Rhythms Not Beats

In his interview on the excellent On Being podcast, composer Gustavo Santaolalla talked about how young tango musicians are very good technically, but lack knowledge of the deeper personal and cultural meanings in the art form. This should be no surprise given we learn through emulation and imitation, primarily through recordings instead of teachers and mentors. It poses an interesting facet of emulation that demotes direct experience over copying and remixing.

Rhythmic styles such as tango, leave many things implied. It is a music that has a pulse that you can dance to, but is high context, i.e. there is a tacit understanding that doesn't have to be explicitly restated with a repeating groove or beats. One could sample a tango, but the sample is disconnected from its essence.

“...no one is able to produce a great work of art without experience, nor achieve a worldly position immediately, nor be a great lover at the first attempt; and in the interval between initial failure and subsequent success, in the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation. We suffer because we cannot spontaneously master the ingredients of fulfilment.”

― Alain de Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy