A new study suggests that listening to happy music promotes more divergent thinking, a key element of creativity. In today’s world, creative thinking is needed more than ever, as businesses and complex social problems require creative minds. While some studies have shown that music can improve cognition, learning, and memory, others suggest it may not be beneficial in all cases. Dr. Charles Limb, a jazz musician and neuroscientist, explores how music enhances our creativity.
Creativity was higher for participants who listened to “happy music” (classical music high on arousal and positive mood) while performing the divergent creativity task, than for participants who listened to quiet music. This suggests that both instrumental and vocal music as background stimuli significantly affected AUT when compared to a quiet environment.
Research has shown that listening to music can help stimulate the brain’s right hemisphere, which is responsible for creativity and imagination. It helps give one a more divergent thinking, which is a key element in creativity. Music effectively inspires creativity by evoke strong emotions and memories, which can help trigger new ideas. Research has also shown that listening to music can lower anxiety and improve mood, which could facilitate creative insights.
In 2017, researchers found the effects of different types of music on creativity, with happy music with high emotions increasing creativity. Instrumental music appears to enhance creativity through factors such as emotional arousal, cognitive interference, music preference, and psychological factors. Studies show that using music while creating can actually make you more creative. Letting go of your inhibitions creatively at this stage is crucial. Gabriela Ilie, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, believes that any music has the potential to help you with creativity or rapid decision making.
📹 Does Music Theory REALLY Kill Creativity?
People often argue that learning music theory can kill your creativity – but is this really true? MY STUDIO GEAR AUDIO …
Is music a skill or a talent?
The capacity to appreciate and create music is not a skill or talent in and of itself; rather, it is the result of a greater aptitude towards the subject. Those with a high level of musical talent are able to develop the skill of creating music more rapidly and to a higher level than those without such talent. Nevertheless, a certain degree of aptitude is not a prerequisite.
Is music a creative hobby?
Music is a powerful hobby for personal development, boosting confidence, cognitive abilities, and cultivating a lifelong learning mindset. It teaches skills like discipline, patience, and creativity that are transferable to other areas of life. To determine if music is the right hobby for you, introspection and practical assessment are necessary. Consider your personal music tastes and interests, as well as what you enjoy listening to or want to learn from an experienced music instructor. Trala can support you in this journey by providing guidance and support.
What kind of music is best for creativity?
Research indicates that listening to happy classical music can stimulate creative thinking due to its mood-enhancing effect. Composers like Mozart and Vivaldi inspire people to create their own impressive works. It’s crucial to let the music play in the background without getting attached to it, choosing instrumental tunes to avoid distractions. However, don’t expect to write an entire essay in one sitting. Instead, use organization apps, plan stages, research, and start writing on time. The music supports the entire process, making it an essential part of the creative process.
Is music considered creative?
Music is a potent instrument of emotional expression, enabling musicians to convey their most profound sentiments through songwriting and performances, thereby exemplifying their creative ingenuity and emotional depth.
Does music help IQ?
Music may not be the key to nurturing the next generation of geniuses, as it may not significantly improve grades or general intelligence. While there is potential for improvement in special-temporal reasoning, there is limited evidence for long-term changes and uncertainty about its benefits. The brain’s complexity and mysticism make it difficult to uncover the full extent of its effects, and the effect of music on intelligence is one of the mysteries yet to be discovered.
Do intelligent people like music more?
People with different cognitive styles tend to prefer different types of music, such as mellow rock or heavy metal, and those with high intelligence tend to have a strong preference for classical music. Studies have found an association between personality traits and music preference patterns, but the cause of these individual differences remains unclear. The study investigated the association between salivary testosterone concentration and preference for five different music types in young males and females.
Results showed a significant negative correlation between salivary testosterone concentration and preference for sophisticated music, such as classical and jazz in males, which was not mediated by the big-five personality traits. This suggests that neuroendocrinological function may influence music preference patterns. Intelligence is also positively associated with evolutionary novel values like liberalism, atheism, and preferences for instrumental music. Overall, music is an integral part of everyday life, and the relationship between personality traits and music preferences is still not fully understood.
Is musician a creative person?
All musicians, regardless of their preferred styles or areas of specialization, are creative artists. Composers and performers who regularly improvise are considered creative artists due to their passion and productivity in generating new musical material. Even those who exclusively perform compositions from notated scores and after much practice and preparation can create unique musical moments.
