Let it never be said that pop music is stupid...

Towards the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, a completely new musical form began to manifest itself in Western Art Music: atonality. Of course, although at the time, it may have seemed to appear out of thin air, this music was years in the making. Not only was it evident in indigenous and folk musics from around the world, but it had begun to seep through consistently during the 'Romantic' period in music and was, pretty much, inevitable.

Atonal music, at the time, was considered revolting, revolutionary, incendiary and dangerous. Now it is mostly deemed either harmless or just plain boring. But 'tuneless' or 'chordless' or 'keyless' music is very important and has inflitrated everything from film music (think Psycho or... well... almost every horror movie ever) to pop music (Lou Reed, Sachiko M, death metal etc.).

It's nice, now, to know that tuneless, tonal-centreless music is cropping up in R&B too.