A mixture of reggae and jazz, the music of the artist was

Question

A mixture of reggae and jazz, the music of the artist was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were.

(A) the music of the artist was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were
(B) the artist was more innovative in his music than most of his contemporaries
(C) the artist’s music was more innovative than that of most of his contemporaries
(D) the music of the artist being more innovative in comparison to the music of most of his contemporaries
(E) the artist, in his music, was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were

Source: Aristotle Prep

Explanation: a-mixture-of-reggae-and-jazz-the-music-of-the-artist-was-153189.html#p1227703

shreyajain01 · Accepted Answer

After  "A mixture of reggae and jazz,"  the subject should come - that is  "music"  of the artist. 
Hence, B and E are wrong.

the music of the artist was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were. 
In this part, music is compared.

A - music is compared with contemporaries. - wrong
D -  being more innovative in comparison  - redundant and wordy
 
C -  than  that  of most of his contemporaries  - correct comparison made between music of artist and music of contemporaries. - CORRECT

C is answer.
Kindly Give Kudos, in need of it.

fameatop · Answer

3. A mixture of reggae and jazz,  the music of the artist was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were .
(A) the music of the artist was more innovative than most of his contemporaries  were 
 - Placement of WERE at end results into wrong comparison because in this option the comparison is between Innovativeness of Artist's Music v/s Innovativeness of Contemporaries  
(B)  the artist  was more innovative in his music than most of his contemporaries 
 Artist was not a mixture of Reggae & Jazz, but his music was. Thus placement of ARTIST after comma introduces Modifier error. So INCORRECT  
(C) the artist’s music was more innovative than that of most of his contemporaries 
 Correctly compares Innovativeness of Artist's Music v/s Innovativeness of Contemporaries's music

To Simplify we can write this option as  
the artist’s music was more innovative than THE MUSIC (that) of most of his contemporaries 
(D) the music of the artist  being  more innovative in comparison to the music of most of his contemporaries. 
 No need to use BEING 
(E)  the artist , in his music, was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were
 Artist was not a mixture of Reggae & Jazz, but his music was. Thus placement of ARTIST after comma introduces Modifier error. So INCORRECT

Zarrolou · Answer

A mixture of reggae and jazz

What does this part modify? The music: out B and E. (in which modifies the artist)

(A) the   music   of the artist was more innovative than most of his   contemporaries   were
Comparison music-contemporaries 
(C) the artist’s music was more innovative than that of most of his contemporaries
  CORRECT  
(D) the music of the artist   being   more innovative in comparison to the music of most of his contemporaries
"being more innovative" is awkward, C is clearly better

IMO C

ankurgupta03 · Answer

3. A mixture of reggae and jazz, the music of the artist was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were.

(A) the music of the artist was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were
music is compared to contemporaries
(B) the artist was more innovative in his music than most of his contemporaries
music is compared to contemporaries
(C) the artist’s music was more innovative than that of most of his contemporaries
Correct comparison
(D) the music of the artist being more innovative in comparison to the music of most of his contemporaries
the dreaded being

(E) the artist, in his music, was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were
incorrect modification of the artist by mixture of reggae and jazz

_________________

ISB Preparation Kit | GMAT Debrief

Signature Read More

(E) the artist, in his music, was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were incorrect modification of the artist by mixture of reggae and jazz

Narenn · Answer

Question 3
 Answer should be C

A) Wrong Comparison  music was more innovative than other contemporary artists .

B) The logical referent of  a mixture of reggae and jazz  is  artist's music  and not  artist  itself.

C) Correct Choice

D) Sentence Fragment - No verb in the choice

E) Incorrect for the same reason sited at Choice B

Narenn

doe007 · Answer

Explanation:

Concepts tested: Modifier, Comparison

As the sentence begins with a modifier phrase which is in non-underlined part too, it is important to check the start of part after the comma.

A) Illogical comparison between “music of the artist” and “his contemporaries”. “Music of the artist” should be compared with music of his contemporaries. Wrong.
B) As the sentence is starting with the modifier phrase “A mixture of reggae and jazz”, the part after comma should start with “music” and not “artist”. Wrong.
C)  Correct . “A mixture of reggae and jazz” is modifying “the artist’s music” correctly. Comparison between music of the artist and music of his contemporaries is correctly structured.
D) The sentence is unnecessarily verbose and awkwardly structured. Use of “being” is imprecise. Wrong.
E) As the sentence is starting with the modifier phrase “A mixture of reggae and jazz”, the part after comma should start with “music” and not “artist”. Wrong.

Correct Answer is C.

umeshpatil · Answer

A mixture of reggae and jazz,  the music of the artist was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were .

(A) the music of the artist was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were 
(B) the artist was more innovative in his music than most of his contemporaries 
(C) the artist’s music was more innovative than that of most of his contemporaries 
(D) the music of the artist being more innovative in comparison to the music of most of his contemporaries 
(E) the artist, in his music, was more innovative than most of his contemporaries were

If you have got the answer correct. Please, tell me why B is wrong.

Narenn · Answer

It is wrong for Three reasons. 1) Misplaced Modifier Sentence starts with adjectival phrase A mixture of reggae and jazz . What can be a mixture of reggae and jazz, Human or music ? Certainly that adjectival phrase should logically be followed by the noun it modifies i.e. Artist's music This error has led to an another error - Meaning 2) Meaning Due to the error presented above, meaning of the sentence also get changed ; Choice B says, The artist himself was innovative while in fact The music, that was a mixture x and y, was innovative. 3) Comparison Artist was more innovative IN music than IN Contemporary peoples??????? It should be Artist was more innovative in his music than most of his contemporaries were Hope that Helps!! Patil Saheb!!!

Narenn

TheMechanic · Answer

Hi, Regarding the OA, isn't possessive noun Artist's Music a bad antecedent of 'his' :shock:

. That's the reason why I reject the OA in the first place

. What is the rule am i missing here.

/Vaibhav

suryav · Answer

hi Vaibhav,
I also thought the same but other options are more worse.
also I have read some where that pronoun ambiguity is not an absolute rule.hence we can ignore it if we are left with not other choice.

experts pls comment 
 
br//suryav

TheMechanic · Answer

Hi Suryav, I think I cracked this one after pondering over a bit. So here it goes: When we have a possessive noun in the sentence we can have a possessive pronoun to indicate noun's possession. For eg: the artist’s music was more innovative than that of most of his contemporaries. Here "his" is a possessive pronoun and hence the usage is correct. However, it would be incorrect to use 1st person pronoun like him, her etc. as these stand for some noun which is mentioned some where in sentence or has some contextual reference in the sentence. Lesson learnt!! :wink:

Frankly speaking this sentence intended to test this particular concept. Vaibhav.

Bluelagoon · Answer

Opening noun modifier should have the noun after the modifier. Eliminate B and E. A is comparing music with the contemporaries. Incorrect. D is wordy and the usage of being is incorrect. C uses the modifier correctly and does the correct comparison. Hence C.

SairamRamo · Answer

A mixture of reggae and jazz   modifies music. The underlined part should start something which is related to music

Eliminate B, E

Eliminate A  as  the music of the artist  is compared with  contemporaries were

In D, the usage of  Being  is incorrect so  Eliminate D 
Below is the correct usage of  Being

>Being is used as a noun.
>When passive continuous verb tense is required to communicate the meaning .

Correct choice is C

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

A mixture of reggae and jazz, the music of the artist was

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

A mixture of reggae and jazz, the music of the artist was

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia