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Proposal: Music Fans

The upvoted sample questions here (so far) are all about current or recent music/bands, mostly of the sort you'd hear on the radio (though there are niche genres/artists represented). What I don't see are questions about opera, broadway musicals, classical music, or much of anything pre-20th-century. Is that by design?

(I'm not advocating one way or the other; I just want to know how broad the scope is, and it's a little late to find out via experimentation. So I'm just asking outright.)

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  • While we're getting near the end of the definition phase (yay!) I would definitely say add your proposed questions to the list, just so people can refer to them during the Commitment phase. I don't think we should limit the scope, if ever, but definitely not at this stage.
    – jonsca
    Jul 21, 2014 at 7:54
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    (the scope of music covered, that is. I think we will definitely have to come to a consensus about the scope of the site itself, but you probably knew what I meant!)
    – jonsca
    Jul 21, 2014 at 8:06

3 Answers 3

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I haven't seen any indications that the scope is limited to certain eras, and if so it should be broadened. These type of questions should definitely be on topic.

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The description of the proposal mentions

music listening enthusiasts

So, if you listen to broadway musicals, I guess your questions would be on topic.

Questions about classical music would fit in as well, but some historical music questions might fit better on Musical Practice & Performance.

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I wouldn't take a lack of example questions to mean that the site is only supposed to be about modern popular music. I would really value enthusiasts' perspectives on all forms of music, as they're the ones who discover the beautiful details that give classical and operatic music its staying power.

It's probably true that the majority of this site's users will be interested in music that is currently popular. That might even be a tautology: popular music is popular. Still, users who are interested in particular genres, eras, media, etc. can use to filter for questions and answers about them. This is one of the best features of the Stack Exchange engine, and it will certainly be important here.

It's also true that many (probably all) expert music fans are also musicians themselves, and there are tons of musicology questions on the Music Practice and Performance site. If this site graduates to a full release, perhaps some of those questions would be migrated here, as I feel this site's title and description makes it a better fit for questions about the history and meaning of music. That would free up Practice and Performance to focus on the finer details of performing and conducting operas and symphonies, while we can discuss, for example, the best movements and arias to get our kids interested in music.

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