Back in 1997, Russian artists,
Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid, along with composer David Soldier, created 2 pieces of music, based on poll results indicating what listeners most and least wanted to hear. These songs were released on a CD called,
The People's Choice Music.
The Most Unwanted Song should be liked, statistically speaking, by fewer than 200 people in the world, and was described by the composer thusly:
"The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and “elevator” music, and a children's choir sings jingles and holiday songs. The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commericals and elevator music."
It's counterpart, The Most Wanted Song, is described by Soldier as follows:
"The most favored ensemble...comprises a moderately sized group (three to ten instruments) consisting of guitar, piano, saxophone, bass, drums, violin, cello, synthesizer, with low male and female vocals singing in rock/r&b style. The favorite lyrics narrate a love story, and the favorite listening circumstance is at home. The only feature in lyric subjects that occurs in both most wanted and unwanted categories is “intellectual stimulation.” Most participants desire music of moderate duration (approximately 5 minutes), moderate pitch range, moderate tempo, and moderate to loud volume, and display a profound dislike of the alternatives. If the survey provides an accurate analysis of these factors for the population, and assuming that the preference for each factor follows a Gaussian (i.e. bell-curve) distribution, the combination of these qualities, even to the point of sensory overload and stylistic discohesion, will result in a musical work that will be unavoidably and uncontrollably “liked” by 72 plus or minus 12% (standard deviation; Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic) of listeners."
Somewhat surprisingly, I found the "bad" song to be far more interesting and listenable, which probably says a lot more about me than it does the song.
You can listen to both at the following links and decide for yourself:
[Link: The Most Unwanted Music]
[Link: The Most Wanted Music]
Speaking of Cool and Strange Music, my former editor, Dana Countryman, just sent me a link to the video from his latest collaboration with electropop pioneer, Jean Jacques Perrey, "Funky Little Spacegirl", from their latest album, "Destination Space". It's a very catchy tune, and a fun little CGI romp. Jean Jacques (who just turned 80) looks like he's having a blast.
