h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A word for the day, 'Eclectic' forgive me if I am boring you, but I do not see any good entries on the subject.

It occurred to me that my Entries here could be described by this term. (both Journal and Guide)

In philosophy, music, teaching, design and many other collections of ideas, an eclectic approach is a combination of what you consider to be the best of several different schools of thought.

'You can not pick and choose what you like' is a common phrase that is rejected by an eclectic approach. Classical structure requires all things in a collection to have shared roots. A musical collection that contains Classical, Jazz, Big Band and Rock and Roll selections is eclectic.

When I was younger we were poor and tended to furnish our rooms with whatever we could find, at garage sales, second hand stores and the discount bargain aisles. Styles that matched were a luxury, chairs, tables, bookcases and the rest were a necessity. When asked about our decor we would tell people we used the style of 'Good Will' modern (Good Will is a charity in the US that sells items people donate to help disabled workers).

Then I took a course in interior design! The prestigious 'Beaux-Arts' school in Paris decided in the late 19th century that mixing and combining styles was the art form of the future. We had moved into the bold confident style that was sweeping the world, and we didn't even know

Now, when I get up from the laptop on my Georgian desk, walk past my wife's over-stuffed recliner and the flat screen television to fetch a book from my glass fronted Edwardian bookcase, I know I have achieved a true modern decor. And it is still cheaper then buying a matched suite at the local furniture store. I have even added an electric Franklin stove (with built in heater) to sit on my colonial dry-sink as the weather turns a bit chilly.

F S

"Classical structure requires all things in a collection to have shared roots. A musical collection that contains Classical, Jazz, Big Band and Rock and Roll selections is eclectic." [Florida Sailor]

The musical styles that you mention all have shared roots. The hinge between late Romantic music and jazz is ragtime, which pits Straussian waltzlike melodies against syncopated accompaniments. When I did some research on the origins of jazz, I learned that post-Civil-War African-Americans searched for a music of their own, and became fond of Caribbean music styles, which had a long lineage back to Spanish styles. Ragtime became jazz, which shot itself in the foot in the 1950s by trying to subtract the Spanish influences and just go with the African ones. The audience for jazz petered out, though it would probably have done so anyway. Eighty years is about the longest that any one style can remain dominant over all others. The only question was which alternative style would depose jazz in the 1950s. Rock and roll? Folk music? Show tunes? Bossa Nova [itself another style with Iberian roots]? Rock eventually prevailed, but as of 1958 there was real doubt that it could get its act together. Many of the rock leaders were under a cloud for one reason or another.

Jazz refuses to die, with numerous subgenres that often borrow terminology from rock subgenres.

Here's the thing: One percent of all pop acts [I'm lumping individual musicians in with bands here] account for 77% of sales. They aren't necessarily all alive. A large percentage of jazz recordings that are bought were recorded by people now dead, in some cases long dead.

If you want to be eclectic, you don't need to care whether the composers or performers in your collection are alive or dead. It just matters that they made good music.

I enjoy mixing up a lot of different kinds of music -- not at the same time, of course.

I've noticed some concern that the new music of today is less varied than the new music of previous decades. Some computer apparently analyzed the rate of chord progressions, etc. Well, Rock is getting long in the tooth: the first unambiguous rock recordings came out in 1949, or 65 years ago. If 80 years is the probable maximum for dominance over styles, then the next 15 years will likely see something else develop to topple rock from its throne. Jazz shot itself in the foot by discarding part of what made it popular. Rock is apparently losing variety in a harmonic sense.

The next 15 years could be fun, or it could create an alternative style that some of us will like *less* than rock.

Quick, where did I put my set of Brandenburg concerti?

[Amy P]

You are, of course, correct paulh. I didn't mean roots, I was trying to avoid using the word 'style' any more than I had to. I considered using 'discipline', but I was afraid 2legs might get excited

F S

Would genre help?