Performers who don’t consider themselves particularly creative in their music-making should consider boosting their creativity level. The benefits can be rewarding once they embrace greater creativity as an opportunity. Many musicians, especially those with advanced training in the Classical tradition, have adopted performance practices that can limit creativity. The Werktreue concept prescribes that performers have a responsibility to be faithful to the true meaning of musical work, understood as the composer’s creative intent.
With an emphasis on performance accuracy and faithfulness to a composer’s intent, musicians can see their craft as a re-productive one, aiming for excellence over innovation. Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner emphasized the distinction between experts who pursue greatness in a domain and those seeking to challenge and change the domain in which they perform. Highly creative people first attain a level of mastery of their domain before going on to become creative in it.
Is music good for imagination?
Imagination is a powerful tool in various fields, including strategy creation, music, reading, being creative, understanding history, and literature. Music invokes images in the brain through rhythm, harmony, melody, and composition, fueling imagination in ways words alone cannot. Reading elicits images and narratives of objects and events, stoking creative fires and making readers feel invested in the story. Being creative involves imagining outcomes before molded clay or set pen to paper, and understanding history is achieved through visual representation.
Returning to literature, we enjoy stories and display deep feelings for fictional characters, as the emotions triggered by these stories are real in our imagination. Whether the story is created in our minds or in the fantastical world of literature and cinema, part of us feels it to be true to life. Flow, and the music that gets us there, play a crucial role in facilitating this process.
Does music improve thinking?
Music is a powerful tool that stimulates the brain, keeping it engaged throughout the aging process. Studies have shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain, improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory. The brain-music connection is being explored by experts who are studying how the brain can hear and play music. The brain receives vibrations from a stereo system, which are transmitted through the ear canal to the brain stem, where they are reassembled into music. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have conducted experiments with jazz performers and rappers to observe which areas of their brains light up when they improvise music.
Is listening to music a creative activity?
Listening can be considered a creative act that may lead to improvisation or composition. Following the construction of musical structures through listening, the musical vocabulary acquired is then deployed in the improvisation or composition of new material, with the knowledge gained from the listening experience informing the creative process.
Does music increase creativity?
A substantial body of research has documented the beneficial impact of music on creativity, cognitive function, and overall well-being. Music has been shown to enhance brain activity, memory, and learning, while also reducing stress, anxiety, and depression.
📹 Jacob Collier: When Music Theory Destroys Creativity
this article hyper-focuses on the complexity and theory side of Collier’s music and makes the argument that those are the source of its problems, when it’s actually the fact that Collier’s ideas are just simply corny and twee and obnoxious. His lyrics and thematic elements belong on an AJR album. If he made cool stuff with all of his theory knowledge and creativity then people would like his songs. They’re alienating because they sound like they were made by the world’s smartest Bible camp counselor, not because he knows too much theory or whatever. Knowing too much theory is like literally a prerequisite to be a session musician.
What hurts me is that Jacob is always spoken off as if he knows too much and that this is the reason why his music is bad. As to say kownledge is the cause. Whereas I’m a musician and I know a lot of people who know as much and much more than Jacob. Theory is just a tool, having a huge tool set at your disposal doesn’t automatically lead you to make bad music.
To me Jacob collier is really hit or miss. He’s constantly exploring and diving into new generes of music and new topics. Some of his music has made me cry, some has made me smile and some has made me feel nothing at all. Saying that his music doesn’t make you feel anything is completely fine. The problem comes when you state that as an objective universal opinion. I feel like these online discourses on art are shifting from sharing opinions to trying to collectively determine what is objectively good or bad. What the correct opinion is, like we’re trying to define a modern canon. Let people enjoy whatever music they want and don’t try to justify your subjective reaction to an artist with these types of arguments. This is what kills creativity, not music theory.
