From a great distance, you can only make out the tallest peaks of a chain of mountains.

I'm a writer and former classical pianist who started watching one of your videos while I made tea and ended up binging a whooole bunch of them. 99.9% of the stuff I've seen of yours is so helpful. There's just one clunker in this video, which I've corrected for you here: We already know who the modern Mozart was (those of us who have ears and taste, anyway): Prince. 200 years not needed to be certain of that. You're welcome :-)

There is a lot of music from my teen years that I didn't like back then, but when I hear it now I love it. Partly nostalgia, where it takes you back to the one or two times you heard it and had a great time, and partly because my preference changed.

He's back.

That's why the hero's journey and modern re-tellings of it still hold up.

I do agree with the premise that time is the arbiter of greatness (many great artists died destitute because they were not appreciated in their time). However, art is not static. We had many developments in art and many periods, each improving and refining the last. This peaked with the late classical-romance period. After that, we had the decline of standards with Impressionism. Today, we have people saying their period blood is art and hysterical crying is music. Our objective standards, refined over centuries, have been destroyed. Thus, we cannot expect to time to find our Mozart because the musical traditions and standards that allowed Mozart to perfect his craft have been completely obliterated.

I read HG Well's War of the Worlds and The Time Machine and the Island of Dr. moreau 3 times each. 4 years later, they are still my favorite books.

I was really into Beethoven when I was young. I bought all his major works and listened to them many times. I then made a list of ALL of his compositions and gradually worked my way through it by borrowing vinyl records from the local music library. And, yes, the majority were instantly forgettable. A good example is Beethoven's "Wellington's Victory" which was immensely popular at the time but is hardly ever played today.

Tangent: I'm a huge fan of the master of Japanese cinema Kenji Mizoguchi. Many of his works are now lost to time including one of his most acclaimed works Naniwa Onna - A Woman of Osaka (1940). If that film were made today it would be able to survive due to the power of the internet, mass storage, coordinated archiving etc., but due to the time it was produced it could not be protected for posterity. "Time" is not necessarily the ally of great art.

A similar point was made by George Peppard as BANACEK in the short-lived seventies tv series. A woman comments on his eclectic taste in art and music and he briefly explains about quality that endures. But it also puts me in mind of Sturgeon's Law which says something like "96% of everything is crap."

Really insightful. Thanks for these videos!

Love your channel! 👍✌️

A very interesting video again. Thanks!

The best way to prove this point is ask someone to name a classic musician and almost everyone could name at least a handful even if they are not a fan. Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and so on. Ask the same person to name five number 1’s singles from 2013 without the aid of the internet and many will struggle. I know as I tried this question on many people when trying to prove this point. Greatness will last forever while trends will die.

Haven't watched the video yet but from the title I can tell I agree with you wholeheartedly. I've been telling everyone who thinks a film is a success today based on its opening weekend how much bullshit that is and how they should wait and see if they really want to know how the general public responded to it. It used to be so clear. A film came out; if it made a lot of money that meant the general audiences responded well to it since future earnings were based on word-of-mouth and films were rolled out more slowly. Today everything is about the opening weekend which opens the door to deceptive advertising and using nostalgia instead of story with proper character development to trick people into thinking its a good film. I think that just about goes for every recent major release, does it not?

Great video!

I just want a video on your favorite metal bands

Hey David good to see you back. I think another good example of time being the ultimate critic could be a lot of movies we loved as kids but now that we're older we see it's flaws. Good example for me is the Black Cauldron. As a kid I loved the movie and was fascinated at seeing a "darker" Disney film. But now that I'm an adult I can see the terrible flaws in it such as bad writing. In hindsight the Black Cauldron was an interesting experiment and had a ton of potential but was executed poorly.

You should also look at the Lindy Effect. For non-perishable things (like ideas, stories, etc) the mortality rate decreases with time, and as a result the best guess you have for how long they'll last is how long they've currently survived. We've been listening to Bohemian Rhapsody for 45 years, so will probably be listening to it for another 45 years. This week's top pop song will probably only have another week of popularity. We've been listening to Bach for 300 years, so will probably be listening to it for another 300 years. (Obviously some will last longer than this estimate, but if all you know is how long they've been alive, this is the best guess you can do.)

new sub here enjoying the content. well done.

Bach could create entire universes of music on one instrument alone (consider the cello suites). Beethoven was a Promethean pillar of genius. Nothing compares today, and certainly no modern taste will last as long.

Rocky won Best Picture in 1977, however Star Wars lost to Annie Hall for Best Picture at the 1978 Academy Awards.

1977 best picture was Rocky. Which is still a very good movie as well.

