Aha Moment: From Proto-Punk to Perception

Larry Rosenblum is a professor of psychology with a focus on perception – he’s written a book about the senses called See What I’m Saying. Rosenblum credits a musical revelation with leading him down that path.
Growing up with 1970s prog-rock, he thought that virtuosity and spectacular showmanship were the hallmarks of great music – cascades of notes, impossible time signatures. Visiting a cool older friend, Rosenblum had his perceptions forever altered by four notes from the band Television: the opening chords to their garage epic “Marquee Moon.” “I knew that I was going to listen to everything differently,” he remembers. “By playing something very simple, but very well-coordinated with the other musicians, something powerful and passionate can come out of it.”
Rosenblum explains how the way instrumental lines interact to create complexity is analogous to how the brain understands and interprets the environment around it.
  
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Video: Television, “Marquee Moon”