I don't do much of anything when I get really depressed, and that seems to happen a lot. The only thing I have any solace in is playing music(and even that seems like an elaborate fraud)so it's all I've really accomplished lately. I don't touch my blog, I have trouble going out for reasons other than work and my whole being feels like complete caca.
So, Saturday night and...well, I guess I can tackle something.
When I talk about music "coming around again," I characterize it as having a social cycle. Social Cycle Theory posits a repeating of events and stages of society which nullifies the possibility of social progress. I have always thought the theory could accomodate various tenets of Multiverse Theory("Wiki" it- I'm always learning shit just browsing that darn site)by arguing as all events are relative to the observer and as we occupy vastly different dimensional aspects since the last iteration, so we hold one variable(and let's assume quantifiable)in common though our chronological basis differs. I may then state "Yes, history does repeat itself. However, the participants cannot be where(as in "when")they were on any event's last occurrence. There can ALWAYS be something new, and there is no need to celebrate defeat with Anti-Art(when it becomes average, we are all dead)when there is real æsthetic Terra Incognita remaining to be embarked upon."
Well, when's it coming around again?
The pendulum arcs are accelerating. Changes happen so quickly now that an insufficient time is given for any music to really sink its teeth into our DNA. As soon as acts are shuffled in, they are quickly shuffled out or they haul their one-trick-pony out thousands of times until they die in Vegas. In the past ten years, I've seen (c)Rap, Pop-Punk, Post-Punk, Metal Punk, Black Metal, Metal Metal, Teen Ingénue, Thiry-Something Ingénue, Male Teen Ingénue, Male Trailer Park Ingénue, Hip-Hop, Trip-Hop, House, Dance, Trance, Club, Drum and Bass, Crunk, Spunk, Funk, R&B(a FAR cry from Rhythm and Blues, sadly...),Gospel, Blues, Jazz, Lite-Sexy-Funk(most jazz is now this), A&R, EMI, BMI, ASCAP, NARAS, The Napster Effect, and shit, I could just go on and on. The point is, Music has never been bigger business than it is right now. Perhaps that is why it all suffers. Honestly, I just can't get into anything at all that is new. One might chalk it up to the depression, but Chopin, Herbie Hancock, Steely Dan and Zappa still do it for me. So, scratch that.
No, music just sucks today.
I feel like there is no ambition. There is just celebration, mostly of the self. Everything sounds too slick, all the time. Life in Listening to Music has become a Pro-Tools fantasy in which reality can be changed or erased at the whim of the Whim. Everything is loud, all the time. Hasn't anybody heard of Modal Interchange chords other that bVI or bVII?(Fucking Aeolian chords at that!) Voice leading? REAL Theme and Development? Keys other than Db for rock songs? More of the good things that people like Justin Timberlake and Pharell do instead of the posturing bullshit? REAL instruments behind rappers? REAL instruments, engineers and songwriters in the R&B thing? Jazz players that don't waste all their energy on volcanic chops-infested playing or pentatonic safety?(John Scofield, in particular...)
So, if music is such big business and as a result the music suffers, must the business fall for the music to succeed?
I think, yes. Musicians will need only each other at this point and they can get back to doing what they do best without corporate masters. I bet Rupert Murdoch's I-Pod playlist would be amusing.
posted by TheAdequateDer @ 6:01 PM
36 Comments:
"Music just sucks today" is bullshit, though.
It's always bullshit, every time it gets trotted out by someone feeling wistful enough about What They Used To Have Back In The Day to forget that vapid pop has always been the baseline of public taste, as if there were ever a time that Sturgeon's Law was not in operation. The lament of the death of talent can be counted on to spring up with every new aesthetic brought on by an innovation in technology; no doubt the invention of the hurdy-gurdy was greeted by some sour greybeard saying that These Youth know notte of Musicke, for now 'tis all Drones and Howlinge without Skyll, and not like yt was when I was a Ladde.
Meanwhile, in the quieter corners of the realm, good music continues to be made, just as it always has. Maybe it's not on the radio; maybe it's hard to find and you still might not like most of it; maybe tracking it down means talking to people about what you do like and asking after what else is out there that scratches the same itch. This is forfuckssake an age of Information unlike any before, and finding obscure art is in the reach of anyone with a connection to the Web. If you can't find something you like out there, maybe it's because you're spending too much time harping (heh) on what it is you don't like.
And as one depressive to another: dwelling upon the stuff you hate is a toxic feedback loop. Stop it. Stop defining yourself in the negative space between all the things you find unsatisfactory about this flawed and absurd world, because those things aren't going to shift just because you bitch about them. You don't like music on the radio these days? Fine; make some of the kind that brings you joy. Fill the space of what's missing in the world. But quit being affronted that your own tastes are out of alignment with the hoi polloi, and stop stop stop the dreadful tirades about how x chord progression is the death-knell of Art, because that shit is downright insulting to, e.g., me as a performer and songwriter. Wallowing around in all that does a disservice to your mental health, to music, and to the world.
