music vs cinema (an entirely subjective contest)

music vs cinema (an entirely subjective contest)

  • Music

    Votes: 2 100.0%
  • Cinema

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    2

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
or songs/albums vs films

i vote for music. this is partly as music will always be my first love, but also because music is easier to take in while doing other things (though this is also why so much modern music is shit), and there is more scope to be spontaneous in music (again this is partly why so much modern music is shit). if you want to make a film, you have to plan it so far in advance, its no wonder so few films have what you so often get in music, that sense of a moment of inspiration happening as you hear it. films need far too much planning. and for all people's issues with the pop song format, its such a brilliant, versatile, lively structure, i find it far less laborious or rigid than the hollywood/classical western mode of movie narrative. also, i think music dates better than films in general. also, films help you get into the mind/life of a character, but music does a far better job of tracking the unconscious processes of your mind, without verbalising it (i suppose silent cinema would be a closer comparison really) as it doesnt need to follow logic or perceived reason (for the most part). film requires too much logic. music can be irrational. and then theres the issue of what dates better - i would say music from decades long past is likely to age better than films from the same period. music is able to be far more immediate as it doesnt rely on a viewer's understanding of the cultural mores of the time. experimental film is perhaps closer to a song than a narrative film.
 

griftert

Well-known member
RDR - Could you make it a poll? I'm in agreement with you for all the reasons you said - I'd be shocked if many picked cinema .
 
i watched 'All is Lost' last night. Robert Redford, all at sea. No music, barely any script, maybe a dozen words, but it grabbed the attention through the power of events, setbacks, raised hopes, relentless hazards, nature's vasty indifference. Music would have spoiled all of that, the wide-horizoned, desolate, solitary realism. It's this deeper disorder of lived, witnessed experience that music is less able to capture than film. I think it's a draw.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Not sure if I can make a differentiation - film is 70% sound with some flickering light, and even silent films weren't ever shown as silent (live organ, piano, or even commentaries) so it's hard to say yay to the premise.

I lose myself in my own personal narrative to both - less with pop music, but more with live concerts and especially classical concerts, where my internal dialogue starts doing something very similar to what happens when I watch films.

Film is kinda a subset of music/sound for me I think, rather than a separate thing.
 
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