/r/badmusicology

Photograph via snooOG

Welcome to bad musicology where we look at all bad music-related stuff! We have a few rules:

  1. Please np. all Reddit links. If you're responding to a specific comment in a thread, link to that comment (adding context with ?context=number if necessary).
  2. Please explain why something is bad musicology. We're all here to learn as well as laugh!
  3. Be excellent to each other.

/r/badmusicology

731 Subscribers

1

Forgets that the Vol in Volksmusik means All.

1 Comment
2024/03/08
18:58 UTC

5

Redditors with a surprising lack of context commenting on some writing by Jeremy Denk

I didn't know where else to post this, but this thread in r/classical cracked me up way more than it probably should have:

Why I hate the Goldberg Variations by Jeremy Denk

Usually r classical is pretty good with their knowledge of performers, but I guess Jeremy Denk is a completely unknown quantity to them even though he is one of the most affable pianists of the last 10 years. Add on top of not knowing who he is, they also don't know that 1) he recorded the Goldberg Variations in September 2013 and clearly is in complete awe of them as any pianist should be and that 2) he had a whole series of blog posts, interviews, and more with NPR throughout all of 2012 as he prepared for his recording project and his tour.

I think I just can't fathom their lack of imagination that maybe just maybe Denk was being tongue-in-cheek...

0 Comments
2020/11/25
21:18 UTC

14

[AskReddit] If you could show Mozart a modern song to blow his mind what song would you show him?

3 Comments
2020/06/18
06:17 UTC

5

This thread on why classical music is perceived as elitist.

4 Comments
2020/04/15
12:07 UTC

12

Spammers will be dealt with

Hi r/badmusicology,

I just submitted a request to take over moderation of this subreddit after seeing all the spam posted last month. I love this subreddit and want to wipe it clean of spam. I've done this in the past for r/jazzpiano as well so I'm hoping we can return to having some hilarious quality posts soon.

5 Comments
2020/04/07
23:32 UTC

12

Crosspost from r/badphilosophy - Religious music isn't political and other gems

1 Comment
2019/11/26
19:11 UTC

17

Schubert was a syphilitic degenerate, which made his music bad, and other hot takes from a PhD in musicology

1 Comment
2019/07/02
16:43 UTC

15

Beethoven destroyed by Chopin's facts and logic

0 Comments
2019/05/07
22:27 UTC

14

Overstating Debussy's influence on jazz

Some choice comments from r classicalmusic's recent unpopular opinion thread overstating Debussy's influence on jazz:

you remove Debussy and you get rid of... jazz (in my uneducated opinion)

Debussy and Ravel were a huge influence on a whole generation of jazz musicians

If you remove Debussy you still get jazz, you just get an alternate reality version of it - Louis Armstrong was influenced by Debussy and took that "expressionistic" floating quality out of his music and on top of jazz - that led to a "jazz grows up" type of moment that influenced jazz/dance/pop/etc music to this very day. But jazz was existing just fine without that, it would have just been entirely different - perhaps it just wouldn't have grown the way it did

1 Comment
2019/04/30
14:53 UTC

13

Beethoven thought Mozart kind of sucked.

2 Comments
2019/02/12
20:25 UTC

17

People only listen to atonal music to look cool (with a side of culinary xenophobia)

Found a great YouTube comment on atonal music (specifically Arnold Schoenberg - Piano Concerto, Op. 42)

Text:

"Atonal music is similar to food "delicacies" in certain cultures, those that taste horrible but people still eat them because they're said to be interesting or out of the ordinary, and call them "acquired taste" just to make themselves look sophisticated and open to new things. The fact that something is edible or listenable (i.e. eating it or listening to it won't kill you) does not automatically make it enjoyable. I bet only very few people are able to memorize or recite any 5-second fragment of any atonal music, or even differentiate between two such fragments, without any melodic anchor to hang on to. For me, anyone who says he/she "likes" atonal music is just posturing, to make them seem to have a refined taste, the same way as in the food analogy."

2 Comments
2018/12/16
05:10 UTC

4

The result of too much ragtime, or too much Jazz: a cautionary tale.

0 Comments
2018/03/27
17:54 UTC

20

"Beethoven is pure red pill."

3 Comments
2018/03/11
21:48 UTC

12

Why we really [...] like repetition in music aka. lyrics=music. Also the implied question is never answered.

3 Comments
2017/11/02
08:12 UTC

11

‘Holistic Songwriting’: bad research, stupid analogies, and concepts irrelevant to music theory and songwriting.

0 Comments
2017/10/30
11:35 UTC

19

Electric music is objectively bad

1 Comment
2017/10/10
22:26 UTC

10

Why is modern pop music so terrible? The answer is here!

1 Comment
2017/08/11
09:14 UTC

14

Modern music is just "noisemakers."

3 Comments
2017/04/21
00:15 UTC

6

Is Roger Scruton toxic for the last generation?

1 Comment
2017/02/21
13:23 UTC

14

"The cult of the written music" wherein it is suggested that writing music produces boring music.

3 Comments
2016/11/25
22:51 UTC

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