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Anecdotal but I feels as if that goes against standard chord progression, keys, and almost all EDM.

Blues has a fairly strict formula in which most songs follow. Most songs are in 4/4, and most modern music sounds fairly similar yet people are really into it.



Aren't those patterns and structures just there to avoid the cognitive overload, while we're entertained by lesser variations?

(BTW, I believe we're overly simplifying by speaking of music as a single entity. All of the elements you mentioned are a foundation in more popular music, but good luck finding them in more modern or experimental genres.)

The cognitive effort to digest Schoenberg is different from that for a pop song. Still, you can progressively familiarize yourself with a genre, and relax on pieces that seemed hard and inaccessible earlier.


> Still, you can progressively familiarize yourself with a genre, and relax on pieces that seemed hard and inaccessible earlier.

Yes, as a passionate music collector and someone that can get lost in weird, obscure and very leftfield music, this is something I notice all the time. You start with something accessible only to find yourself enjoying obscure 70s synth funk recorded on tape in someone's bedroom months/years later. Or similar.

It's why we recommend "Kind of blue" whenever someone wants to get into Jazz, which is difficult if you just randomly start...anywhere.


There's far more to musical creativity than chord sequences and time signatures. Blues is made interesting by the musical ability of the performers.


it's almost mystifying to me at this point that not everyone's on board with this idea. most of what i care about musically is captured poorly by the traditional notation of western classical music.


Only people who have never made music think in that way.


Many electronic music producers (including myself) share a similar sentiment. There's a lot to a carefully produced song that can't be fully encompassed by sheet music.


Well, I have made music, and I think in that way.

The mere score of a blue piece is just as good as useless for conveying the power of a particular blues performance for example.


The notation is just a model, an imperfect one (as all models are). That's been the case since Bach, if not earlier.


> Somewhere in between is novelty

Most 12-bar blues use a similar chord progression but have different melodies. Even the same song performed by two different musicians will sound different enough to be perceived as "novel".


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It is, but that's not really contributing anything here, unless you're saying that diatonic scales and popular chord progressions are also shit.




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