I'd say the four most important factors in personal preference in music are raucous vs. smooth, harmony vs. dissonance, tempo, and major vs. minor. Almost everyone prefers harmony over dissonance so we can set that aside. Then we can partition music listeners into eight groups. Viet Nam prefers smooth minor key ballads almost exclusively. Japan is the opposite : raucous fast major key is popular. Subsaharan Africa, smooth major fast. China, smooth major ballads. Black Sabbath and AC/DC fans : slow raucous minor. The Offspring : fast raucous minor. Can't think of anything that's smooth minor fast.

There are a number of famous artists who cover most of these bases during their careers.

Sakura is minor, so how can you generalize about Japan being major? A shakuhachi racous? Is gagaku 'racous'? dissonant? sounds that way to Western ears

 

[pinball1970]

Stravinsky, Rite of Spring 1913

He goes raucous @ 4.05 but the build up is nice.

 

[pinball1970]

The best artists creatively speaking can do both styles, if they are styles.

McCartney being a great example.

Listen to "Ram on" then "Monk berry Moon delight," same album.

 

[Hornbein]

Sakura is minor, so how can you generalize about Japan being major? A shakuhachi racous? Is gagaku 'racous'? dissonant? sounds that way to Western ears

Oh come on. Surely I don't mean to imply that EVERYTHING in Japan is this way. Not even that a majority of their music is fast, major and raucous. Merely that it is more this way than are other nations. It's a strong tendency.

Indeed the national anthem of Japan is slow, minor, and smooth. But it isn't popular there.

 

[BWV]

Oh come on. Surely I don't mean to imply that EVERYTHING in Japan is this way.

Right so the whole generalization is meaningless. None of your terms are well defined or have much of a musicological basis.

 

[Hornbein]

Right so the whole generalization is meaningless. None of your terms are well defined or have much of a musicological basis.

This isn't mathematics. All terms in music and the arts are loosely defined. If you don't want to play this game, please don't hang around and throw mud.

 

[BWV]

This isn't mathematics. All terms in music and the arts are loosely defined. If you don't want to play this game, please don't hang around and throw mud.

Is this a game, or amateur musicology? Your OP certainly had the tone of the latter 'The single most important thing in music is <some ill-defined term you made up>' There is a real discipline and tradition to doing what you are attempting

 

[Hornbein]

Is this a game, or amateur musicology? Your OP certainly had the tone of the latter 'The single most important thing in music is <some ill-defined term you made up>' There is a real discipline and tradition to doing what you are attempting

I am not going to continue this squabble.

 

[Ahmad10]

Interesting point! I agree that raucousness really shapes musical taste—people often stick to either intense, aggressive music like death metal or softer, non-raucous styles like classical. The note about the 1,000 Hz range is fascinating, too; it shows how perception of harshness can be influenced by frequency, not just genre.

 

[Hornbein]

Interesting point! I agree that raucousness really shapes musical taste—people often stick to either intense, aggressive music like death metal or softer, non-raucous styles like classical. The note about the 1,000 Hz range is fascinating, too; it shows how perception of harshness can be influenced by frequency, not just genre.

Yes I was surprised to find that such a simple thing has a big effect. I haven't any explanation.

I somewhat miss the old days when stereos all had treble and bass knobs. Amateur live recordings are often grossly unbalanced but worth saving. Today I download the music, load it into a program, adjust the parameters, and save the result. If you haven't done it before it isn't that easy, though it does have the advantage it need only be done once. This inspired me to check my playback app and by gum it has a graphic equalizer. I loathe such things, won't use them. I used to have access to a recording studio and thought they always made everything sound worse, though that was long long ago and maybe digital is better. But the filters interact, and you can only get a bumpy boost or cut with them.

While I'm at it my pet peeve with current rock recordings is that the cymbals are almost completely mixed out, so much so that it can be difficult to recover them. That's half of the drum kit! Gotta have that crash and sizzle. It's exciting. When boosting cymbals I sometimes get a very high 10,000Hz click at random intervals (not at all periodic). I thought it was a glitch but it has shown up on completely unrelated recordings.