Q6 - Since Jackie is such a big

[bbirdwell]

Here's a simple way to break this one down.

Conclusion: J will like Cruel Herd's music

Premise: She's a big fan of Moral Vacuum's music.
Cruel heard plays complex rock music, acoustic instrumentation, harmonic sophistication..
Cruel Herd's lyrics are like some of MV's best.

(A) is right because it ties MV's music (which she's a big fan of) directly to CH's music, the conclusion that she'll like CH's music is strengthened. This is much better than the vague "all her preferred music is rock" of (D)

(B) "widely employed?" Great. How does that relate to Jackie?

(C) Students at Jackie's university? There is no evidence in the argument that Jackie's taste is like that of her peers.

(D) So all the music she likes is rock. So what? This doesn't do much at all to strengthen the idea that she will like this particular band. Sure, maybe it's a better choice than "all the music she likes is polka," but it's not the best choice. The best choice will utilize the logic of the argument in some way.

(E) No connection to CH at all. Eliminate!


#officialexplanation

[bradleygirard]

I couldn't help but chuckle over the names of these bands.

[griffin.811]

An issue with D is that we don't know to what extent the music CH plays on this new album is Rock. We know that they play rock on the album, sure, but what if its only 1 song, and all the others are pop, jazz, hip hop, etc...

This might actually work against our argument

[csunnerberg13]

I don't understand why A is a better choice than D... I thought D addressed both the logic and the information already given better than A did. I read A and had the reaction Bbirdwell posted for D - "so what?" I'm not sure why knowing that the same person is involved (the musical arranger) is stronger than saying she likes rock music and we know this album contains "complex rock music." For all we know, the musical arranger works by asking the band what they want arranged...in which case, who cares who he has worked for? We have no idea why the other person was replaced, there is no indication. This seemed to have too many unpredictable gaps to be the answer, whereas D at least addresses something we know is true of the music.

[shams.h.hirji]

As with virtually all LR questions, I think it's most helpful to return to the core of the argument to figure out why A is better than D: "Since Jackie is such a big fan of Moral Vacuum's music, she will probably like The Cruel Herd's new album".

Even if it is true that Jackie prefers to listen to rock music on a regular basis (as would be true with D), does it provide adequate support to strengthen the conclusion that Jackie will like the Cruel Herd's new album? No it does not. Sure Moral Vacuum's music features complex rock music but if that were the only criteria sufficient to make such a determination, the rest of the stimulus would be irrelevant and we could conclude that any new album that includes rock music is one that Jackie will probably like, which we clearly cannot.

The argument relies on the similarity between one type of music Jackie is known to like and an album that employs this type of music (which is described as more than simply rock music, but makes references to lyrics, instrumentation, and harmonic sophistication)

Answer choice A is unique among the answer choices for strengthening the connection between the type of music that Jackie likes and the type of music featured on the The Cruel Herd's new album. It's pretty strong evidence if, in addition to the similarities mentioned in the stimulus, the person responsible for arranging that particular style in Vacuum's music, does so on this particular Cruel Herd album. It lends greater credulity to the proposition that the musical arrangement (including lyrics, harmony, complexity, etc.) preferred by Jackie will be featured on the Cruel Herd album which is what the argument relies on to reach its conclusion.

Hope that was helpful.

[WaltGrace1983]

I think the big thing to remember here is that the correct strengthen answer choices don't need to blow the argument wide open and make it perfectly sound. It is just supposed to strengthen it (even if only a little bit).

In this argument we are talking about similar things in Cruel Herd's new album and Moral Vacuum (awesome band names by the way - I am going to quit the whole law school game and go form a band called Moral Vacuum). Similar things include the "complex rock music" the "acoustic instrumentation" the "harmonic sophistication" and "witty lyrics." All of these things are similar - that's awesome -- and that gives us a few reasons why Jackie will probably like Moral Vacuum's music. Okay now that makes sense.

(A) gives us yet another reason why Jackie will like the music - the music arranger is the same. This is probably a +1 for Cruel Herd in Jackie's book. Notice that this doesn't mean that Jackie absolutely will like Cruel Herd's new album. She could very well hate it. However, it just gives us one more reason to believe (it STRENGTHENS) the argument. That is all that is going on and when you look at it from this perspective the correct answer seems a bit better.

Now what does (D) do?

D says that all of the music Jackie listens to is rock. This seems good too and if it weren't for A this may get a few more seconds of thought. However, think about it this way:

Jackie only listens to rock music but that doesn't mean she likes ALL rock music. That is virtually impossible. Plus, rock is an incredibly varied genre anyway. Let's say Jackie only listens to the Beatles, the Stones, and Pink Floyd. This would entail that she indeed does ONLY listen to rock music. Okay, great! However, if someone gives her Cruel Herd's new album, it doesn't mean that she is going to like it a she doesn't have to.

[rinagoldfield]

Great explanations, Shams and Walt.

