Is it the music we value: thoughts on popular music
As most of you all know, I tend to prefer extremes in taste. After a fling with orthodox liturgy, Old-Slavic hymns, and requiems, I threw myself into pop music from the last twenty years. I became excited at listening to songs from a decade ago. These are songs that I did not hear often, since I was not allowed to watch MTV and did not miss it much.
First, I was surprised at the quality and content of the Grammy nominated songs that I listened to. I know that a compilation of nominated songs on a CD should be expected to be commercially viable, but when I compare the songs on the CDs that I checked from the library to a list of Academy Award nominated movies, there seems to be no contest in the quality of the movies.
After a few days of listening, I realized that with the exception of songs which have an event association with them. These songs have no meaning other than temporary emotion manipulation. I have always valued recognizing a Forrest Gump-ish range of music from period pieces: the early radio of Al Jonson and Gene Austin to the Andrew Sisters to Elvis to Marvin Gaye to Buffalo Springfield to Pink Floyd to Steve Winwood to Everclear and Green Day.
In the movie sampling, you never hear the verses. The chorus and a few seconds of the bridge are edited for the big screen–enough to add atmosphere. I’ve sadly been disappointed in the quality of the actual songs. At the start of my endeavor, I was optimistic. I was searching for something mystical. The entire crowd must not be wrong, right? Since everyone prizes his or her music with passion. There are social networks built around music taste and sub-genres of sub-genres. If I could listen to enough time periods and genres then I would find some useful knowledge–songs that I could empathize in that would transfer me to an previously unknown destination.
But is it actually the music that we value? Or is it the nostalgic association with the music? Do we remember our first prom, our first kiss, our spring break road trip, or a breakup when we open ourselves up to a familiar piece of music? If I have no nostalgic association with the music or if the only association I have with the music is vicariously through a movie, how can I value the music? I can then only appreciate it either by the actual music or the theme of the lyrics. It is within these that I have been disappointed.
I wasn’t searching for musical virtuoso. My vicarious/empathetic hunger was searching for anecdotes and angst indirectly through music. Without the relationship though of friendship, this hunger is unfulfilled in the words and arrangements of pop music. The story presented by each song is incomplete to me without an external reference–even if fictional.
How is a relatively low conflict life supposed to appreciate music? How can one feel solidarity unless trust and authenticity is built through shared experiences? Otherwise, we are journeying into a foreign movie, someplace we have never been. Unless I am creating external references to the songs as I listen to them, these songs are sliding off my brain. Without similar conflict and stress in my life, I am not internalizing any of these songs nor am I internalizing the theme referenced by each song. I cannot relate.
What do you think? Can you relate to music on the radio? Do you still enjoy the music you listened to when you were a teenager? Why do you enjoy it?
Further Reading on Current Events
- And we wonder why we have a debt problem
- Voting and photographing the election in Indiana
- 2004 Greece Olympics photographs posted