Very pertinent value set David, and one regarding, IMO, the most respected venue of all cultures' entertainment, Music (Non Stop!). Yes, so true that Bach has indeed best stood the test of time and has progressively even passed the fundamental aspect of mere personal listening enjoyment, becoming the subject of much, intense scholarly discussion and implemention into the sciences (medical)----->such as it's discovery as one of the prefferred tools when testing and determining therapy for psycologically induced hearing impairment and/or audio related cognitive deficiencies, this due to the significantly higher (relaxing) frequencies and multitude of combinations thereof his music is capable of. (funny you should mention Vivaldi.. I struck gold a couple yrs ago, and obtained one of the very few (2-220 units?) late-'70s/early -'80s dbx Super-Discs of his "Four Seasons".. These are HvyWgt grn virgin vinyl, recorded at 1/2 speed (as Mo-Fi and other niche Co.s later adopted) and only from select reels recorded at the pro-max 30ips and/or with Dolby/dbx NR.. When properly prepared these can recreate a signal to noise ratio of 100db+ and a DnmcRng of 115db for playback, with a CD comparably quiet noise floor (the secret is kowing how, or employing one who does, to incorporate the professional-studio dbx compander instead of the consumer grade ll unit.. where the figures while still vey respectable would drop to app 90db best). Since, on normal vinyl (actually the reel recordings spawning them), classical recordings deliver the greatest dynamic range these would take priority, with jazz next, then folk (folk-rock), and lastly rock'n'roll.. It's rather a mystery as to just how many of these vinyl recording were produced, but I have seen some very interesting ones.. I did continue my hunt, and yes------>a few Baroque compilations which include Bach, some Beethoven, other reknownd classical composers, and then interesting stuff such as "On The Threshold Of A Dream", "Dreamboat Annie", "Zenyatta Mondatta", "Who Are You", and other good ones. Don't know if or how much you may be into sound quality but these are just THE ticket to compliment a quality tube componet high-fidelity system with, most crucially, as best a disc-spinning setup as possible. Hey, sorry if I'm ranting but I'm sure you're aware of the comeback that turntables and vinyl have been making starting since, oh, near a decade a 1/2? now (and yes the "loudness war" contributed).

Gotta say I missed ya, Stewart-san. Hope your vacation is going well!

A very 'timely' video David, ahahahaha, as I've been trying to work out the five absolute best films ever made recently. I think I've got it as (in no particular order): - Star Wars (1977) - Aliens (1986) - The Exorcist (1973) - Psycho (1960) - Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) I think those are the five very best, though there are many many other extremely great films. But I have noticed they were all made 30 to 50 years ago. While there's still been some truly great films made in the last thirty years, some part of me feels they must prove their timelessness before they can be held equal to these older classics. For example Mulholland Drive, which the critics voted as the best film of the 21st century, is very high up there in my estimation, but I can't be sure how good it is until around the year 2035ish. Will cinema even exist in 2035, I wonder. Maybe they will remake Mulholland Drive in 3D with more diverse/empowered actors. It's not unlikely, in fact. I'm sure Hitchcock never expected to have Psycho remade in color with a lady showing her butthole when she falls over in the shower. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nJqZa5Re3LzWgqM.html

I listen to a radio station that does the 9 at 9 its the 9 most popular songs from some year say 1975 and the last song is always the most popular song on that same day of the year. it always seems like i have never heard whatever that last song is, whatever was most popular on that day even though I know many of the other songs from the year

Another great video. Your views are so spot on. This gives me peace in the face of some current news where some colleges refuse to teach about Bach and others due to them being "old white men". As time will show, time is the true test, not today's political agendas. Oh and Anne Hall. (Not that i'v seen it). en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Picture

This video was so awesome! I strongly agree with it, Time really is the true judge of Art!!!! :)

Things like Tolkien or Lewis will stand the test of time. The kind of author you ingrain into the culture, where people who know literally nothing about the setting know who Gandalf or Aslan is. Harry Potter probably will as well. I very much doubt any of the currently popular Marvel character will, outside of we keep better history now. No one's going to be talking about how great Thanos is. No one's going to praise Black Panther. It's the current political climate that forces these things. They don't speak to anyone.

I’m playing Kronos III while watching this. Vanilla Wow stands the test of time I can say for a fact. Great vid btw very inspiring.

