Summary:
Chapter 16 wraps up the musical side of the discussion with a short review of the road just traveled. It begins with a brief exploration of what is means to define your “musical genotype”—the music you love: how many songs constitutes a reasonable gauge of your musical taste? Various theories are presented, with weight here given to the number of “thumbs-up” songs by an average active Pandora user: around 500. At the same time, the importance of listening context is underscored in any attempts to frame our musical taste—where a “hit” song in the morning may be a “flop” at night, for example. The chapter concludes by acknowledging the limited extrapolation possible from any small sampling of music—such as the thirty-five “hit” songs discussed in Chapters 9-15; at the same time, the author defends the manner in which all of the music discussed in the book can serve to help elucidate the nature and the potential of our own musical taste.
Supplements:
( More on Audio-Technica’s claims on our music listening consumption—see also n. 764 ):
As the press report states: “The music company’s research, which questioned more than 1,000 people, identified that the majority of people in the UK actively listen to four-hours of music a day, which equates to more than 60 days per year.” As seen from other such citations in this book, estimates for music listening consumption vary.
Principal Bibliography:
Gene Weingarten, “Pearls Before Breakfast: Can One of the Nation’s Great Musicians Cut through the Fog of a D.C. Rush Hour? Let’s Find Out,” Washington Post , April 8, 2007
External Links: