>
>
>Liza & I had our first conversation at the launch party for their
>Paint by Numbers book. So I've always had a soft spot for those guys.
>
>Doug
That will be a nice story for the little one. I didn't know there was also a music survey and a cd with most wanted and unwanted music:
http://www.diacenter.org/km/musiccd.html
>This survey confirms the hypothesis that today’s
>popular music indeed provides an accurate
>estimate of the wishes of the vox populi. The
>most favored ensemble, determined from a rating
>by participants of their favorite instruments in
>combination, comprises a moderately sized group
>(three to ten instruments) consisting of 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, and the favorite listening
>circumstance is at home. The only feature in
>lyric subjects that occurs in both most wanted
>and unwanted categories is “intellectual
>stimulation.” Most participants desire music of
>moderate duration (approximately 5 minutes),
>moderate pitch range, moderate tempo, and
>moderate to loud volume, and display a profound
>dislike of the alternatives. If the survey
>provides an accurate analysis of these factors
>for the population, and assuming that the
>preference for each factor follows a Gaussian
>(i.e. bell-curve) distribution, the combination
>of these qualities, even to the point of sensory
>overload and stylistic discohesion, will result
>in a musical work that will be unavoidably and
>uncontrollably “liked” by 72 plus or minus 12%
>(standard deviation; Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic) of listeners.
>
>The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long,
>veers wildly between loud and quiet sections,
>between fast and slow tempos, and features
>timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with
>each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition.
>The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be
>large, and features the accordion and bagpipe
>(which tie at 13% as the most unwanted
>instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ,
>synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in
>both the most wanted and most unwanted
>ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings
>atonal music, advertising jingles, political
>slogans, and “elevator” music, and a children's
>choir sings jingles and holiday songs. The most
>unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and
>holidays, and the most unwanted listening
>circumstances are involuntary exposure to
>commericals and elevator music. Therefore, it
>can be shown that if there is no
>covariancesomeone who dislikes bagpipes is as
>likely to hate elevator music as someone who
>despises the organ, for examplefewer than 200
>individuals of the world's total population would enjoy this piece.