Thats not what music theory is tho, they are not rules, its a way to explain what is going on, Jacob collier has an amazing sense of harmony and does stuff with it that no one does, he has said multiple times that its not about showing off, its about what he likes, and he likes weird harmony and maximalist production. He also has extensive knowlidge on theory which allows him to explain what he is doing and communicate it with other artists in a common language, thats all it is. Theory doesnt limit you, it explains why it works, and its a tool to make stuff you wouldnt have tried in the first place. (i did watch the article before anyone comments about that)
TLDR; Use music theory to understand your taste. Not inform it. This article came at an interesting time for me. Ive always written riffs i love with no music theory. But ive started learning a lot and picking it up fast and its allowed me to understand what about mine and others riffs i love and ive been able to more constantly express myself in the way ive always wanted to. In my opinion you can have all the music theory knowledge in the world but you have to know what you want to do with it. Not just play specific intervals one after the other because youve been told those intervals are supposed to sound pleasing. Use it to understand your own taste. Not to inform your taste. I dunno of that made any sense but i hope someone got something from this midling bass players rant 🙂
0:24 this is a wrong definition. It’s not prescriptive, it’s descriptive. All artists use most elements of music theory. It’s just learnt through listening. It’s subconscious. You don’t have to know what music theory is to use it. That’s why it’s called theory. It’s explaining what rules we subconsciously use for music, not telling us what to do.
Music theory is an analytical tool, not a framework “every musician must follow.” There are tons of different types of music theory that contradictory to reach other too, so it’s also just flat out impossible. Not even a minute in and this is already one if the worst researched articles I’ve seen on this website. Maybe stick to beings about women in star wars or whatever you’re used to you tourist.
I literally only heard of this dude when he did a article with this guitarist I watch. He does have a genuine love for music and what he does comes from positivity. I wouldn’t really call it egotistical, but he’s just doing what he likes. To call it egotistical or mental masturbation when the guy comes off as very knowledgeable but humble enough to want to positively teach people, just means you don’t like his music. That’s fine. I haven’t listened to his music personally, but I don’t understand the obsession with having to constantly defend one’s dislike of something. Just say you dont like it and move on. There doesn’t need to be some large grandiose reason why you don’t like it.
This idea that music theory knowledge somehow cripples creativity is such bullshit. Jacob Collier isn’t sitting around calculating his every move using music theory “rules”. Some of his most complex stuff (like his Moon River acapella arrangement) was entirely done in a flow state just going with what felt right in each moment. Sure, there are fun little articles he’s done trying out little musical puzzles (like the finger polyrhythm thing) and he – like many of us – is fascinated by the inner workings of music. But many of the things he does is pretty far out and completely obliterates the “rules” and yet, is done by feel. The theory knowledge just allows him to get his ideas out onto instruments and get it recorded faster. Because he has a framework for understanding what he’s doing from a technical standpoint. But that framework doesn’t tell him what to do. That’s not to say people might not like the music because they just don’t like it. That’s fair, obviously. I mean, it’s even fair to make articles trying to analyze why you don’t like his music. He put it out there, so it’s gonna be open to criticism. But then, we have the right to criticize the criticism 😁
music theory is a tool thats descriptive, not prescriptive. it seeks to describe how music works and what musical concepts and ideas might give way to certain emotions or other responses. its not a hard and fast set of rules because music is subjective and variable. also when people say music theory its important to at least say “western music theory” because, for example, what other cultures consider to be microtonal in their respective musical system(s). if enough people dont like the music because he seems smug and is also insanely talented (which would naturally make some people at least subconsciously jealous). and more than that i think people dont like the reputation he has as being like “that guy who’s really good at music.” and then people start to hate and follow the train. i think his music isnt for everyone and i definitely have songs of his that i dont like but i’m also biased in his favor because im a jazz student at a college in new york city. he gets a lot of flack from people who fundamentally don’t understand the purpose of music theory imo.
to me Collier’s output is musical autism, which I do not intend in a pejorative manner: just more like lost too much into the intricacies of his own thought patterns, which may relate a lot to him, but not to others’ emotions and sensibilities – which is in line with the people on the aurism spectrum. Then his fanbase is divided between people that are on the same spectrum position as him – and thus are able to enjoy it at a similar level – and people that do not want to be perceived as musical simpletons and thus flock to complicated music and “genius” artists
That title is stupid, I also think that Jacob’s music sucks, but saying his music isn’t creative is just lying. He is very much creative, he’s just very bad at using his creativity to compose emotional songs, focusing more on the technical side of music making. That means he’s a (potentially) bad songwriter, but calling him uncreative is very much stupid and untrue.
