Max Roscoe, a self-described ‘aspiring philosopher king” who writes regularly for misogynistic garbage site Return of Kings, doesn’t like feminism. Or contemporary classical music.
So he’s decided to take down both of these allegedly awful things, by suggesting that they’re pretty much the same thing, if you think about it.
Modern culture tells us that short skrillex haircuts, defiling the body with metal shrapnel and inked graffiti, and massive, revolting body fat is “beautiful.” This message is so successful, that today, in the west, it is extremely difficult to find a female below the age of 25 who has not purposefully destroyed her physical beauty in multiple ways.
As this worship of ugliness has marginalized natural beauty, likewise, modern classical music teaches us that dissonant chords, out-of-key incongruous sounds, and loud, harsh noises are pleasant and desirable. Gone are the naturally pleasing chords and intonations which music theory teaches are good.
Damn you feminists with your blue hair and your 12-tone scales!
Also, feminists and modern classical music are both really, really repetitive.
Much as feminists do little more than repeat meaningless phrases like “Rapists cause rape” and “Still not asking for it” … instead of having a thoughtful discussion, modern classical music replaces creativity and musical complexity with repetition.
Roscoe reports with horror that he was FORCED to listen to one super-repetitive avant-garde piece this past weekend in which the same chord was played a whole bunch of times in succession. The horror!
It was like every other modern classical piece I have heard: an aural assault of dissonant noises, repetitive sounds, and unnatural rhythms….
In the piece … the same chord was repeated at least 50 times before another instrument joined in.
Golly. How could ANYONE think that playing the same chord over and over would ever sound good? Or that deliberate dissonance might make music sound … well, a heck of a lot more rocking?
Here’s one of the examples he offers as evidence of just how laughably awful contemporary classical music is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLckHHc25ww
Really, dude? Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians? That’s a bit like using the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds to prove that rock music is uncreative.
Roscoe fleshes out his argument with a segment trying and failing to show that dissonant chords are basically the musical equivalent of “deviant lifestyles.” It’s about as nonsensical as it sounds, and really just an excuse for Roscoe to rant ignorantly about trans folks, so I’m not even going to bother to quote it.
Add “music” to the long list of things that manospherans just don’t get.
@ David…
I decided I should go to the source for info on the folks you write about, so I spent a few (a VERY few) minutes on R.o.K. and on T.R.P. You have my utmost, heartfelt respect…. Do you have a hazmat suit you wear when you visit there? Do you take something as a prophylaxis…? Seriously, I hope you limit your exposure somehow, that sh*t is beyond toxic.
I wasn’t a fan of twelve-tone scale music, until I studied it in college and learned to unlock the riddle of its gorgeous and gorgeous complexity on an auditory “Euclid alone has looked on beauty bare” level. I’d say there is a lesson here re: women with tattoos and piercings, but I somehow think the MRA’s spend a creepy amount of time “studying” women with this aesthetic…
When looking up whether Wagner’s music was considered atonal (it’s noted that the Tristan chord is a move away from traditional tonal harmony), I found out that Arnold Schonberg, the developer of the twelve-tone scale, was an Austrian Jew.
I’m sure this fellow’s hatred of Schonberg has nothing to do with that. Uh-huh.
Possibly the best repetitive dancehall track of all time.
P.S. 1. Meant “gorgeous and glorious complexity.” Darn the cognitive impairment that comes with rhinovirus; 2. Went looking to see if someone had an actual “beauty destruction checklist,” since I’ve lately had an MRA-like person get a moony crush on me at work, and I would like to be able to, I don’t know, DO MY FUCKING JOB instead of having the fellow, with whom I have been very, very blunt about not being available, find an excuse to come over to my desk to chat just because and get huffy because I am on the phone to a client and how dare I be so rude and inconsiderate? Instead, I found this site, and yikes. Just yikes. “Forcible sterilization” is a red flag for the society that perpetrates it, dude, not its victim. Yet feminists are the modern Nazis…
I’m a purist who holds that modern Classical music is a contradiction in terms, as the Classical period ended in the 1830s. (and also because every definition of Classical Music other than ‘orchestral and chamber music from 1750-1830 that I can find is based entirely on snobbery).
