QuoteProject
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 Eno
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Ambient music is often underestimated and regarded as simplistic, despite its depth.

In this quote, Brian Eno highlights how ambient music is frequently dismissed as mere 'easy listening.' This perspective underestimates the complexity and emotional depth of the genre, implying that music must always be challenging to engage with, rather than appreciating the subtleties and the experiences it can evoke.

Themes

Ambient MusicEasy ListeningDismissalAppreciationComplexity

In practice

Example use cases

Using this quote in a music discussion to challenge stereotypes about certain genres.

More from Brian Eno

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
I 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
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
The big message of gospel is that you don't have to keep fighting the universe; you can stop, and the universe is quite good to you. There is a loss of ego.
Brian EnoRead

Similar quotes

Without the Fender bass, there'd be no rock n' roll or no Motown. The electric guitar had been waiting 'round since 1939 for a nice partner to come along. It became an electric rhythm section, and that changed everything.
Quincy JonesRead
Music is the most powerful form of communication in the world. It brings us all together. Even religion separates us, but a hit record unites us across religious beliefs, race, politics.
Sean CombsRead
When everything is together - the band, me, the audience, it's boss! It's just like magic.
Janis JoplinRead
Average band with a great drummer sounds great, great band with an average drummer sounds average.
Buddy RichRead
I was signed to a record label at the same time as my friend Elliot Murphy, who makes great records to this day.
Bruce SpringsteenRead
I think that music opens portals and doorways into unknown sectors that it takes courage to leap into. I always think that there's a potential that we all have, and we can emerge, rise up to this potential, when necessary. We have to be fearless, courageous, and draw upon wisdom that we think we don't have.
Wayne ShorterRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.