Weaponized Music

Is there a kind of music that drives you mad?

It is possible, you know. There is music of aggression and malice. Some is intended for that purpose and has been used against prisoners and political victims.

The Sound of Hate – The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/04/when-music-is-violence

And some just happens to have the fingernails-on-the-chalkboard effect for me but not for you.

My own musical torture is quite a current genre and I don’t know what it’s called. It should be a simple matter of clicking through “Every Noise at Once” for a sample of the literally hundreds I have never heard of, and thank goodness.

Every Noise at Once
http://everynoise.com/engenremap.html

Bubblegum trance vs bubblegum dance? Terror core? Gothic post-punk?

My least-favorite current music seems to be everywhere and obviously quite popular. It consists of four basic bars, repeated ad nauseum, with some form of Ohhh-Ohhh-EEE-OOO OOO or other meaningly non-verbal loop and loop and loop with lots of synthesizer echo-chambery gooeyness.

Whatever this musical genre is, you can sample it pretty much anywhere on the Top Pop Songs list. Enjoy. I think I’m going to jump off a tall building.

Wait a minute. In Floyd?

Pop Music: Top Pop Songs Chart | Billboard
http://www.billboard.com/charts/pop-songs

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. No tall buildings there? I am bothered by the music that is played in the background of some Facebook word games. Some of them can be muted, but not all. I hate rap, too.

  2. I listened to the first clip (Chainsmokers). Grating and disturbing. There seems to be a message…Is it female aggression? I hope not. Have to give them credit though–all participants areyoung and attractive.