I think to appreciate certain types of music it is necessary to look at the social context in which it was conceived. For example the music of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, particularly their first album is dismissed by some people as nothing but abrasive noise. Yes the music may be noisy, however when one looks at Kurt's home life and the way in which he grew up, its no surprise that's how his music turned out! I think one of the problems caused by modern pop music, is that it is made purely for the purposes of people dancing to in shitty clubs, and for record labels to make money from and in this, the whole purpose of making music has been lost.I see music as any sort of sound that has been created as a form of self expression, to convey an emotion or atmosphere to the listener. It seems the vast majority of pop music doesn't achieve this well, with the industry recycling the same sound over and over because people will, for some reason buy it. Now the emotions Cobain was feeling when he wrote Nirvana's first album certainly were not contempt and joyfulness, and so its no surprise his music came out sounding the way it did; full of white noise, feedback and teenage angst.
Music is also inevitably going to be a progression of what has come before it, with the new artists trying to push the boundaries of what has been done before (Another reason I think our current music industry sucks. There has been no noticeable progression in the general sound of pop music since the invention of digital recording and auto-tune.) This progression is very noticeable in rock music, where ever since the late 50s bands have been looking for new ways to re-invent the genre, by taking certain aspects and pushing them to extremes, and eventually forming new genres out of it. A particularly notable case of this is the "shoegaze" bands of the late 80s and early 90s. Bands like My Bloody Valentine surprised people by taking the standard arrangement of a rock band (Drums, Guitars, Voice and Bass) and creating an almost entirely new sound out of it.
When combined, these two factors can lead to sounds that people are not used to, and will often reject for a variety of reasons, but it is important to take music at more than face value and look at what an artist it trying to achieve in their music, rather than whether it sounds nice to your ears. I think when people start doing this more, it will lead to a great progression in sound and generally create a better surrounding for new artists.
I agree that looking at the context is important when deciding how good the music is, and I think it's interesting to do (which is lucky otherwise I would be out of a degree :P). However, if I don't like something, I don't like it. Like, some of the stuff I study I recognise is really clever and impressive given the context but I still wouldn't put it on my iPod. I'm not familiar with Kurt's first album, but I'm sure many people regard it in a similar way, which isn't insulting :)
ReplyDeleteAlso it's funny because one of my modules is called Music in Context!
ReplyDeleteYou're saying that people shouldn't dismiss music out of hand, but should consider the context in which it's written and consumed. You then identify the context in which modern pop music is meant to be played and then dismiss it out of hand anyway.
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult to make a simple value judgement about music because it's almost impossible to define your argument - if you say music is "good" or "bad", what do you mean? That doesn't really have a clear literal meaning.
In order to make a value judgement about music you have to consider its intended purpose. If some grunge or shoegaze music was intended to convey a certain emotion and it does so then it is a success. Likewise, if an autotuned pop house track was meant to sell units and it does so, it too is a success.
If you're into music for its own sake, or think music should be an art form, then perhaps you'll resent the pop music industry, as it is not designed to cater for active music fans. It's also true that it fills up the market so that very little original, avant-garde, artistic, or whatever music gets that level of recognition.
"I see music as any sort of sound that has been created as a form of self expression, to convey an emotion or atmosphere to the listener. It seems the vast majority of pop music doesn't achieve this well"
But the music does achieve this - it creates the kind of atmosphere you get in what you call a "shitty club" (I tend to agree), people dance to it and remember the hooks, the best sellers fulfil this aim perfectly. It's just not an atmosphere you or I are particularly into. But if you're going to use the context argument in favour of one style of music you do like, it should apply equally to another style you don't like.