source file: m1377.txt
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 1998 05:31:35 -0700

Subject: micropop

From: Aline Surman <stick@uswest.net>

You know, it surprises me not at all that pop music has non 12 
intervals. If you listen to blues, which is at the root of much 
contemporary pop, there's micronotes galore because of the bending and 
stretching that constantly goes on. As soon as one bends a note, we're 
off the pitch of the scale, and somewhere else. As to the related subject 
of is this then microtonal music per se, my personal feeling is that if 
the bending and stretching occurs over a base scale of an instrument 
tuned in 12 eq, then I don't feel like calling it microtonal, overall, 
because 12 eq is our home base, and any notes which are not bent are 
still in 12. Of course, this is a rather subjective perception, and maybe 
there's no right answer, just gut intuitions...Hstick