Music and Dream-Like Imagery

Today, we primarily listen to recorded music. Our contact with the act of performing is loosened as less of our instruments have physical counterparts. Electronic keyboards, sampled beats, and studio tricks only help to further separate the recorded performance from any physical act. It’s this separation that allows for a greater degree of musical imagery in synthetic, rather then in more traditional music.

 

This abstraction of sound from its source allows for a greater imagining of sensation. While the minuets of Haydn might conjure romantic images of forests and streams, the listener abstracts this imagery from the orchestra. Meanwhile, a listener hearing Gary Numan on his iPod imagines a scene solely from the unearthly electronic buzzing in his ears. Unlike the orchestra, he has nothing visual or tactile upon which to form his mental imaginings, and must construct these scenes largely from whole cloth.

While music generated entirely from physical instruments definitely conjures imagery, there always remains a baseline “reality”. For example, while listening to Led Zeppelin’s “The Song Remains the Same“, the listeners imagery can osculate between idyllic green landscapes and the physical band playing real instruments. However, the booming voices and harsh drums of Kraftwerk’s “Boing Boom Tschak” seem to echo out of a dark space. Even the size of this room is indeterminable, as different “instruments” sound like their resounding in areas of different sizes.

Because there is no level of baseline “reality” in synthetic music, the mind can abstract further then music with a physical connection. On some level, those wonderful landscapes of sound can be connected to the actions of Jimmy Page playing guitar, while the dream-like sounds of Kraftwerk have no connection. The further the imagery is allowed to drift from a set point of reality, the more deep and varied it can be.

Perhaps I’m just trying to justify my perverse love of 80’s synthpop.