Other people have already mentioned "Annie Hall" from 1977. I don't even remember the two "*light" movies coming to theaters, let alone how they won recent awards. I guess I haven't seen too many great movies during the 2010s. It's hard to even remember the plot of "The Last Jedi" now. While it's not unusual for older Jedi Masters to become hermits (Obi-Wan, Yoda, ...), they made it seem like Luke could have just sent his hologram to fight Snoke (by not even swinging his saber). Why kill off most of the Skywalker family, or leave Darth Tantrum as the lone representative of their bloodline? I've probably seen "TFA" five or more times now, and it's still hard to remember even small details, like how Finn ends up with the lightsaber that Rey found in the basement. I've probably watched "The Phantom Menace" more than 10 times and still enjoy it. The newer "Star Wars" movies just haven't stuck with me. I'm not sure if time or God is the better judge of "art." Going back to movies from the 2010s, I remember really liking "Tangled" or the way it used 3D effects. Then, there was a movie "Hugo" that stuck with me long after leaving the theater (now I own it on disc). That pushed the 3D effects even further (drawing your eye to certain parts of the picture - which may not even happen when you watch it in 2D). "Gravity" was an interesting film from that time period also. I haven't been able to watch it again in 3D or using the same kind of sound system that was in the theater (it was almost like you were actually alone in space). At the time when I watched "The Giver," I hadn't read the book (which is still true) or seen the gimmicky young adult movies like "The Hunger Games" (which kind of bored me when I've checked those out on TV). For whatever reason, that movie wasn't a huge box office success (I believe it was profitable, though), and they haven't made any sequels to my knowledge. I'd probably have to read the books to find out more of the story about that world or the characters.

That's true the prequels are standing the test of time in spite of the unpopularity which I think was more a manufacturer scheme to platform other media. There are older movies that really seem better than movies of current years even though they were not accepted back when they debuted.

Do NPC's think about these topics, one wonders? I've just watched a video on those who have *inner dialogue* going at all times and those who don't; very interesting! One just assumes that *all* human beings are the same as far as that's concerned, but no, not the case! Some people even confuse *inner dialogue* (in others) with hearing voices! In those who don't have the capacity (apparently herd mentality types) the *silence* must be deafening! Bit random, I know, but *very* interesting!

I think the reason why we remember them is that their music gets used often. The Russian musician Tchaikovsky is another case: Many know the song "Dance of the sugar fairy" because Tetris used this and a lot associate this song with Christmas

Bach live in Leipzig. very metal

First! My reign returns!

Tinking about a film or actor from 100 years, I can only remember Chalie Chaplin and his films. He was popular but did not win any Oscar at time, excetp one later when he was very old, for the coletction of his work.

1978 Oscars Best Picture competing against A New Hope was Annie Hall. I would have never guessed that cause I didn't even know that movie existed.

Hey David, I was wondering how you were doing with your Ponto Hearing device. Do you still use it regularly? And I wasn't sure if you ever disclosed the reason why you have conductive hearing loss. I had disease in my left ear and have a severe conductive loss as well and i'm looking into getting a ponto. Thanks

Today's equivalent of Mozart or Beethoven is likely producing soundtracks for movies or video games. Nobuo Uematsu, Inon Zur, Yasunori Mitsuda, Henry Gregson-Williams, Jeremy Soule, John Williams, who knows who it might be. Could it be a band such as America or Queen?

Your favourite metal albums please!

Lindy Effect en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect

I think by this standard The Room is going to be a good movie

What are your top 5 albums of all time?

Asia - Only time will tell

Understand your point that just because something has popularity doesn’t mean that it has longevity but surely it is possible to compare two things and say that one is intrinsically better than another so that Bach is better than The Bay City Rollers because of the complexity and nuance of his melodies etc (can’t use all the musical terms because I am not musical!). Another observation is that art/music develops over time. What I mean by this is that there was a radio programme here in the UK where they were saying that when a piece (might have been Bach) was originally written it was considered almost unplayable but now it is standard repertoire so that hearing a piece being played actually enables the human mind to ‘normalise ‘ it. Is that part of what makes something great over time? In contrast listening to something now that one loved 40 years ago one’s tastes have developed and one recognises that it wasn’t that good. I suspect that this will be the fate of Harry Potter.

Ironically another classic won 1977. Rocky.

sort of like dune 50 plus yes later and still considers among the best scifi of all time.

So its reflecting the pareto distribution?

Question: Where's the place for "underground legends" in this theory?

Have you watched Peter Greenaway's 'Four American Composers'?

Second! + Agreed through title alone.

Miss your regular content DVS. Are you coming back from your hiatus anytime soon?

Rocky won best picture in '77.

I can still watch Star Wars, Bladerunner, Close Encounters, or Mad Max 1 and 2 and enjoy them completely.

Always dead on. The problem with pop philosophy/music/literature/art/fashion is popular. It's virtually guaranteed that Classic and Timeless are alien concepts to a Modernist or Post Modernist. Modernism became bound to Progressivism. Post Modernists scorn any notion of Art, Truth and even Beauty and..Popular is where they are. It is truly the only place they can be. Ask any film historian about cinema. They'll tell you about films great in their decades or films great in their genre. But go on to greatest films and now the list becomes more exclusive.