You're a musician. You've been given gifts of skill and intellect that come to a rare few. I believe that comes with a responsibility; that responsibility is to celebrate something. You don't have to accept that, of course. But you should know enough about the act of creation to know that you're going to get out of music exactly what you put into it, and right now, it looks like all you're putting in is disdain. If it continues to give you back nothing but disappointment - well, what did you expect?
Okay. For starters: Ohforfuckssake. Some of the finest guitar players in the world own a damn capo. Do you really think that's a measure of anything?
(And I must politely but emphatically point out that you know nothing about the music I've written. Nothing.)
Seriously - I'm not trying to knock Der as a composer or a performer or a theorist; I have, after all, no exposure to what he's done, and it's apparent enough that he has, at the very least, a keen mind and an excellent grasp of the science and Art of music. Nothing I've said calls into question his musicianship (and if it seemed to, then I most heartily apologize). What I object to, very specifically, is the relentless negativity - not least because someone of Der's talents with nothing to say, it seems, except on the subject of how awful the music everyone else is making is a dreadful waste and a loss to the community of musicians. Or so I believe. I realize this quite possibly makes me just as tiresome and cranky in my own way. So it goes.
To make things as perfectly clear as I can: I have great respect for Der based on what (very) little I know of him. I'd love to drop in here and hear his thoughts on what great music is or could be instead of all the shit he hates. He is, however, obviously enough, under no obligation to make me happy. It's his house, and for all that it's a public forum with comments enabled, I've done all the calling bullshit I intend to do. Made my point, moving on.
An asshat? I suppose. If having a strong opinion qualifies you for that title, then we're all asshats here; but I'm not quite willing to make that leap. I'd rather this hadn't come down to name-calling and nasty comebacks at all, to be honest - I'm saddened and hurt and disappointed, but I guess getting a response of "Oh yeah? Well, you probably suck too, then" is at least a good clear sign that I wasn't going to get a, yanno, Conversation here. Which is my fault for making a case vehemently and at length, and I should've known better. Oh, well, then.
Onward. Best of luck to you folks, whatever it is you're hoping to find.
Wow. I am really not going to get into an argument about the worth of my music (sorry, "music"). I will say that I'm absolutely fine with not everyone in the world liking it. But you'll be indulgent, I hope, if I take the measure of its less subjective worthiness from folks who don't seem to have an axe to grind.
(Not that there's an actual instance of the Forbidden Progression anywhere in the lot of what I've made publicly available - though I have hung one tune so far on that structure, so I guess I'm unequivocally Part Of The Problem after all. But, yanno, I'm a folksinger - High Art? Low Art? Those are distinctions with no fixed meaning I can discern. And indeed, the idea of marking a line between them is very much part of my problem, here.)
Wouldnt you agree that writing a song with the EXACT same chord changes as 1000s of other songs.A similar melody and harmonic rythym isnt very creative or artistic?
Not at all. Variations on a theme are the crux of creativity. Something doesn't have to be new to be good. Depends on what you're looking for, I guess; Picasso or Brancusi. And you don't want to look at the same torso eighty different ways, well, that's cool - but the problem isn't Brancusi's.
See, this really, really isn't about me. Do I feel insulted that Der is taking potshots at certain approaches because I've used them myself? Well, sure, but I didn't really take it personally. (You calling me a paint-by-numbers songwriter? That's personal. I wish you wouldn't do that, but oh well.) As much as anything else, I object on behalf of other artists I admire who do similar stuff, which has a great deal more merit, sigly and collectively, than my wee corner of folksongdom alone. And mostly, I have a problem with folks not knowing when to shrug and say "De gustibus."
You're a master vintner, trying to make a perfect, complex, subtle Cabernet? That's both great and admirable - the world is improved by this. The world is lessened, though, if the whole time you're doing it you're publicly angry that there's a market for $3-a-bottle Blackberry Merlot. It's not a zero-sum game.
See, above all, my problem is with snobbery, because it turns otherwise good and worthy people into nasty, belittling bullies. That's, frankly, what you're trying to do to me here. And, yeah, I think this is a much bigger problem than the ubiquitousness of G,D,Am,C. This idea of wrongbadfun - make that wrongbadart - is toxic, no matter how much "evidence" is given for it. The fact that you think it's okay to tear me down because I don't know enough chords, or don't arrange them in a way innovative enough to please you, is exactly why I have a problem with this attitude. Not just for my sake - I'm a grownup and can look after myself - but for the sake of everyone out there who picks up a guitar with nothing more than a I,V,IV and delights in the joy of creation. They don't deserve your scorn, your sneering, your derision; they don't deserve to be told that their work has no worth. And neither do the people who find something bright and lovely to connect with in the music they make. They are not deluded, or stupid, or without discernment. They just aren't looking for the same things you are.
As I said, I thought - I hoped - that I pointed all this out without making it be a personal attack on Der, despite my admitted and obvious frustration; but if I didn't, I'm sorry, and I'm willing to take responsibility for that. I'm not interested, see, in hurting his feelings. I do wish you'd approached your responses the same way.
