Takeru

So let's say I'm having a debate, and I've made two arguments in defense of my case. One of them is weak, the other one is strong. My opponent ignores my stronger argument, exposes the flaws in my weaker argument, then claims that my entire case is faulty simply because that one argument was weak, despite my other argument being present to support my case as well.

What fallacy of logic is this again? I'm tempted to say "straw man", but I think that's misrepresentation of the case. I'm also tempted to say "cherry picking", but I think that applies to evidence, not arguments.

I'm curious if there's a more specific term that I could use to describe this music. Generally, I'd call it "pop", but it just seems way too broad (especially since I don't really enjoy most pop music out there).

The mood is typically upbeat and cheerful, almost always in a major key. The structure is generally "verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus". One to three vocalists is the norm, or one vocalist who performs along their prerecorded harmony parts. Rock instruments are almost always there; particularly bass guitar and drumkit, with electric guitar most of the time and only occasionally electric keyboard. What sets it apart is that it incorporates classical instruments to a significant degree as well, very often with strings replacing the lead and rhythm guitars, but also including piano. It also uses a LOT fewer synthesizers than typical pop, instead sticking to more "natural" instruments (aside from amplified ones like electric/bass guitar).

It feels like the elements as stated above somehow make it a little more distinct from pop, and more accurately expressed via narrower terms. I was just curious to know if there's already a universally agreed-upon definition for this type of music.

It's also worth noting that I've very rarely heard any western music in this format. Most of it seems to come from the eastern orient, which I find odd, because remove the vocals and any language indicators and I don’t see any reason why it wouldn't be common in America or especially Europe. Yet the closest western equivalent I can think of is Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles", which predominantly features piano and only very subtly uses strings.

Here's some examples.

As previously mentioned, Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwkej79U3ek

It sounds mostly like drumkit, piano, and strings for most of the song, though the strings never really take any particularly innovative departure with the harmony, which is one reason why I feel this is a lacking example. But it's the only western equivalent I can find.

And here's Maya Sakamoto's "Purachina"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4sd4mOynw8

...as well as a karaoke version so you can more clearly hear the instrumentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNDV9hCGIas

In the above song, the strings sort of subtly enter in around 0:35, then come in full force during the first chorus and continue on for the remainder. It sounds like a full string quartet accompaniment, but I'm not entirely certain. Percussions are handled by a drumkit, and you can definitely hear a lot of bass and classical guitar.

Well-thought out or well-informed answers would be most appreciated.

And yes, I'm asking this in the classical board for three big reasons. One, the classical instruments make the difference, even if the overall genre is typically referred to as pop. Two, it'd be nice to get answers from people well-versed in musical theory rather than just typical music fans. And three… eh, you guys seem more likely to be mature about it. :P

I'm looking for verses or proverbs in the Bible that are empowering or encouraging for children, but I'm not certain if any of the same nature as that I seek exist. Most of the ones I've found have been related to discipline and order, but I'm looking for something that relates to children changing the world. I suppose a comparative cliche movie line would be something like "The power is yours to change the world" or "The future of humanity rests in your hands", so something with that empowering feel would be nice.

I appreciate any and all suggestions!

I'm looking at purchasing a used Scion tC, and if anyone knows, I'd like to know when Toyota began including the auxiliary audio input as a standard feature with the Scion tC's. Most used sellers seem to forget to include whether there is one or not on their advertisements, so I'd like to know Toyota's standards.

I have a laptop and about a dozen different devices connected via USB at any given time (and a similar number of hubs and ports to accommodate them), and it irritates me whenever unplug a device from one USB port and plug it into another. For some reason Windows sees it fit to "install" drivers for that device even though I've used it with the computer before.

For instance, ten minutes ago, I unplugged my wireless mouse's receiver from one of the ports on my laptop, and plugged it into a port on the back of my external G15 keyboard. It's the same device, I've already installed mouse drivers, and yet the mouse ceases to function for 20 seconds while a little popup in the lower right corner tells me that it's "Installing Device Drivers". What's up with that? I had it plugged in like 10 seconds ago, does it not recognize the receiver as being the same device?

Same goes for my external hard drives, of which I have about 6 or 7 of them. They all have to go into exactly the same ports that they were in before in order for me to avoid reinstalling their drivers. Plugging them into a different port will at best force that to happen, and at worst tell me the drive needs to be formatted.

I'm running Windows 7 RC, but this has been a recurring issue since both Vista and XP. What's the explanation for this, and is there any way to get it to stop?

Oh, and don't tell me to switch to a Mac. I'm also a gamer, thank you very much.

I have family who's going to be coming here to California from Germany; they're most likely landing at Los Angeles International. How long is a typical flight between Berlin and LAX? And by typical I mean no tailwinds or headwinds or annoying complications?

I'm a power computer user and I'm constantly working on various projects, many of which require me to have large amounts of programs and resources open at the same time; I usually have about 10 open programs and folders on my taskbar at any given time of the day.

The problem is that it's kind of a pain to run around my computer and get all of those things opened when I start a work session.

What I'd love is a program that will, for example, allow me to create a list of programs, files and other resources that all automatically open at the same time when I double-click the name of the list.

If it changes anything, I'm using Windows 7 RC. I know that Microsoft likes to add interesting features to their OS's without much fanfare, so if anyone can point out any functionality already included with the OS that can do that, it'd be great.

A lot of games I've played have synthetic orchestrated music, the biggest example being World of Warcraft. Typically, what's the most common software used to create music in such a way?

I've owned the original Rock Band Special Edition for quite a long time now. Seeing Rock Band 2 and their optional cymbal addons (as well as their Ion drum kit), I was wondering, do they have extra charts to correspond with the added cymbals or do the same-colored cymbals simply match the color marked on the chart?

I know Rock Band is capable of discerning notes with the same colors; on the official Stratocaster guitar, the game could discern whether whether a player was pressing the top or the bottom frets during solos, even though they were the same colors. So I know for sure that it's possible and that they CAN do it, but does anyone know if they plan to?