Thanks especially to CSchlegel. Very insightful. This is exactly what I needed, different perspectives from an array of people educated in the theory.
This especially caught my attention the most:
Originally Posted by: CSchlegelMusic does not contain emotion. Music is highly, specifically organized sound moving through the air.
Music can evoke an emotional reaction in your mind.[/QUOTE]
Its so obvious yet I never thought of it that way. Which leads me to this:
[QUOTE=CSchlegel]You "can't stand it". That is an emotional reaction. You see? :)
Further, any piece of music can be analyzed by the principles of music theory. It sounds to me like you simply dislike certain types of complexity in music.
Like you said, music envokes emotion; music itself does not "contain" emotion. So yes, whenever I would hear music from very skilled musicians and the music didnt "turn me on" sort to say emotionally, I dubbed it "artificial sounding" and was blaming music theory because of it. When the music just simply isnt for me.
At the same time, I enjoy plenty of artist who probably do benefit from music theory knowledge, they just use it in the way that does "turn me on" emotionally i guess. I happen to love Jason Becker, one of my favs. And my main love in "genres" typically is progressive or classical based; A lot of those artist are probably very aware of theory...
So yes, I was blaming music theory for music I didnt like, which doesnt make a whole lot of sense : p
I would call Vai and Satriani the guitarist doped up on music theory, when its just their style that I simply dont like (Vai's "now we run" truly makes me want to vomit, sorry!).
Thanks everyone once again for all the insight.
