weird sounds equals stimulation

"several popular songwriters - stevie wonder, paul simon, and lindsey buckingham - have described their compositions as sound paintings, with timbre playing a role equivalent to the one that color does in visual art, separating melodic shapes from one another.....while i believe that timbre is now at the center of our appreciation of music, rhythm has held supreme power over listeners for much longer"

-daniel levitin from "this is your brain on music"

timbre is the sound of an instrument. not the note, not the rhythm, just the distinctive sound that defines one instrument from another. it used to be pretty simple: a violin sounds different from a trombone, sounds different from a clarinet, and so on. but since the 1950s or so with synthesizers, and now digital sampling, the variation of timbre in music has exploded. blips, bleeps, farts, squiggles, scratches, bellows, etc. have all been turned from disorganized noise into musical elements.

here are few small clips of songs i find myself listening to over and over where timbre seems to be at the top of the hierarchy of elements, and the timbres are "futuristic" sounding. i took parts of songs that are the most devoid of melody and complex rhythm.

two lone swordsmen - from the album "tiny reminders"





lastly, one of the best moments of 80s pop. while everything is working together (rhythm, melody and timbre), i think the timbre is what really creates the "color." its a goddamn shame the compression of sound on youtube is so crappy, so you lose a lot of the vibrancy and sparkle of what i'm talking about, but the video is so badass you might as well watch it (the lyrics are effing crazy:"i'm on a bus on a psychedelic trip reading murder books just tryin to stay hip"):

billy idol - eyes without a face