What is accessibility?

[The_Isle]

Is being accessible just a byword for having conventional melodic lines that people can hum to? I wonder about the degree of subjectivity in this matter. Does being accessible necessarily result in good or bad music? Or could there good and bad music that are both accessible/inaccessible.

I guess the best way to find out would be if people provided examples of bands/songs from the genre from opposite ends.

 

[Mythos Inibri]

it just means how easy it is to obtain

 

[The_Isle]

i'm talking about music.

 

[Mythos Inibri]

some music is very hard to obtain if it is out of print

 

[Carcassian]

I think it usually refers to how many "listens" a song requires for it to be easy to listen to; ergo modern Megadeth is more accessible than, say, Khanate.

 

[SacredReich]

yeah i think he's trying to say, how do you define something as accessible or not, as it would see mthat it's quite subjective, as with anything else in music.

 

[Nico]

Yeah but definitions tend to lean towards the objective side of things, which is what the thread creator is clearly aiming for.

I'd say conventional, simplistic structures and melodies are the keys. But what do I know?

 

[Carcassian]

To be truly objective you'd have to study the theory of music composition, and then compare that to widely accepted "accessible" songs. I don't have the time for that, so I took a short cut.

If you don't have a job, hobby, life etc, knock yourself out.

 

[hibernal_dream]

It's how easy it is to understand the music. Simplistic structures and melodies aren't necessarily easy to get.

 

[SacredReich]

Exactly, it's based on the person. I feel it isn't strictly definable, but there is definitely some sort of consensus that can be easily reached when recommending.

 

[Hammer of Might]

Like Carcassian said, I think it just means how easy something is to get into without too much attention, based on the points which Decadent said.

 

[Dän]

I took accability to mean liek how easy it is to listen to, ie not to harsh on the ears. So carcass' swansong would be more accesable than reek...

 

[Seance]

I'd have to say that a band's "most accessible" song would be the song that shares the most qualities of the most common genres of music you hear everyday in passing on TV, the radio, etc... and has the least qualities of the more obscure and unpopular types of music and genres ... in other words, death metal growling is not accessible, because there are far far far far far more people who hate it than those who like it

Opeth:
accessible: "Death Whispered a Lullaby"- simpler; shorter; has a catchy, singable chorus; light music, not metal; no growling or metal singing; easy on the ears; etc.; anyone can like this song

unaccessible: "Wreath"- a very heavy, long song; no chorus; the song progresses throughout with very little repetition; death metal growling; almost no clean singing; it wouldn't be uncommon that only fans of Opeth, death metal, or progressive music will like it

 

[The_Isle]

I think i should have made the intent of this thread clearer. The death growl may be inaccessible to the mainstream audiences but the board is more or less a different demographic entirely. I'm talking about accessibility as far as this board is concerned : How do you personally define accessibility in metal? Is it a good or bad thing.

I mean i would imagine the classics IM, priest and most power bands to be defined as accessible. To me most thrash is inaccessible because the focus is not on melody. At the same time to me Meshuggah is very accessible, somehow they manage to create for me an atmosphere like say you'd listen to BM or folk metal for but it's different in nature.

The point of this rambling i guess is that I think of being accessible as how easy it is for you to "get" a certain piece of music. Just because you "get" it doesn't mean you have to like it, but I'm just curious as to what everyone "gets" and doesn't "get"

 

[Carcassian]

I "get" quality thrash, death, doom, nwobhm, "pure" metal and the like

I "sometimes" (for which read: almost never) get Black Metal.

 

[Dän]

well i guess in that case it is subjective to who you are, like you say, you dont find thrash accessable where as others might, im just not too sure how to answer your question

 

[cookiecutter]

For this board it seems Opeth, thrash, and the classics are most accessible. For me, the most accessible band I like is Slayer. As I went further into death metal, I went through melodic, straight, then brutal, because the melodic is a little more accessible.

 

[Carcassian]

To be honest, I'm not sure I've grasped what The Isle has asked.

 

[The_Isle]

simply what people find and don't find accessible.

edit: ok lemme rephrase it thusly:

name a band to which for you instantly clicked and was obviously brilliant.

another one which you thought took alot to get into/used to, but in the end was good

another one which you get the intent of but just doesnt do anything for you

and then maybe another for which you have no clue and don't want to try understanding, coz it'll prolly be shit anyway.

 

[Carcassian]

Ah I see.

I don't find black metal accesible; but that's simply that I find it incredibly awful to listen to. There are some rare exceptions (Immortal being the principle one), but I think that half of the problem is that I don't want it to be accessible to me. I'm fairly prejudiced about it before I start listening because of my previous bad experiences with Black Metal (i.e. not enjoying it, seeing what I considered to be terrible, amateurish music nearly destroying death metal in the 93-96 period etc)