Jackie only listens to rock music but that doesn't mean she likes ALL rock music. That is virtually impossible. Plus, rock is an incredibly varied genre anyway. Let's say Jackie only listens to the Beatles, the Stones, and Pink Floyd. This would entail that she indeed does ONLY listen to rock music. Okay, great! However, if someone gives her Cruel Herd's new album, it doesn't mean that she is going to like it a she doesn't have to.

Even if it is true that Jackie prefers to listen to rock music on a regular basis (as would be true with D), does it provide adequate support to strengthen the conclusion that Jackie will like the Cruel Herd's new album? No it does not. Sure Moral Vacuum's music features complex rock music but if that were the only criteria sufficient to make such a determination, the rest of the stimulus would be irrelevant and we could conclude that any new album that includes rock music is one that Jackie will probably like, which we clearly cannot.

In addition to the above excellent points about (D), I’ll add one more. The argument concerns what Jackie "likes." (D) concerns what Jackie "listens to." This two phrases are not synonymous. When I’m tired after work, I prefer to watch reality TV. I don’t really LIKE reality TV, though; it’s just a highly effective escape hatch for me. See the distinction?

This isn’t the biggest point of concern with (D)"”Shams and Walt outline bigger issues above"” but it is a detail creep to watch out for.

[Mab6q]

I thought D was wrong simply because it makes the classic conditional flaw on the LSAT. If it said rock music --> she prefers to listen to on regular basis... that would make sense.. But, it switches them around. If you were in a debate, and someone responded with D, you would say that there are millions of rock albums, are you trying to say she likes every single one?

[kyuya]

Conclusion: Jackie likes MV, therefore she will like CH.

Premise 1: CH plays complex rock music that employs acoustic instrumentation and harmonic sophistication of early sixties jazz.

Premise 2: CH also has witty lyrics, like MV does

However, we know that there could be something else that would make Jackie hate CH. Maybe their lead singer sucks.

I'll go wrong to right.

(B) This answer choice is attempting to get you to assume that because one of the most employed producers in the music industry is producing CH's album, the quality will now be increased. Does most employed mean best? Or good even? Of course not. For all we know, this guy is terrible and hiring him would make cruel herds album even worse.

(C) This is a similarity - yes, however, it has nothing to do with quality or substance of the music. It is simply a venue which wouldn't influence the music in terms of lyrics, production, etc.

(D) This answer choice only tells us about the type of music Jackie likes, but doesn't actually make the case that she will like CH. It wants us to assume that in some way, being rock is sufficient to conclude Jackie will ALL other kinds of rock music, which is not the care. Perhaps its a necessary condition that doesn't actually allow us to draw any conclusions from.

(E) This might even weaken the argument. It is saying MV has things that CH may not have. This makes them more dissimilar. Or, we could view this answer choice as irrelevant. It isn't telling us anything in relation to CH, so it doesn't help us strengthen anything in the argument.

The right answer.. (A)

(A) We could see how this would fit nicely into the stimulus as an additional premise to the argument, except it is provided in the answer choices. It gives us one more solid similarity between CH and MV that raises the likelihood of Jackie liking CH.

[pewals13]

(A) is kind of a stinker but I think it's really your only option here.

Premise: Jackie is such a big fan of Moral Vacuum's music

Premise: Cruel Herd's new album, like Moral Vacuum, plays complex rock music that employs the acoustic instrumentation and harmonic sophistication of sixties jazz.

Premise: Cruel Herd also has some very witty lyrics using similar humor to Moral Vacuum's best.

Conclusion: Jackie will probably like The Cruel Herd's new album.

(A) Eh, this is weak but suggests a reason why Jackie might like the album due to its similarities with Moral Vacuum's music.

(B) This doesn't strengthen the reasoning that because Jackie likes Moral Vacuum, she will like the Cruel Herd's new album.

(C) This doesn't tell any information specific to the likelihood of whether Jackie will dig The Cruel Herd's new album.

(D) We already know from the stimulus that Jackie likes at least some rock, whether or not she likes rock exclusively or whether she also happens to like Barry Manilow's greatest hits or Kidz Bop in addition doesn't make it more or less likely that she would like the Cruel Herd because of its similarities to Moral Vacuum.

(E) This doesn't strengthen because the stimulus never mentions that The Cruel Herd uses somber or politically aware lyrics--only witty, humorous ones.

[donghai819]

Thought no one has discussed the gap in the stimulus, so just add a quick follow-up.

The reasons the author provides are some similarities between both bands. But we don't know whether Jackie cares about these two features at all.

What choice A offers is another potential ground that Jackie may care about. Therefore, it strengthens the argument.

[MichaelC134]

As someone who chose (D), I now see even if we assume that both (A) and (D) equally strengthen the conclusion of "she will probably like The Cruel Herd's new album" (i.e. A has the same arranger and D is in the same sub-genre), as mentioned above, only (A) strengthens the actual argument of "Since Jackie is such a big fan of Moral Vacuum's music, she will probably like The Cruel Herd's new album." So (A) is the right answer.

[BelindaB39]

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