Artusi, L’Artusi, overo Delle imperfettioni della moderna musica (1600)
Pomposity, check. TL;DR, check (I cut a lot out of this paragraph). Doesn’t compare the music to women he doesn’t like, but I haven’t read the entire treatise, so, question mark.
He’s talking about this piece of music:
Uh, no. No it doesn’t. There is getting to be a little more mainstream acceptance of the idea that a woman shouldn’t have to tailor her appearance in order to be beautiful; that maybe it’s okay to have a body that doesn’t turn on the Max Roscoes of the world, because your body belongs to you, not to every man who looks at you. But it’s still not all that acceptable a viewpoint.
A few people with non-standard aesthetics and body types have dared suggest that their bodies are not only theirs to do with as they please, but are also beautiful. Those people get shit all the time from mainstream culture for loving themselves and how they look.
@Dalillama
Are you seriously trying to argue that the 1812 overture, one of the most recognized classical pieces of all time is not classical. And not only is it not classical, but not classical by 50 years?
I mean, I’ll be the first to admit that things we’d think of as lead-ins to contemporary music styles were also present at that time, but come on.
Damn you, edit window! I wanted to clarify that when I say “standard,” I mean “meets cultural beauty standards,” not typical vs atypical.
Okay, what bothers me most is that Skrillex’s hair isn’t short? He popularized long hair that’s shaved on one side. His hair would at least makes a shoulder-length bob with how much he had. Or has. IDK. I don’t keep up with hairdos. His most popular do is no Negasonic Teenage Warhead is all.
@Ikanreed
That’s correct. Tchaikovsky is from the Romantic period.
Question (since the thread is about classical music and rape culture): from where did the idea that ‘Beethoven’s music causes rape’ come from? I first came across this idea back around the 1990’s, and nowhere did any ever say where it came from besides ‘it’s a strange notion held by those Radical Feminists.’
But I never could find out why these ‘Feminists” decided Beethoven’s music caused rape, but not Mozart’s, or some other composer from that period. Or for that matter, the drum track of most rock songs (Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tusk’, anyone?).
Anyone know?
Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre rather turned me on to modern “classical” music. The truth is that the pentatonic scale and European melody are nothing more than conventions. If you listen to Chinese classics or a Gamelan orchestra or Tuvan Throat singing you will find there are many things beyond the Euro-centric music that saturates our listening
@Redsilkphoenix
Clockwork Orange. Main character and his gang love Ludvig Van (as he calls him). These guys are, to say the least, not tied down by social mores or personal boundaries. I’ll not get specific, cos that whole movie comes with a Trigger Warning. I hear the book is worse. Blergh!
I do! And it’s not about just Beethoven, but about climax and forcing the ‘softer’ second tonal area back into the primary key during recapitulation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_McClary
So. Much. Deviance.
Fishy Goat – That’s the only good one. I like to turn it up to 11, there’s just something about listening to the pianist breathing!
Not everything has to be classically, boringly pretty to be beautiful. Not all new music sounds like EDM and dubstep bullshit.
And unnatural rhythm and dissident chords can convey things like discomfort and pain in a more honest way.
I can’t read a right-winger describing art as “deviant” without misreading it as “degenerate”. I can’t think why.
leftwingfox:
It may be stretching the meaning of “classical”, but if we’re talking about game music, don’t forget Austin Wintory. His soundtrack for Journey is a real emotional roller coaster.
Recently I’ve become interested in microtonal music. 12 tones is not enough for me. I need 19! The problem is finding a keyboard that can play it.
@David Futrelle
@Axecalibur
I recall that the author wrote the original novella very quickly and was disgusted to see its popularity spike, especially above all his other works.
@eli Ah, yes, Cruda Amarilli. I’ll the author hates Io parto as well. 😉
I think even the Manosphere knows they have to stir things up a bit since their rants are becoming even tedious to them.
The entitlement with his rant is that he actually thinks women are his to dictate personal choices. Why do I get the feeling that they haven’t actually seen a woman outside of their cousins for years?
Oh, and The Piano Guys have really been putting out some super classical pop and rock standards lately. Check them out if you have never heard of them. They push the envelope and prefer style and substance over cookie cutter tradition.
argh. I’ll bet the author hates Io parto as well.