i imagine if youtube was around in the 1700s this is the type of article Antonio Salieri would have made about Mozart lol…i tease with that, Little blue (especially the Mahogany version) is a prime example of ‘complex’ simplicity. where Jacob, with his 5 string acoustic and a choir, can create a song that is equally stripped of the bloated complexity (which i dont disagree about in a lot of his music) while still being accessible recommend anyone to watch Michael Palmisano break down on that song. overall i think it’s easy to hate on him cause he represents a level of musician that many wish they can attain but know they never will. so folks are just projecting hella hard. yes there can be a level of pretentiousness to music. but i dont ever see that from him. it’s refreshing. especially in this day in age of 4/4 and 2 chord songs. or sometimes 2 note songs. cause in this same vein the same can be said about musicians like Tool. which im sure there are people out there that feel the same way.
still trying to figure out why commentary creators never get tired of regurgitating the same points about this man, as if his music knowledge somehow forces him to make music that must connect to everyone. i’m sorry, if his music doesn’t spark emotion in you, that might just be you. he’s currently on a world tour, with many sold-out shows. obviously, he isn’t incapable of making music that people enjoy and emotionally connect to. stop pretending that this man is the problem while it so obviously is your own projection of all the what-if’s you think you’d do if you had even the crumb of knowledge he has.
Easy to tell that this article is inspired 99% by Djesse vol 4, which makes sense because it’s his latest work. But this article kind of says that Jacob Collier can’t deliver emotional songs. Djesse vol 1 and 2 were some of the most emotionally rich albums I’ve heard, and they were probably as complex as Djesse vol 4. It’s not like he can’t be emotional AND complex. I think he just went too far with the collabs and the attempt to fit in the generic pop industry. But at the end of the day he’s human, and people criticize him as if they are successful artists who never failed to deliver original and emotional pieces of music
I do like Jacob Collier quite a lot but I get what people who don’t are saying. Car Seat Headrest has a ton of talent as well but if you listen to both Versions of Twin Fantasy you can tell that there are many purposeful imperfections. Just listen to Bodys in the vanilla the mirror to mirror version. The mirror to mirror version adds a massive amount of discordant elements to a song that is already technical and fairly chaotic but it still sounds good. Heck the title if the track is even purposely misspelled, it is an embrace of flaws before the track starts and it is something Collier needs to learn.
I don’t hate Jacob Collier, his music simply isn’t for me. He’s a product of loving supportive parents who nurtured his natural talents in a healthy positive way and sent him to be educated at the best schools, where he seems to have been a popular and well-loved student. He’s never known significant poverty, instability, failure in his pursuits, serious ill health, or emotional or mental demons (at least so far as we can see). His immaculately crafted music, coming from a place of joy and contentment has nothing to say to me. When I was younger, I would be insulted by that, but now that I’m older I know he can’t help being the way he is anymore than I can, and I wish him the best on his personal journey, and that he never has to experience a long dark night of the soul, even if it would provide creative fodder that would resonate with me.
I understand you’re a musician, but I don’t think you actually understand what music theory is. In the opening, you say: “(music theory is)… the conceptual framework of music, a tool that every musician needs to follow to create anything that actually resembles a song”. You’re putting the cart before the horse. “Music theory” is an analytical tool used to interpret and understand the organization of a piece of music. It is descriptive, not prescriptive. You only really “use” music theory when you examine how accurately a piece aligns with a given system. There are different theories for different systems–systems like western tonal harmony, jazz harmony, raga, and gamelan, for example. If you analyze music aligned with traditional western harmony using raga, it’s going to look like junk. If you analyze gamelan music using jazz harmony, it won’t work. That doesn’t invalidate anything as not being music; it just means it’s not aligned with a given system. It’s alright if Collier’s music seems overly complicated for an individual’s taste. I feel the same way about some jazz improvisations or some codas at the end of concertos. But that doesn’t mean he should be discounted as: “using music theory to destroy creativity”. It just means you either don’t understand, or more probably, simply don’t like his music.
