[o'connor]

you ever get asked that question? my little brother was in teh car w/ me earlier trying to get me to let him listen to 3 days grace or 3 doors down or some fucking band w/ a 3 in the name. of course i told him over my dead body, so i put in nurse. y'know the really long noisy ending to pattern recognition, yeah you know it, when it came on he was all "how can you listen to this crap? (insert shitty band name here) is waaaaay better than this!". i've been asked that question for as long as i can remember, but i've never had an answer. i remember the first time i heard "noise-rock", i had just stolen a tape of goo and was listening to mote and then teh ending came and my jaw dropped. i didn't know i liked it, but dammit i liked it. i have no clue as too why i can listen too nothing but complete noise for hours on end yet i can't stand to hear that stuff they try too pass off as music on teh radio. so i ask you, why is it we like complete and utter noise?

[atsonicpark]

cue that classic masami akita quote...

[demonrail666]

The sort of noise you describe - the end of Mote for example - is easy to listen to for long periods because it becomes quite ambient. If anything it can be quite wallpaper-ish in that it doesn't actually demand much. I've had noise of this kind on for prolonged periods and have gotten to the point that it took someone to tell me to turn it off to remind me that it was actually on.

[atsonicpark]

"if noise is defined as unpleasant sound than pop music is noise to me."

[o'connor]

Originally Posted by atsonicpark

"if noise is defined as unpleasant sound than pop music is noise to me."

i like that. but it's not a reason why.

[Dead-Air]

Gotta say I can't begin to imagine either "Pattern Recognition" or anything off Goo as "complete and utter noise". Those are even less noisy than average tracks for Sonic Youth in the grand scheme of things. Not that this changes your question entirely, but it does a bit.

Once in a blue moon I hear somebody who actually plays full on "noise music" that I enjoy, but the vast array of it pretty much bores me. Doesn't offend or shock me, but doesn't excite or interest me particularly either. There are quite a few artists I love who get lumped into "noise music" these days, but invariably I find that I think it's a mischaracterization of what they do overall (two good examples would be Soup Purse and Crank Sturgeon). So it is with Sonic Youth, though I dearly love the Silver Sessions.

I think your real question is why do we find noise an intersting element on a musical pallete, and that just doesn't seem as hard to fathom put that way. Of course I know how you feel in that I encounter people all the time who can't handle anything with the slightest bit of dissonance or loud fuzz. But I find myself wondering about them than me anymore because as I've gotten older people like that seem to be increasingly fewer and fewer (but then I do run in pretty insulated circles).

Personally I like noise that is liberating in feeling, so that's why it often works so well within a structure based upon more traditional rhythm and harmony - a perfect example from Sonic Youth, the way the middle section of "Silver Rocket" falls apart so perfectly to accent the tightness of the intro and outro. That's not the only way I like noise, but a very effective way. It can also be quite liberating to watch Crank Sturgeon in a fish suit wrestling with a rubber lobster covered in contact mics.

[Everyneurotic]

it excites me, it makes me happy, it relaxes me, it makes me think, it helps me concentrate, it takes my mind from things, it fills my ears, it empties my thoughts, it makes me smile, it makes me mad, it irritates me, it's overwhelming, it's way too much and it's just enough.

[o'connor]

Originally Posted by Dead-Air

Gotta say I can't begin to imagine either "Pattern Recognition" or anything off Goo as "complete and utter noise". Those are even less noisy than average tracks for Sonic Youth in the grand scheme of things. Not that this changes your question entirely, but it does a bit.

yeah i was just using that as an example. but i think you got the right idea. i just wonder why a single string feedbacking for an hour straight sounds so awesome and heavenly too me. if there's a heaven, i really hope they have a house free jazz band.

[Dead-Air]

Originally Posted by o'connor

yeah i was just using that as an example. but i think you got the right idea. i just wonder why a single string feedbacking for an hour straight sounds so awesome and heavenly too me. if there's a heaven, i really hope they have a house free jazz band.

I'm gonna divulge my hippiesque roots, but you've answered your question with the spiritual analogies. There is indeed something trance inducing and shamanistic about repetitious dissonance. "Take this brother, may it serve you well..."

[StevOK]

Yeah, I am constantly arguing with my dad about this. He also made me skip past the end of Pattern Recognition.

One day we were listening to You're Living All Over Me, and my dad says, "Half of this is really good, but half of it is just noise." I said, "Some people prefer the noise," to which he responded, "I feel sorry for those people."

[demonrail666]

I've never cared much for the full on noise some people here favour (Merzbow, that kind of thing) but there is a definite invigorating rush to be had from songs like Live Skull's 'Fort Belvedere' or the final couple of minutes of SYs 'Schizophrenia'. Saying that I doubt most people here would consider that to be 'noise' at all.

'Noise', as bands like SY and Live Skull were described in the mid 80s, at least in Britain, was more just a generic term for noisy alternative Rock coming out of the US at the time, but this was only in the context of the janglier sounds associated with the likes of British bands such as the The Smiths and really didn't adequately describe the sounds coming from the actual records. Swans were probably the closest to what people would now describe as 'noise' and even they sound pretty tame compared to what's currently going on.

[batreleaser]

noise is an engaging music, very physical, you cant listen to it and not be affected at least in some way (unless its shitty early magic markers type noise). its the most free music there is, the noise scene to me is the aural equivalent of freedom. there are no boundaries or walls of what sounds can be produced, because thats what it essentially is, sounds. and, its extreme. i like extremities in all walks of life. whether it be music, movies, porn, skateboarding, drugs, rock climbing, fighting, moshing, sky diving, i just like pushing shit to the limits, and therefore, noise is perfect to me.

after all that mumbo jumo bullshit i just said, i still would have to say i prefer melody, haha.

[Everyneurotic]

why pick? i like both noise and melody.

[uhler]

i can't explain the reaosn why i like noise. it just sounds great to me.

[atsonicpark]

i just love sound in general.

[o'connor]

Originally Posted by atsonicpark

i just love sound in general.

bingo. that's exactly what i was looking for. there's parts of silver sessions that sound like yr just standing in a field on a really windy day. i also love the sound of the bustling city at night. i cannot sleep in complete silence.

[pbradley]

I tell them what they want to hear. I listen to noise because I am so obsessed with being "unique" that I will subject myself to the painful noise wailings of some pretentious art school dropout in order to distance myself from what I consider herd taste.

If you don't understand the draw of noise even a little bit, there is no point is trying to convince you.

[pbradley]

Even better: "I'm a depraved lunatic."

[o'connor]

Originally Posted by pbradley

"I'm a depraved lunatic."

lol, i might start using that one.

[pbradley]

But remember that it is sarcastic. Noisefags that actually believe that to be true are some of the most annoying, pretentious twats on earth.