{"id":173,"date":"2006-10-20T08:29:48","date_gmt":"2006-10-20T08:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2006\/10\/20\/try-something-new\/"},"modified":"2006-10-20T10:41:59","modified_gmt":"2006-10-20T10:41:59","slug":"try-something-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2006\/10\/20\/try-something-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Try something new"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">I was just writing this morning in another venue about the rewards of learning to love music you hate. I believe any great work of art has to have aspects which get under our skin, which frustrate us, which piss us off. That\u2019s part of the difference between entertainment and art- art gives pleasure (even more so than entertainment), but it also confuses us, annoys us, surprises us. That is part of how it digs its way inside you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\" \/><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Anyway, the tragic side effect is that, depending on our individual backgrounds, all of us have works where we can\u2019t get past the things that annoy us, even though they are strengths of the piece and not failings. I know it\u2019s the nature of our times to just say that we\u2019re all entitled to our opinions, and so on. The point is not that you <em>have <\/em>to like Messiaen or Bellini or Coltrane or Schoenberg or CPE Bach or whatever it is you hate, or everyone else will think you\u2019re an idiot. You may well learn to love them, and we\u2019ll still think you\u2019re an idiot <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\">J<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\" \/><span lang=\"EN-GB\">No, the point is that when one finally gets something new, it is one of those moments when your whole life gets better. Why are we so resistant to finding ways to understand and love art which initially confounds us?<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\">So- I\u2019m proposing a great movement!<\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Why not designate February 2007 as World Learn-to-Love-Something-You-Hate Month. Try Something New Month? \u00a0Here\u2019s the deal- partner up with someone you really respect but with whom you don\u2019t always agree. Take turns. You each have the chance to guide each other to an epiphany- just try to be open minded and don\u2019t be an ass. Pick things you really don\u2019t like, but that probably do have some merit. If you only like classical music, see if you can swap with a jazzer or a world-music nut.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" \/><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Can you persuade a friend to love Webern if the price is listening to <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Adams<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\"> for a week? Do you know anyone who will spend a week listening to Wagner airchecks in exchange for you going to a Japanese drumming concert?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\" \/><span lang=\"EN-GB\">You can go to shows, you can send youtube links, you just argue. You may reach agreement only after consuming large amounts of alcohol late at night while watching a video for the 20<sup>th<\/sup> time, or you may never agree.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\" \/><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Maybe we should challenge everyone in the blogosphere to list four kinds of music, pieces or composers they hate and see who offers to help you get it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\" \/><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Okay- I\u2019m not usually Mr. Follow-through, but the idea is out there.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2006\/10\/20\/try-something-new\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"box_count\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was just writing this morning in another venue about the rewards of learning to love music you hate. I believe any great work of art has to have aspects which get under our skin, which frustrate us, which piss us off. That\u2019s part of the difference between entertainment and art- art gives pleasure (even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-opion-life-as-a-performing-musician"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}