Jacob isn’t the most knowledgeable. As someone with a rudimentary knowledge of music theory, Jacob’s ideas are easy enough to understand. Just because he makes something complicated doesn’t mean it doesn’t lack any soul. Do I like all of his music, no nor do I listen to his music on a regular basis but I think his passion and energy is something that is very infectious and positive. I also think his collaborations particularly with Lizzy McAlpine are brilliant
Pretty balanced view. The poor guy is an idiot savant, cringy stuffed animals included. He’s a bit spastic and hasn’t had time to grow up or chill out much. You worry about whether he gets any sleep or has uncomfortable psychological issues (don’t we all). Maybe also he’s just building an empire the easy way (for him) with the intention of seeing what he’ll do with it later.
Okay here is my opinion that no one asked for: NONE OF THIS MATTERS. I think it is incredibly bewildering to go on and judge an artists on his artform and try to analyse if he is being too technical or not. Are you trying to argue that he would be “better” or create better art, if he wasnt as keen on making his music complex on a theoretical level? Why? There is such an ridiculous amount of musicians creating all sorts of art every day of every year. Why does a single artist need to follow any sort of “optimal” (and obviously arbitrary) sweet spot? Some people will create overly technical stuff and there is going to be an audience for that which is super happy to be challanged with the complexity. And another artists is going to use super simple tools in an incredibly expressive and emotional way making you cry. Let each of these artists follow their desires and intuitions to create whatever they are curious about and listen to what you like to listen to. But dont try to box in an artist to some artificial and subjective sweet spot where theory and musicality balance perfectly according to your own perspective.
An interesting artist to compare Collier to is Louis Cole who I think has an equally impressive understanding of music theory and can also sing in perfect pitch. The difference is Louis Cole can use that ability to play with the audiences expectations in a way that makes the music genuinely fun to listen to rather than making it merely a giant wank fest about how great he is. Louis Cole also has a way better sense of overall compositional progression in his music which is an aspect of building music these music theory wankers don’t like talking about because they all suck at it
Please learn music theory it’s very useful but don’t be a slave to it. Use it like photographer who’s taught themselves to light. If you can light a clean headshot clean, you’re just objectively better at your job. But to express yourself, you can use other fire lighting principles or break some rules to create dramatic lighting. Just like chromaticism and understanding the relationship between chords does with music. I’m not going to lie, if I hop into a session with someone with 0 theory knowledge I don’t take them seriously. Like we need to be at least on the same page to some degree or else we’re just going to make garbage. If you want to be a professional musician, just learn some basic theory, it’ll take you like 5-6 hours and you’ll be better off for it. I don’t have perfect pitch and have a hard time keeping a tempo. But it’s OK. As long as I can bend these frameworks to express myself more clearly. But before I knew the framework- I sounded like shit.
I’m Autistic, and while I can’t just go around diagnosing people I don’t know, Collier has always given me Autism vibes. Autism is very interesting in the way it manifests, in my experience it goes one of two ways- either the person is very rigid and likes structure, clearly defined lines, rules etc, or the person is chaotic and defies structure, lines, rules etc. Whichever direction the person leans, they do so heavily. Somnetimes people have both qualities in different areas of the personality. For example, Collier dresses in a very chaotic manner. Autism has a way of cultivating extremes in people. I think that’s why Collier creates music the way he does, he likes structure and rules, that’s why music theory appeals to him and it’s why he dedicated so much energy to learning it. The geometry of music theory is appealing to him.
Jacob is the kind of person who explores new possibilities and shows them to others just because. I feel like there’s more depth and philosophy behind his work than people give him credit for, and a lot of that is to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Sure he gets a lot of criticism cause some people can’t stop comparing themselves to him, and struggling to contain their own envy.
As a bit of a music theory nerd myself, I’d say the music theory stuff is the one part of his music (or at least what I’ve heard of it) that is appealing. If you take all that away, all you have left is some, imo, very rudementary songwriting (or “advert music”) . If he needs some constructive criticism, it would be practising his craft at that. Not necessarily stripping the quirky theory stuff away, but learning how to use each piece in service of the songwriting, instead of doing the opposite. This also applies to covers btw, as a lack of songwriting skills may make it hard to capture what worked in the original, especially when you start changing things. Perhaps he should find a great songwriter to form a group with, rather than being a solo artist? Btw, the notion that music theory is a “set of rules you must follow for technical correctness” is antiquated, especially since most of standardised western music theory reflects musical taste of approx. the 18th century. At its best, theory is just an awareness of how music works fundamentally, when it comes to cause and effect of doing different things and combining them. Unless you’re trying to recreate a certain specific style that has conventions to it, the rest is just a collection of ideas and patterns to try out if it peeks your curiousity. You can even go ahead and just make up your own music theory. No one will stop you lol.
