Originally Posted by Trollheart

I certainly don't mean to be facetious, and I don't mean to denigrate this style of music, but I honestly don't get it. After listening to Merzbow I'm thinking, I could go out and record cars on the road, dogs barking, people laughing, mix it all together and record it, and would that then constitute noise rock? Experimental music? I'm not for one second suggesting that Merzbow has no talent --- he's released hundreds of albums and is very highly respected, so obviously he knows what he's doing --- but Venereology just sounded like noise to me, all the way through. Literally. If there had been someone digging up my garden like when the extension was getting built I could not have distinguished what I was listening to from that outside noise. It really was that bad.

So, what's the attraction? Do people really listen to hours of this for fun? Do people go to see artistes like this perform basically static in concert? If I wanted this kind of sound I could off-tune my radio and leave it between stations. I got nothing out of that album. Nothing. At all. It even made me appreciate Grindcore a little. At least those guys are playing, if not what I would recognise as music. Does Merzbow use instruments? Or so he just use all samples?

This is the kind of thing that, were I a parent and my kid played it, I'd clap my hands to my ears and shout "That's not music! That's just noise! How can you listen to that? How can you call it music?"

So, how can you?

And again, understand I am not sneering at this sort of music. I clearly don't have the ear to distinguish and pick out the nuances, and appreciate the artistry. But what is there in that? What do you hear that I don't? Is it just a musicians thing, that you play so you understand what he's doing? But not all his fans can be musicians.

Also, I don't mean just Merzbow, though this is the first real exposure I've had to this sort of music (and will likely be the last) so I'm using him as my only example. And please don't post loads of videos saying listen to this: I don't want to hear more if it's like that album. I really don't. You won't get me into it. But I am interested as to how other people can listen to it and call it music?

Be nice: I'm not putting down your music, I'm just genuinely baffled as to how anyone gets anything out of it. I'd really like to know.

Originally Posted by Janszoon

Do you ever enjoy sound simply on its own terms? I mean like the sound of crashing waves or a refrigerator humming or traffic in the rain or footsteps in a high-ceilinged space. I'd imagine to some degree or another you do. I really do. I love the texture of sound and I tend to appreciate experimental sound stuff in the same way that I enjoy sitting in a space with a lot of sonic texture, like a train station. That's really all there is to it, if it washes over me and takes me somewhere mentally, then I enjoy it. If it doesn't, I don't.