Is that the canon of heavy metal, or the cannon of heavy metal?

I tend to find that most quality music exists outside the pop music sphere. Similar to how it was with the UK's underground dance clubs in the 90's and 00's you will find the really good music in a corner on KZfaq that doesn't have the might of a multi billion corporation promoting it. If anything today's best music exists along side other forms of art like games and movies. Some of the best music does get forgotten though but this is how the beast works. The less people know about a song the less likely that appreciation is passed on to a new generation.

I've had the same favorite Metal album for nineteen years in a row. I think I can consider it successful against the Test of Time, at least in regards to my own personal taste, I'm not saying Symphony X is going to become mainstream all of a sudden.

Question for David: If people can be "wrong" about the quality of a work of art when it is new, why can they not be just as "wrong" over time? Is it because the work has been examined from multiple angles, so to speak, and has still held up? Or do you have another reason?

Rocky won best picture in 1977

You should give human accomplishment he Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 a read if you didn't already. He touched on many of the subject in your video. He stopped at 1950 to give a chance for time to filter and its one of his point that once time as filtered, +/- 3 persons remains for the mass maybe 10 for the educated in any field of human achievement. In physic, music, painting, technology everyone will get right away number 1 and 2, they are the face you think off when you think of the subject. #3-5 gets a lot harder. What is fun about the book is that it is all stats based. He counted number of word associated in dictionary by individual, removing the dictionary from their own countries.

Please top 50 metal albums i

John Williams

It seems like you’re saying here that “most enduring through time” is the same thing as “best,” or at least a useful proxy for it. Do you think that’s necessarily true, or is it possible for something to be among the best in its field and NOT endure through time?

Part of it is luck and marketing as well though!

Memes or ideas (the dawkins meme, not internet meme) behave the same way as genes. They were born, they die, they evolve and they go extinct. The gene pool in our earth today is the result of billions of years of evolution and our genes are the survivors of this billion year process. With memes or ideas, they went through the same natural/social selection throughout thousands of year. This is why we see arts evolve, adapt, and spread throughout time and space. But the truly great ideas will fit in every society and resonate through everyone. This is why we all love van gogh, beethoven, bach, etc. Because their great ideas fits within all of ourself, regardless the different society

If continued watching is the proof of a good movie, then The Room becomes good ...

Actually, there are always outliers. You could have all the necessary knowledge and spend a long time on a film script, and it can still be a pile of crap.

This video was uploaded four hours ago, it's now officially art :P

"The late nineteen hundreds" Yikes. That phrase really makes me feel old!

Is it possible classical music might go away entirely because the type of people who might appreciate it will no longer exist? Millennials for example don't seem to care about anything that happened before they were born.

Annie Hall beat out Star Wars.

Time will not be kind to The Last Jedi, or any Disney Star Wars for that matter 🤣🤦‍♀️ They’re already dated, and banal

Bach is the best

According to your argument, The Last Jedi is NOT a bad movie, and only people 30 years later could decide if it is. And according to what """time""" decided, Beatles is the best rock band and Shakespeare is the best writer. And that is bullshit. That would mean the popular opinion decides what's quality. Appeal to popularity.

Metallicas self titled album outsold Megadeths Dystopia within a month of Dystopias release, while Rust and Countdown are nearly forgotten. Outside of the metal culture when somebody is asked what metal bands they know of. Metallica is one of the first bands named (if not the first), Megadeth probably wouldn't get a mention. Judged by your argument here Metallica is the qualitatively better band. I'll be real here, even though I prefer Metallica, I don't think quality is the right term here. What you're talking about is less about filtering for quality and more about filtering for modern tastes and sensibilities, and more importantly filtering out art that isn't as continuously well marketed as other works. I think their's plenty of quality art that gets tossed to the side as time passes because it doesn't fit in, and even if it might fit in later, it's still forgotten because there's no longer anyone around to market it.

Quality does fall into obscurity: Highlander, Buffy and Stargate are quite objectively crap that lasts... The video's title, in JM Domenach's words: "Would condemn critics to silence". Third, average story telling for children, in the 1950-1970s, is infinitely better done than the best for adults of today. We don't have to wait for the future to tell us we live awful times... Maybe time works for music, but it is not reliable for much else.

Disturbed and Avenged Sevenfold are the best Nu-Metal Bands of all time.

Beck is today's Mozart, calling it now

The greatest metal album ever written was Megadeth - Rust in Peace.

I know who todays Mozart is. KANYE WEST BADY!! WOOOO!!!! nah probably not.

This is how the Bible was formed, the stories that were pasted down overtime were filtered down to the most important and comprehensive writings of human history

Groupthink can bury interesting art.