Excellent informative summary! I admittedly have a fundamental problem or two with the core premises of this article: namely, the idea that Jacob Collier’s music is Like that Because of Knowing the Music Theory. Now, obviously, he probably wouldn’t arrive at the exact things he does if he didn’t, but I mean like. Whenever people say that music theory Makes you be ‘overly’ technical and uncreative. That’s a stupid statement. Musicians and their creativity are not some innocent untainted prelapsarian maidens that get forcefully maligned by The Evil Dragon Music Theory and get tainted with the fruit of Eden. How you react to music theory…is ultimately your fault. If being exposed to and internalizing music theory makes you a dullard…you did that. It’s just knowledge. It can’t hurt you by itself. Only you, with potential influence from the surrounding cultures/discourses, can. This is esp true for Collier; the guy clearly could’ve stopped learning years ago and still run rings around literal professional musicians. Clearly, there was something he liked there; if Jacob Collier would’ve made better music without it…Jacob Collier clearly didn’t actually agree! I defo think your point about complexity/choice overload has some merit, but like, saying that Of Course he’d choose complexity over simplicity bc he’s technically knowledgeable is missing the mark. He made that choice bc he’s Jacob Collier; plenty of technically advanced musicians can and do use simple shit when it’s the best tool for expressing what they want to convey.
For anybody interested in the philosophy side of this, look into the concept “subsidiary focal integration” from Michael Polanyi. The field of philosophy dealing with how we know stuff, from what’s true to how to do a skill, is called epistemology. In the framing of subsidiary focal integration, what Jacob Collier is doing with music theory is similar to writing the same word over and over until it loses meaning, or thinking explicitly about the facial expressions you should make and then coming across as inorganic.
people listen to someone with a great knowledge of theory, don’t like his music and therefore “it’s the knowledge of theory stealing his soul”. I mean, there’s an element of truth in the fact that when a person has a lot of options that freedom could be stifling (like if you have a lot of different delicious things to eat, where do you even begin), or make you try everything producing things that are not as good as if you were exploring a certain aspect in depth, but at the end of the day it’s not the theory or the knowledge, it’s that particular person and his way to balance his experience, emotions and knowledge. Jacob Collier’s music is not bad (if you consider it so) because he knows a lot, if it’s bad it’s because he’s that particular person called Jacob Collier, who didn’t find yet a good balance of those elements. Leave demonizing knowledge to religious people.
I really disagree with the idea that music theory destroys creativity. Music theory is a box of ideas you can use or not use. I don’t think learning music theory would hurt you in anyway. But I agree that Jacob Collier does not want to be a genius. He’s clearly just doing stuff that he’s passionate about. I think his educational articles are really valuable. I like Jacob Collier on an emotional level. His music sounds really good and is filled with interesting little sounds and energetic moments. He makes really good sounds that touch me a lot. Especially his songs Saviour and Djesse. If you want something darker look at Saviour.
What are people talking about bro his music is just music he’s just a man who makes art that he wants to make. I really enjoy his music and a lot of people seem to hate him personally even though, like everyone else who makes music, he’s just a person making music cause he wants to make music it’s so not that deep gang
It always frustrates me when people say that his music doesn’t have any emotions or feelings in it, when it ABSOLUTELY has LOADS of feeling, and it’s just so much fun to listen to, and even incredibly moving at times. But the issue is that Jacob is speaking a far more complex musical language than most people have ever had experience with. So instead of the intended emotions being understood, it comes across as showy and pretentiously overcomplicated to those who aren’t already accustomed to more complex musical forms. A lot like Jazz, Jacob’s music is deeply enjoyed by music nerds, but not easily appreciated by most music listeners . It’s an entirely unintended emotional gatekeeping that makes it seem like he’s just some pretentious dude, rather than someone who is actually communicating feelings through his music.
