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Avg: 5.0 (4 ratings)
- Date Released: February 12, 2002
- Genre: Rock/Pop
- Label: MULATTA RECORDS / IODA
Enjoy. And not.
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We Say...
In 1995, celebrated art team Komar and Melamid did "The Most Wanted Painting" and "The Least Wanted Painting," which were designed according to an international poll they conducted. Naturally, they had to do a music version and enlisted the brilliant Dave Soldier, who posted a questionnaire on the web site of the DIA Art Foundation. Based on 500 responses, he composed two works. "The Most Wanted Song," Soldier states, "will be unavoidably and uncontrollably 'liked' by 72 ± 12% of listeners." The "Least Wanted Song"? "Fewer than 200 individuals of the world’s total population will enjoy this."
According to the poll, the ideal musical set-up is "guitar, piano, saxophone, bass, drums, violin, cello, synthesizer, with low male and female vocals singing in rock/r&b style. The favorite lyrics narrate a love story." (Interestingly, Soldier notes, "The only feature in lyric subjects that occurs in both most-wanted and -unwanted categories is 'intellectual stimulation.'”) The composition will be about five minutes long, have a moderate pitch range and be moderately loud.
According to the poll, the most unwanted music exceeds 25 minutes in length and has large and abrupt dynamic, timbral and tempo shifts. As for most disliked instruments, it's a tie between accordion and bagpipe. What a surprise there. The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays.
Soldier goes on to note that "This survey confirms the hypothesis that today’s popular music indeed provides an accurate estimate of the wishes of the vox populi." So… enjoy. And not. -
They Say...
This is music creation by survey. Russian artists Komar & Melamid have previously undertaken public surveys to determine the most and least-agreeable paintings. With New York's Dave Soldier, they have extended this to music. Online surveys were used to determine what instruments and styles were most favorable in music. The same questions were asked with respect to unfavorable music. As such, the "most wanted" song should be liked by roughly 70 percent of the earth's population. In this case, it contains a love theme in the lyrics and is sung in a basic R&B style, with piano, saxophone, and guitar featured (Living Colour's Vernon Reid makes a surprise appearance as the guitarist, no less). The least-likable song combines an opera soprano with rap beats for 20 minutes, with lyrics about cowboys. This alternates with children performing Wal-Mart commercials and screamed political rhetoric, all with the occasional banjo, harp, bagpipe, and tuba outbursts. The tempos and volumes shift suddenly from time to time. It is potentially some of the most annoying music one will ever hear. That being said, that's the whole point of it: to explore what can happen when music is created with an empirical approach. The album is not to be picked up for its musical value (though the "Most Wanted Song" isn't too bad), but for its novelty value primarily. If you're looking for novelty, then, this is the way to go.
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| 01. |  |
The Most Wanted Song
|
5:09 |
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| 02. | |
The Most Unwanted Song |
21:58 |
|
02 Total Tracks, 27:07 Total Length
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Credits
- Ada Dyer - Vocals // Christine Bard - Percussion // Diana Emerson - Soprano // Vernon Reid - Guitar // Andy Snitzer - Saxophone // David Soldier - Banjo // David Soldier - Banjo // David Soldier - Banjo // David Soldier - Violin // David Soldier - Violin // David Soldier - Violin // David Soldier - Drums // David Soldier - Drums // David Soldier - Drums // David Soldier - Keyboards // David Soldier - Keyboards // David Soldier - Keyboards // David Soldier - Liner Notes // David Soldier - Liner Notes // David Soldier - Liner Notes // Rory Young - Drums // Rory Young - Engineer // Lisa Haney - Cello // Norman Yamada - Conductor // David Watson - Bagpipes // Yuri Lemeshev - Accordion // Dave Grego - Tuba // Mary Bopp - Organ // Ronnie Gent - Vocals // Wade Schuman - Harmonica // Nina Mankin - Voices
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Performers
Vitaly Komar // Alex Melamid
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