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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   3224 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 10, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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What are great examples of "X is your favorite Y's favorite Y." The idea being that while your favorite Y finds great mainstream success and produces palatable hits, X is the fountainhead from which the real genius flows, the inside baseball avant-garde or the raw authentic source material, that your favorite Y translates for the public.

For example, Howlin' Wolf is, for many classic rock fans, your favorite musicians favorite musician. His music wasn't nearly as big as the Stones or Zeppelin, but the Stones and Zeppelin were listening to his records and that's where their hits came from. A lot of Wolf's later career was shows cosigned by white rock artists who loved his stuff.

Who is your favorite writers' favorite writer? Our favorite lifting coach's favorite lifting coach? Favorite chef's favorite chef? Favorite politician's favorite politician?

Although he currently has a lot of mainstream success, I think Bach is a historical example of your favourite composer's favourite composer. While he received a fair bit of recognition in his own time, after his death his works were regarded old fashioned as music went from Baroque to Classicism and then to Romanticism and he was a bit forgotten. In the 19th and 20th century people started getting more interested in historical music and Bach's reputation grew again to the point where he's now regarded as (one of) the greatest composer(s) ever. However among Bach enjoyers in the period where he wasn't very highly regarded, were Mozart and Beethoven. Both of them studied Bach's work, which inspired them to write more complex counterpoint. So in the second half of the 18th century Bach was probably the perfect example of your favourite composer's favourite composer.

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