Open mind = no mind at all?

An open mind is usually understood as simply the lack of opinion. When it comes to genres of music it is hard to believe that the person could actually be into Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonín Leopold Dvořák, Frank Sinatra, Ryoji Ikeda and Bonobo. Probably, this is the reality of the contemporary generation which has grown up in such wide musical diversity. Of course, some of them restrain themselves into a single style especially if it is associated with ‘mainstream’ ‘non-academic’ music which does not require thinking. When listening to Labrinth’s Earthquake www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0fk6syQ7iY, Rihanna’s Diamonds www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWA2pjMjpBs or 2 Chainz’s Crack www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVjeKltMVJs there is no need to lock yourself in thoughts about the life meaning because such songs encourage physical response like head shaking and moaning to the beat (no offence, that’s normal these days). Consequently, after a constant listening to ‘mainstream’ music it might appear challenging to follow more demanding musical works like Richard Wagner’s operas/music dramas. Well, the easy-to-follow minimalism of Philip Glass could ‘come to the rescue’ though.

Similarly, it is claimed that ‘academic’ music listeners might be quite intolerant of other genres unless it is jazz (often sticks to contemporary music and is traditionally included in music textbooks). It might be because of the snobbish habits or high music quality requirements. However, this tendency starts to fade out as current composers look for inspiration into other genres too.
The Gintaras Sodeika’s piece for piano duet Sound Ontology no. 2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0KTHEwj128 and Brandt Brauer Frick’s work called Bop www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-iFj3AOsUo were both influenced by techno music which enabled to create a completely different musical concept. The instrumentation is quite known but its usage – not so well. Moreover, Hauschka’s pieces for prepared piano are inspired by pop rhythms and electronica music, particularly, its usage of sequences www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDlPYnrIR5Y.

There might be various opinions about the music listeners’ priorities but a clear explanation of each decision making is still waiting its time. The only thing I could think of is that the person can anytime choose to open his mind to music or stay in his own beautifully maintained cage. An open mind to music diversity does not necessarily mean that the person is lacking a taste because that might also be a life statement.