Saturday, January 26, 2008
Musical apathy
When I was in my Black Music discussion yesterday we went around the room and had to say what our favorite music is. It was very hard for people to say what they liked and when they did it was the same for the most part. I think that a person's musical choices are a part of their identity. Do not leave that identity up to what's popular and in the mainstream. Go out and find your own tastes even if it may be hard. I think sadly our generation is musically apathetic because we never had a strong sense of the arts growing up. At least I didn't but I still seem to have a significant taste in music. That means that's no excuse for any of you.
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3 comments:
Careful, Joe.
It would be pretty centric, if not arrogant, to say that ones music tastes are worse than another, or that one is less of a person for not being into more "cultured" music. And that this person has less identity because they happen to like the same music as everyone else.
But you're right.
Good topic, but it is difficult to say which music is "better".
I'm picturing this sort of like going to an art museum. If I go there, I didn't decide what got put into the museum, but I can look around and decide what I like the most. I might look at one of those crazy postmodern sculptures and say that it is meaningless garbage. Another person who is more cultured might come along and say that it is a representation of some part of 21st century culture.
Anyway, I have tried to build my own music tastes through lots of illegal music downloading. Say what you want about it, but most of what I download is mediocre at best, some of it borders on garbage. However, when I find a song or artist that I love and few others know about, it is a great feeling. In those cases, I have actually bought the CD.
It seems like the whole system is set up against people discovering new music without breaking the law. Clear channel and MTV feed us the same music into defined categories: rock, rap, oldies, country, etc. The RIAA does everything in its power to prevent people from acquiring music that they haven't paid for...I don't have $10,000 to pay for all the music that I own. My best way of finding new music is browsing the internet for new artists, downloading them, and then just putting my Itunes on shuffle and seeing what comes up.
There is some hope, with things like Pandora and other internet radio stations. However, I still feel like there is the same issue with music being placed into the previous "defined categories" again, as now even "indie" music has a category.
Still, when Joe took me to see Youssou N'Dour, I felt like the audience knew that they were seeing one of the best artists in the world...but yet he essentially unheard of in the US.
That all being said...if people like what they are listening to now, I can't fault them for that. Don't forget, "pop" music sort of is catchy and cliche by definition. As Joe says, it just would be nice for more people to take some musical risks.
I think I have a pretty broad musical palette. I love some stuff in the mainstream and I dislike other mainstream stuff. I appreciate that music genres I don't care for are still music. Just because some type of art or sport isn't your cup of tea doesn't make it not an art or a sport. (kind of my pet peev) Anyway I keep an ear out for stuff I like and I've managed to come up with some stuff pretty far off the beaten track.
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