One reason why European music has had such a strong influence throughout the world, and why it is a sophisticated ach...

Naryan-Shukle January 28, 2022

Hi @Ileri,

This is not a question I would diagram. To me there are not enough "If___, then ___" structures to warrant looking for a way to invoke formal logic. There are no If's here. There's no hypothetical. Instead, let's read the passage and try to understand it.

Essentially, the passage says European music=influential and sophisticated. Why? Because Euro music can be separated from its initial form (dance, religious, etc).

Ok, sounds fair enough max Let's look at the answer choices. Remember, each answer choice is going to be a fact that can coexist with the passage, except one. Each answer choice we should be able to stick onto the end of the passage, and it will make sense...except one will totally ruin the argument.

(A): Sure, why not? African music is more influential. Doesn't mean Euro music isn't also influential. These can coexist.

(B): Again, sure. We can have multiple things causing Euro music to be influential. What's wrong with that?

(C) Chinese music? Who cares what it is and isn't. This has no effect on Euro music.

(D): Uh oh. This one is a problem. The author is trying to convince us that Euro music is sophisticated because you can take a Euro EDM song, and listen to it in the car. You don't need to be raving to enjoy it. D totally goes the opposite way! They're saying "the best and greatest music is something that makes no sense outside of a performance. So something like songs from a musical, or maybe the beats from a Stomp! performance. Without seeing them slamming the floor with brooms and cups, you kinda don't care anymore. These two ideas totally clash, as they have polar opposite opinions on what makes for sophisticated music. This is our answer.

(E): Thé "some" is immediately a red flag, as this is not a rule that need apply broadly. On top of that, who cares if SOME songs don't follow this? So what if a particular Cherokee indigenous song is worse without the performance? What does that have to do with European music?

Hopefully this removes some confusion! Let us know if you need any more help :)

JohnSummers February 11, 2024

Are you not assuming that you don't care anymore when music is outside of its function? All of the examples highlight not comparing things that are not adressed in the passage. Unitelligable music is not adressed in the passage and there is no way to completely rule out that this kind of music is what people like without it specifically saying that is not the case.

JohnSummers February 11, 2024

All the passage says is that European music is a sophisticated acheivment. There is nothing said about it being the most sophisticated or the most acheived. This leaves room for the possibility of the unintelligable music to be more sophisticated because it is never mentioned in the passage.

JohnSummers February 11, 2024

There is nothing about saying "unintelligable music tends to be the most sophisticated" that takes away from the fact that European music is sophisticated which is the only thing that the passage implies.

Emil-Kunkin February 11, 2024

This is where common sense comes in, and we are certainly allowed to use our common sense. As someone who lives in the world, I think it would be enough to say that just using common sense music that is an influential and sophisticated achievement is not unintelligible. To be a great achievement in art is inherently to be understood by at least a decent chunk of people, which I think precludes being unintelligible.

However we don't only need to rely on common sense here. The passage also tells us that the music in question has such internal coherence that it can stand in its own. This is pretty clearly a refutation of unintelligibility.