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{{Short description|Maxim about music criticism}}
[[File:Martin Mull.jpg|thumb|Musical comedian [[Martin Mull]] (pictured in 1976) is thought to have originated the quote, although an earlier variation of the line from the early 20th-century has been documented.]]
"'''Writing about music is like dancing about architecture'''" is a [[Maxim (philosophy)|maxim]] used to express the futility of translating music through words.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brackett |first1=David |title=Interpreting Popular Music: With a new preface by the author |date=2000 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520925700 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RSdcP4f24tgC&pg=PA157}}</ref> It may be employed as an argument for dismissing [[music criticism]] altogether.<ref name="Creative">{{cite book |editor1-last=Adelaide |editor1-first=Debra |editor2-last=Attfield |editor2-first=Sarah |title=Creative Writing Practice: Reflections on Form and Process |date=2021 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=9783030736743 |pages=210–212 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YlJHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA212}}</ref>
The quote's origin is unknown. It is most commonly misattributed to musicians [[Laurie Anderson]]<ref name="Keyes" /> and [[Elvis Costello]].<ref name=":0">{{cite magazine|date=March 2008|magazine=Q|title=50 Years of Great British Music, Elvis Costello Interview|page=67|quote=Oh, God! Can I ''please'' put in print that I didn't say that! [...] It still follows me around, that one. It's probably in some book of quotations credited to me.}}</ref> Others, including Costello himself, credit the remark to comedian [[Martin Mull]], although a variation ("'''talking about music is like singing about economics'''") has appeared in print since as early as 1918.<ref name=":1" />
==Origins==
The origins of the quote have never been verified. It has been attributed to musicians, entertainers, and writers such as [[William S. Burroughs]], [[Miles Davis]], [[Thelonious Monk]], [[Charles Mingus]], [[Frank Zappa]], [[George Carlin]], [[Martin Mull]], [[Lester Bangs]], [[David Byrne]], [[Steve Martin]], [[Elvis Costello]], and [[Laurie Anderson]].<ref name="Keyes">{{cite book |last1=Keyes |first1=Ralph |title=The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When |date=2007 |publisher=St. Martin's |isbn=9781429906173 |page=256 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d6JZryGvfxYC&pg=PA256}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|Frank Zappa opined in a 1977 interview for the ''[[Toronto Star]]'', "Most rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read."<ref>{{cite news|date=September 24, 1977|newspaper=[[Toronto Star]]|title=Zappa the Zapper|first=Bruce|last=Kirkland}}</ref> He was then misquoted by ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', whose editors removed the word "most", misleadingly suggesting that Zappa had condemned the entire medium of rock journalism.<ref>{{cite web |last1=O’Toole |first1=Garson |title=Rock Journalism is People Who Can't Write Interviewing People Who Can't Talk for People Who Can't Read |url=https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/07/07/rock-journalism/ |website=Quote Investigator |access-date=September 9, 2022 |date=July 7, 2011}}</ref>}}
One of the earliest known usages of the phrase "dancing about architecture" appears in a 1979 ''[[Detroit Free Press]]'' magazine article, where it is attributed to Martin Mull, although this instance is predated by other print sources that contain similar expressions such as "singing about economics".<ref name=":1">{{cite web |last1=Dubner |first1=Steven J. |title=Quotes Uncovered: Dancing About Architecture |url=https://freakonomics.com/2010/12/quotes-uncovered-dancing-about-architecture/ |website=[[Freakonomics Radio|Freakonomics]] |date=December 30, 2010}}</ref> A 1918 ''[[The New Republic|New Republic]]'' article remarks,
{{blockquote|Strictly considered, writing about music is as illogical as singing about economics. All the other arts can be talked about in the terms of ordinary life and experience. A poem, a statue, a painting or a play is a representation of somebody or something, and can be measurably described (the purely aesthetic values aside) by describing what it represents.<ref>{{cite magazine|date=February 9, 1918|magazine=[[The New Republic]]|title=The Unseen World|author=H. K. M.|page=63|volume=14|publisher=The Republic Pub. Co.}}</ref>}}
The maxim reappeared in a 1921 article penned by academic Winthrop Parkhurst, who wrote,
{{blockquote|Like the musical critic who lamented impotently that "talking about music is like singing about economics," those musicians with a knack for literary expression may quite possibly be frightened off from a task which is reputed to be as arduous as turning "[[Das Kapital]]" into a song.<ref>{{cite journal|date=October 5, 1921|journal=The Freeman|volume=4|number=82|title=Music, Mysticism and Madness|first=Winthrop|last=Parkhurst|page=93|publisher=The Freeman, Inc.|location=New York}}</ref>}}
<!--- Parkhurst returned to the topic in a 1930 issue of ''[[The Musical Quarterly]]'',
{{quote|Some critic once observed that talking about music is like singing about economics; and it must be admitted that most conversation about music supports the apophthegm, for it is commonly as strange a perversion of the subject as would be the transformation of Das Kapital into a lullaby.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Parkhurst |first1=Winthrop |title=Music, the Invisible Art |journal=The Musical Quarterly |date=July 1930 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=298-299 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>}}
--->
In a 1983 interview, Elvis Costello responded to a question about his treatment in the music press by stating, in part,
{{blockquote|Framing all the great music out there only drags down its immediacy. The songs are lyrics, not speeches, and they're tunes, not paintings. Writing about music is like dancing about architecture—it's a really stupid thing to want to do.<ref name="Creative"/><ref>{{cite magazine|date=October 1983|magazine=[[Musician (magazine)|Musician]]|title=Elvis Costello: A Man Out of Time Beats the Clock|authorlink=Timothy White (writer)|page=52|issue=60|last=White|first=Timothy}}</ref>}}
Costello subsequently became widely identified with the quote. In a later interview, he denied having originated the phrase, adding with uncertainty that he may have gotten the line from Mull.<ref name=":0" /> Laurie Anderson believed that the "dancing about architecture" saying had derived from Steve Martin.<ref name="Keyes"/>
==Criticism==
Music critic [[Robert Christgau]] responded to the maxim:
{{blockquote|One of the many foolish things about the fools who compare writing about music to dancing about architecture is that dancing usually is about architecture. When bodies move in relation to a designed space, be it stage or ballroom or living room or gymnasium or agora or Congo Square, they comment on that space whether they mean to or not.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Miekus |first1=Tiarney |title=Where The Metaphor Fails - "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" |url=http://www.collapseboard.com/where-the-metaphor-fails-writing-about-music-is-like-dancing-about-architecture/ |website=[[Collapse Board]] |access-date=May 12, 2022 |date=June 8, 2015}}</ref>}}
==See also==
* [[Microgenre]]s
* [[Rockism and poptimism]]
==Notes==
{{reflist|group=nb}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:English phrases]]
[[Category:English-language idioms]]
[[Category:1970s neologisms]]
[[Category:1979 quotations]]
[[Category:Philosophical arguments]]
[[Category:Music criticism]]