The endless questions are implied anyway as the borders are not very clean. 12 tone jazz still popular music are already serious business? Neo-Classic-Metal? etc ;-)
Yeah, but the average person doesn't know what dodecaphonic jazz is or where exactly the line blurs between u-musik and formal music :p I don't think it's even possible to explain that to a person who hasn't studied music at some point. They just lash out at me whenever I mention something they aren't familiar with, like you see in this thread.
Well, I understand you much better since I know that you're an (aspiring) teacher. You have the right attitude/writing style already.
But back to topic, "to sound different" is imo no worthy goal. Different doesn't mean good. I'd rather have another "generic" (which is by the way just another bland word) soundtrack that sounds nice than serious music, that sounds different - but also not as nice. You know, most people are only interested in whether they like music, whether they like the melodies and the sound. They don't care at all whether somebody made it who has studied music himself or whether somebody uses certain techniques. There is no value in these things if they don't create music that people like more - especially in ambient/soundtrack music. I mean, we're no talking about an opera or an instrumental track in which the music has to speak for itself. That's a completely different premise.
