PrepTest 151, Section 3, Question 14
Music historian: In the past, radio stations would(75 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- ARock music is(13 more words not shown)
- BRock music must(16 more words not shown)
- CRock music requires(8 more words not shown)
- DRock music can(14 more words not shown)
- ERock music is(17 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe the three-minute limit was helping the music.
The musicians describe the rule as a barrier to creativity. I can understand why they would want more room to develop a song. But the historian says removing the restriction had a different result: song structures broke down and the music became aimless. The styles rock came from weren't well suited to those longer songs.
What we’re looking for
So the restriction may have supplied useful structure, even if musicians disliked it. For the most-supported conclusion, keep that modest lesson: a commercial limit can sometimes benefit the music. We don't need to conclude that every restriction is good or that long songs can never work.
Working the answers
- A
The problem described is extending songs beyond a length suited to the underlying styles. That doesn't establish that rock is a poor outlet for musicians with many ideas. Those musicians might create excellent short songs or distribute their ideas across several songs. A turns a particular structural problem into a broad rejection of the form.
- B
The historian doesn't prescribe borrowing new styles as the required way to make rock artistic. Returning to a useful constraint might help, or some other change might. B adds a necessary solution the passage never gives us.
- C
We aren't given a comparison of how much discipline different kinds of music require. The claim that this restriction helped rock maintain structure doesn't establish that rock needs more discipline than other forms do.
- DCorrect
In the historian's account, lifting the commercial limit was followed by a loss of useful structure and more aimless music. That supports the idea that the limit had benefited rock rather than merely harmed it. 'Can sometimes' fits this particular example without making a rule about every commercial barrier.
- E
The evidence concerns song length and structure, not musicians' self-image. It doesn't compare self-conscious artists with musicians who think of themselves differently. Nor does an account of music getting worse establish the conditions under which it is at its absolute best.
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