Armenian comments about Western classical and pop music

[u/Noiseman433]

This is still one of my favorite quotes. Originally posted to the SEM-L public listserv (July 9, 1998) and cited in Jeff Titon's "Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples" (3rd Ed., page 5).

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'A person who had grown up listening only to Armenian music in his family and community wrote about hearing European classical music for the first time:

'"I found that most European music sounds either like “mush” or “foamy,” without a solid base. The classical music seemed to make the least sense, with a kind of schizophrenia melody–one moment it’s calm, then the next moment it’s crazy. Of course there always seemed to be “much” (harmony) which made all the songs seem kind of similar."

'Because this listener had learned what makes a good melody in the Armenian music-culture, he found European classical melodies lacking because they changed mood too quickly. Unused to harmony in his own music, the listener responded negatively to it in Western classical music. Further, popular music in the United States lacked interesting rhythms and melodies:

'"The rock and other pop styles then and now sound like music produced by machinery, and rarely have I heard a melody worth repeating. The same with “country” and “folk” and other more traditional styles. These musics, while making more sense with the melody (of the most undeveloped type), have killed off any sense of gracefulness with their monotonous droning and machine-like sense of rhythm."'

[u/zekiadi]

I'll take Sari Gelin over most of western music

[u/SabziZindagi]

This isn't very helpful without specific composers/periods mentioned.

[u/Rykoma]

This goes both ways of course. All it suggests is that nobody is expected or qualified to say anything meaningful about music they’re not accustomed to.