Considering the number of replies and successful entries (not that I've listened to them yet), the point I intend to make is probably quite irrelevant, but I still feel the need to vent my frustration.
Is anyone else as tired as I am of the anti-intellectualism (to use a possibly elitist-sounding, but well-intended, word) that arises as soon as someone starts a tune contest with rules that expect a certain prerequisite of musical knowledge? This time it was quickly disproven and didn't give rise to much discussion, but it's not the first time, so I've begun to muse upon its motives. If I went into a sprite jam and complained that I didn't know what a pixel or a palette is, I would get lynched, ignored or consensually disagreed with. This sort of celebration of ignorance seems limited to the field of music. If you don't know what a gypsy scale (or an irregular time signature, or twelve-tone technique, as has been the case in previous contests) is, why can't you take this as an opportunity to learn? (Or am I the only one who takes pleasure in learning about things I didn't already know?) It's a rhetorical question, but I have no idea what the answer is. It seems absurd to me.
I'm sorry if I'm offending anybody; that's not my intention.
That said, I'm probably entering this contest.
