clarry: I'm not sure I can look up the examples now but I'm guessing it's got something to do with the lack of a (discernible) beat or percussive elements. Slow strings or pads fade in and out, move from note to note without an attack, and so on. Is that what makes music quiet for you?

But in my case, even arhythmic ambience can be loud. And then there's music that I consider quiet or loud depending on how I listen to it. For example, this one song can surround me with thundering loudness, but if I turn it down, I hear a calm beat reverberating through the distance.

Anyway, I love *chill* music, and I've never really considered quietness as such. What comes across as chill is of course very subjective... I can fall asleep listening to Insomnium or Serenity in Murder, but most of everything I hear on radio would be super irritating and difficult to chill to.

Finally, I think this is pretty quiet. Whether it is metal or just a metal band playing something entirely different is up for debate; a debate I shall take no part in. I don't care about genres too much; my two main genres are "I like it" and "I don't like it."

Warning: linked music features instruments you hate :<

GameRager: Technically ANY music can be included in a concert.

dtgreene: But why would "hard" be a desirable quality for music?

dtgreene: If you consider 4'33" (John Cage) to be music, you have your answer right there.

Even if not, there are still many examples that can be found. Much of the Hollow Knight soundtrack is pretty quiet (not the boss themes, though), and there's lots of quiet classical music out there. (It's not unusual for classical music to be both loud and soft at different parts; the 3rd movement of Beethoven's 5th symphony alternates between quiet passages in the low strings and loud passages in the brass, at least at first, while the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony (highly recommended, one of the best symphony movements out there) starts quiet and gradually builds during the first major section of the movement.

Another thing: Unlike what many call "concerts", in classical music concerts the audience is expected to be quiet so that everyone can listen to the music (PDQ Bach's Beethoven sportscast not withstanding).

teceem: There's no such thing as quiet and loud music. Classical music often has a high dynamic range (the loudest sound is A LOT louder than the quietest sound).
There is a thing called "perceived loudness" where people "perceive" music with a low dynamic range (like modern pop music) as a lot louder than music with a high dynamic range (e.g. classical music, ambient, even jazz).

Then there is overall loudness as a recording quality. By itself it's pretty irrelevant since you can amplify any recording to an ear-bleeding volume. Though amplifying a low loudness recording can (relatively) introduce more noise - depending on the hardware.

dtgreene: Have you heard of the "loudness war", where recording studios for popular music keep increasing the average volume (and losing what dynamic range existed in the original source) just to make it sound louder, making the music worse off because of it?

teceem: ...people "perceive" music with a low dynamic range (like modern pop music) as a lot louder than music with a high dynamic range (e.g. classical music, ambient, even jazz).

richlind33: Do you really believe he banged a yoga teacher? lol

dtgreene: It might be hard to include the class of works that I call "notation works" in a concert. Fairie's Air and Death Waltz is perhaps the best example I can think of.

To see what I mean (and for a *really* good laugh, make sure you're ready for it), check out this website, which has this work and a few others by the same composer:
http://socks-studio.com/2012/05/19/the-unplayable-score-faeries-aire-and-death-waltz-john-stump/

GameRager: Still, MOST other musical works can be played in a concert, even if they have weird rhythms/tempos/etc or are otherwise "weird sounding".

teceem: Sure... "technically" everything is possible I guess. But I'm not waiting for Aphex Twin trying to reenact Drukqs with 50 musicians on stage.

GameRager: Now I wanna hear Jethro Tull stuff on a diggeree doo(spelling) or perhaps Queen music on floppy drive.

teceem: Now that I think of it; "live performance" can be a meaningless concept (when you think of musicians playing instruments). What about, for example, music that uses a lot of field recordings?

I love industrial noise music and I've seen some great live performances, though the majority of people won't even acknowledge that it's music at all, let alone call those performances concerts.

GameRager: I find floppy/zip/cd rom/hdd drive music also good and a concert of it would be smashing good fun imo.

teceem: I think most people (into music) love a great visual performance (subjective of course), but I also like a "concert", where there's nothing really to see but you get to hear a unique musical piece.

Well, any real live performance is always musically unique, but it can range from a cover band trying to imitate the official recording to an interpretation that makes you wonder what you were there to see in the first place.

KiNgBrAdLeY7: Haven't you been at least with an actor, or a model? Those are easy to come by, nowadays, lately. Are you really rich, lind? lol