I wouldn’t call it “over produced”, because he’s the opposite of a producer. its neigh impossible for someone with that developed music skill to self produce successfully. Production is the macro process of guiding the art /communication towards the translation in the real world. which he is obviously not great at. So I would call it the opposite, it is “under produced”. If he worked with a great producer he could be ‘tamed’ into producing something that many would appreciate, something great even possibly. But he’s gone on record as disagreeing with great producers like Rick Rubin so he’s clearly not interested in mass appeal. He’s a great musician, one of the best in fact, he’s also a good teacher, but great musicians don’t necessarily equal great writers, engineers or producers.
Jacob will go down as one of the most gifted musical minds of this era. He is an amazing teacher and truly gifted musician. Sometimes that doesn’t translate into songs that people can relate to but his teachings and performance will inspire and motivate musicians for years to come. We need all of the music, the complex and the simple.
grunge ahh take from a man that is very quickly letting everyone know he knows just enough to think he knows enough, but definately does not. Fair conclusion and ik a man’s gotta make a youtube vid, but it sounds like you’re a little less informed. The “vocal processing stack” you mentioned is him using a vocoder, which is originally a 70s synth design that takes a microphone and tunes it to keys being played on a synth. Think earth wind and fire. Other than that yeah a lot of the stuff I wouldn’t listen to daily, but some songs are just pretty for the sake of being pretty, and others are insane for the fun of it. Man is just using the most ADHD musician brain to make music he likes.
It’s not that Jacob “knows too much music theory” or that he’s “flexing his skills”. The issue is that mainstream music has been dumbed down so much that when you see an artist like Jacob Collier emerge, people think it’s somehow “bad” that he is exploring sounds that aren’t the status quo. Just because his music isn’t the status quo doesn’t mean that it’s bad. Who defines what “good music” is, anyway? I think that Jacob’s exploration of different sounds and pushing music limits actually stirs up creativity, not destroys it. To me, your analysis of his music is based upon western society’s construct of how music “should sound”. I see your perspective, though. I think Jacob and similar musicians are challenging the musical status quo and paving their own way. Creativity is not recycling other people’s ideas and staying in the boxes that they’ve created.
I find the claim that Jacob Collier’s creativity is somehow destroyed by his knowledge strange. It’s more like he’s too creative because of his knowledge and doesn’t know what to focus on. He has too many ideas, which results in many of his songs being a bit over the top. I mean, watch any of his articles where he makes music and tell me he isn’t creative. That’s just a ridiculous statement. Also, I don’t feel like his ideas come from music theory knowledge (alone). If you again watch his articles, you’ll notice how he clearly feels the music. It doesn’t come from knowledge – it comes from feeling. (Well, I actually don’t believe the two are mutually exclusive – I think the two inform one another and you can’t really separate the two. But the point is, he isn’t just using some random formula that creates music for him. He is actually thinking musically. He is hearing melodies, harmonies, rhythms and other musical ideas in his head, and not starting from “let’s write the most complex jazz chord out there and let’s see how it sounds”. The point is, he starts from the sound, not from the explanation/technique.) His knowledge isn’t an issue. Actually, restraint also takes knowledge (unless you are only restraining yourself because of your lack of knowledge). The understanding of musical form takes knowledge. Like look at Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. The entire first movement is pretty much just a single idea (that is heard in the two first bars of the piece). There’s a difference between writing a complex piece that has a million different ideas, and a complex piece that has one basic idea.
Bro music theory is a faster way to recognize patterns and have clues where to look for things if you are stuck. There is no coercive force behind it other than a bad teacher some (myself included) may have suffered. But theory is knowledge, use it or toss it, it is not inherently detrimental to creativity, you are not forced to follow anything. You can make informed or uninformed choices, the measure is your ear and taste. It adds to your skills and literacy, it is not something to follow like a ritual. It is a tool, how can people blame tools for their failings today is beyond me.
I had a friendly debate with another musician at uni about Collier’s music. He assumed I was an anti-intellectualist because I just didn’t care that he’d done a piece in microtonal tuning – the song was boring to me. I think this is an apt summary of Collier’s loudest fans – they listen to his music not (solely) for the enjoyment of listening to it, but so they can have something to use to gauge music-theory power levels against. He’s basically their Goku and their Superman is the casual music enjoyer who doesn’t care about quantifying skills. That said, Collier’s music sounds bad to me because it lacks depth, not because it’s technical or academic.