I was reading a story with the familiar trope of someone purposefully just recording a bunch of gibberish with no meaning and immediately being hailed as avant garde genius. Ha ha, jokes on the listener! That sort of thing.

It made me think really hard if there was anyone that I thought actually did that. I have to admit I was stumped. (I generally am skeptical of that view point anyway.)

But lots of people listen to Free Jazz or some Modern Classical and honestly seem to think the artist is playing a joke on us. I even read that recently about Satie!

I've heard things about Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, but I've never heard it. And while I know it's not generally espoused in the Lesson, I've heard the same rumor about Here My Dear.

Also have heard that supposedly Aphex Twin plays jokes on the listener with songs that are meant to be bad. Skeptical of that too.

But who do you think really is playing a trick on the listener--knowingly faking it and hoping the critics/listeners fall for it?