In TM’s Atelier – Episode 9: Weird Music
Perhaps this should have been the very first story in this series.
The comments I often receive from listeners are:
Intriguing, Weird, Strange, Zany...
(all of which, in one way or another, mean “weird”).
I’m aware that FMT’s music sounds weird,
but the real question is what “weird” actually means.
Something is called weird only because there’s an assumed mainstream beside it.
Since what we do often departs from that mainstream,
our music ends up sounding “weird.”
What is “good music”?
For many people who say they like music — but not passionately —
“good music” usually means familiar music.
From what I’ve seen, at least 70 percent of listeners, conservatively,
call something “good” because they’ve heard something like it before.
In other words, it’s empirical thinking.
So a weird piece simply becomes “bad music”
because it’s not what they’re used to hearing.
Take rock music, for example.
It has its own unique appeal.
But many who say they “want to play rock”
really mean they want to recreate the rock that already exists.
As a result, the wide field that once defined rock
has gradually narrowed —
until only “typical rock” remains.
Sure, some try new things,
but hasn’t that range also shrunk to mere textural variation?
If there are musicians still escaping that, I’m genuinely happy.
A music producer once told a group of young artists:
“Don’t make the music you love. Make the music that sells.
To do that, study what has already sold.”
Maybe that’s why so much music today sounds averaged out,
flattened into the middle ground.
And if that’s not true, I’d be delighted.
The weird among the weird
Those who equate “good music” with “familiar music”
probably don’t know the mainstream of weirdness itself.
Take so-called contemporary music.
For those unfamiliar with it,
you could roughly describe it as the kind of sound you hear in horror films.
And nine times out of ten,
it assumes that “dark and scary” equals “artistic.”
It rarely creates any inner desire to listen again.
Worse, nine times out of ten,
it claims to “question what art is,”
but never actually offers anything in return.
Asking questions is fine —
but too often, it just destroys without presenting.
That’s something all too common in 20th-century music.
Writing dark, frightening music is easy.
What I mean to say
is that FMT’s music, at least, tries to offer something.
We try not to follow today’s conventions blindly,
but neither do we follow the mainstream of weirdness.
And we don’t want to be satisfied merely by breaking what exists.
So yes — FMT’s music is weird.
But make no mistake:
it’s weird even among the weird. (laughs)
We aim for sounds that are beautiful without tonality,
and for something compelling
even when it’s unfamiliar.
To be continued
n TM’s Atelier –
Episode 1: Composition Atelier
Episode 2: Geometry on Five Lines
Episode 3: When the Concept Ignites
Episode 4: Everything Begins with the Colour Red
Episode 5: A Journey of Creation and Self-Discovery
Episode 6: What’s Missing in the Age of Marketing Music
Episode 7: Is Listening to Someone Else's Emotions Really That Interesting?
Episode 8: Composer’s Cut on "Le Rêve Restauré"
Episode 9: Weird Music
Comments