We are increasingly likely to find ourselves in places with background music. No composers have thought to write for these modern spaces, which represent 30% of our musical experience.
Brian EnoRead
Not many people bought Velvet Underground LPs, but those who did, started a band.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights how a small group of dedicated followers can significantly influence creativity and culture.
Brian Eno's quote about the Velvet Underground suggests that while their music did not reach mainstream popularity, it had a profound impact on those who listened. The idea is that the small but passionate audience they cultivated inspired others to create music and art, demonstrating the power of niche influences shaping broader cultural movements.
Themes
Velvet UndergroundMusicInfluenceCreativityCulture
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can inspire musicians or artists at a workshop or concert to highlight the importance of creativity and niche influences.
More from Brian Eno
All quotes βI think that technology is always invented for historical reasons, to solve a historical problem. But they very soon reveal themselves to be capable of doing things that aren't historical that nobody had ever thought of doing before.
Brian EnoRead
When I first started making ambient music, I was setting up systems using synthesizers that generated pulses more or less randomly. The end result is a kind of music that continuously changes. Of course, until computers came along, all I could actually present of that work was a piece of its output.
Brian EnoRead
People do dismiss ambient music, don't they? They call it 'easy listening,' as if to suggest that it should be hard to listen to.
Brian EnoRead
In the future, you won't buy artists' works; you'll buy software that makes original pieces of 'their' works, or that recreates their way of looking at things. You could buy a Shostakovich box, or you could buy a Brahms box. You might want some Shostakovich slow-movement-like music to be generated. So then you use that box.
Brian EnoRead
Ambient music must be as ignorable as it is interesting.
Brian EnoRead
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