The People's Choice Music

Beginning in 1994, Russian-American graphic artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid created a series of "most wanted" and "least wanted" paintings ("Выбор народа"), based on visual aspects found to be most "wanted" and "unwanted" by the public according to professional opinion polls. These paintings were published in the book ''Painting by Numbers: Komar and Melamid's Scientific Guide to Art'' in 1997. When asked by an art gallery owner to make a CD for him, Komar and Melamid approached American neuroscientist and musician David Sulzer (known in his musical career as Dave Soldier), with whom they were working on the opera Naked Revolution for The Kitchen in Manhattan. Soldier suggested adapting the concept of ''The People's Choice painting series to music, to be titled The People's Choice Music''. This project again used the opinions of the public, as measured by polls, to determine which elements of the medium were "most" or "least wanted". The polls were written by Soldier and taken via the Dia Art Foundation in the spring of 1996. The online survey of approximately 500 Dia visitors and participators revealed that the themes, instruments and other musical and lyrical aspects that people least wanted to hear included cowboy music, bagpipes, accordions, opera, rapping, children's voices, tubas, drum machines, and advertising jingles. The artists then incorporated all of these elements into "The Most Unwanted Song", which lasts almost twenty-two minutes as recorded. Soldier composed "The Most Unwanted Song" and its companion "The Most Wanted Song" with lyricist Nina Mankin. They debuted the songs at a 1997 performance in New York with soprano Dina Emerson, a large ensemble conducted by Norman Yamada, and a children's choir; Soldier played banjo, while Komar and Melamid jointly played a bass drum. == Lyrics and music ==

"The Most Unwanted Song" (pictured in 1929) is referenced in both "The Most Wanted Song" and "The Most Unwanted Song". According to the survey, the most unwanted music is "over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition". The poll determined that the least wanted ensemble would be large, featuring accordion, bagpipes, banjo, flute, tuba, harp, pipe organ and synthesizer. The least desirable singers would be an operatic soprano and children's choir, singing atonal melodies and rapping. The most unwanted genres were commercial jingles, political slogans, and elevator music. The most unwanted lyrical subjects were cowboys and holidays, while the most unpleasant listening circumstances were involuntary exposure to commercials or elevator music. "The Most Unwanted Song" is slightly under twenty-two minutes long. Lead singer Dina Emerson raps lyrics about the American frontier in an operatic voice. The narrator of the song is a cowboy who kills wild animals with a knife, lassos cows, and rides through the wilderness "wild and free". The cowboy rests by reading philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's 1921 work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and pondering his philosophy of language. After singing a verse about Wittgenstein in German, he returns home to make love to Miss Kitty, shoots a suspicious stranger, and fights "Injuns" in order to build a grocery store on their land that will sell American cheese. Vernon Reid of Living Colour plays electric guitar on the song, including a solo. "The Most Wanted Song" tells a simple and emotional story with a clear rhyme scheme about a woman who meets a lonely traveler and falls in love with him. At the end, guitar and saxophone solos are heard, after which Dyer and Gent sing several choruses in unison. The last chorus is played half a step higher. According to Soldier, 72 ± 12% of listeners would like the song "unavoidably and uncontrollably". ==Reception==

Stewart Mason of AllMusic described ''The People's Choice Music'' as "a hilarious parody of the concept of 'art for the people' and a pointed critique of how thoroughly market research and polling influences daily life". Mason considered ''The People's Choice Music'' "even more conceptually brilliant" than Komar & Melamid's paintings, and felt that "The Most Wanted Song" could have been a hit, though he considered "The Most Unwanted Song" to be superior. but ironically deemed "The Most Wanted Song" "horrible" and "a way rougher listen" than "The Most Unwanted Song". Jordie Yow of The Tyee described "The Most Wanted Song" as "bland, boring, and completely terrible" and "The Most Unwanted Song" as "so bad it's good", explaining that "it takes all the qualities that make songs stand out and combines them together." == Track listing ==

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''The People's Choice Music''. "The Most Wanted Song" "The Most Unwanted Song" Technical • Charles Simonyi – executive producer • Jane Bausman – producer • Rory Young – recording == References ==