The kind of response you gave is never called-for, though. It doesn't do anything except wound.
Frankly, the way I compose, and the vocabulary I choose to use, is not much of anyone's business but mine. Though it feels worthwhile to point out that I'm working in a certain idiom, and no one would (frex) think of slapping down a blues musician for using the same song-shapes blues has used since God was a boy, so why it's okay to do that to my style of straightforward, minimalist folk is beyond me.
I promise I hadn't actually intended to have a conversation about harmony, and to be honest, only mentioned it in the context of what was actually sticking in my craw. Der's knowledge of harmony is indeed well beyond my ken and training, and, as I said, I have nothing at all but respect for him there. And you're right - I don't have the understanding of it that he does, and I assume you do as well. So I got no argument with him, or you, on the theoretical level, except to suggest that it might be more useful to say "I don't care for this" instead of "This is bad, and so are you if you like it."
And, really, I got no argument with him for not liking what he doesn't like, which is none of my damn business either. I got an argument with a tone of discourse that I strongly feel isn't productive, and doesn't seem to be making him any happier, as a musician or otherwise. Like I said, there's lots of stuff I'd love to read him on the subject of, should he rechannel all the energy of his annoyance into it, not that it's anyone's blog here but his. (And I still stand by the assertion that if you believe there isn't good music being made right now, you're not looking in the right places. Not holding up myself as an example of that, mind.)
Of course I'm interested in expanding what I'm capable of, musically. It's a journey and I'm at a particular stage of it, learning as I go. I'm okay with that. I'm also conviced that not using something because it's simple, or obvious, or popular, doesn't make me a better musician, just a more stubborn one. And that the quest for complexity and innovation is its own set of limitations.
All that vented and said: I appreciate the compliment about my writing. Thank you. I insist it's got little to do with study, except in the most vicarious way; I do what I do because it's what brings me joy. Music's the same for me.
(And, to be utterly honest, I'm really not knowledgeable at all about wine; I just know what I like. You can draw your own parallels there.)
Fair enough; you're right. You're certainly free to dislike, critique, ignore, or whatever you like. That is indeed the price of making art public.
Not anyone's business to take it upon themselves to teach me what I'm doing "wrong," is closer to what I meant to say.
And that, if you are going to bring my work into the conversation, a certain level of civility doesn't seem like too much to ask for. Which is to say: "But, Dan, all your stuff I've heard is based on simple, obvious changes and phrasing" is completely true and something I'll cop to without hesitation, and a more than valid point for discussion. "Your songs are the musical equivalent of paint-by-numbers" is just fightin' words.
Okay. Wow. I don't know what-all is going on here, but all I do know is that Dan is about the antithesis of an "asshat" if anyone is.
Is your Art really -that- important to you that you feel like it's okay to launch this sort of attack? Is his knowing or not knowing about harmony enough to justify you being a "vampire?" Because you know what vampires do, right? They suck something rather vital out of one; and the fact that they're invited does not excuse their doing this, no matter how passionately they feel about the subject at hand.
Dan came in the way he did here as far as I can tell because his buttons were pushed wrt his own issues with depression and "everything sucks." Speaking from someone who knows those grey winds myself, I am with Dan in saying: coming back to a person who has expressed such sentiments with "well YOU -really- suck, especially" does NOT help ANYTHING or -anyone.-
I probably ought to stay completely out of this.
For one thing, it's not my habit to meddle in the affairs of musicians, because I am crunchy and good with ketchup.
Also because I'm not a musician, and the longer and louder I yammer on, the more likely it is that someone will get all fed up and go "oh shut up, Yoko!"
ALSO because I have strong IRL ties to a couple of participants. I mean, really strong. Like I'm related to one of them, and the other one sneaks into our house and reads my schoolwork when we're not home.
I feel like I ought to say...something.
Maybe I should finally chime in.
Dan, I did not share the same vitriol expressed earlier. My personal beef came in your willingness to employ what seemed like gratuitous negative reinforcement, but that passed fairly quickly.
I will expand on this point in a later post, but as I see it, a continued mediocrity in music-at-large seems to encourage success by responding to mediocrity in kind. Of course, there's good music and musicians out there but they are getting no support at this time. Even good musicians play crap to get promoted. It sends the message that "anyone can be a musician"(I cannot disagree more vehemently)and "if you've steeped yourself in music as high art, well, you're fucked...unless you want to dumb it down."
I look at the affair as a question of timelessness. When I remember, as a manager at a Strawberries music store around '97, the press Puff Daddy received as "the next coming"(and let's add others that similar laurels were heaped upon... Bush, Garbage, Third Eye Blind, Wu-Tang, Britney, Christina, Blink 182, Korn, Green Day(arguable...Billie Joe can write melodies), and on and on...)I think about how much of the "great" music we had to push still remains in the public memory. As opposed to, say, Mozart, Miles Davis, Jim Croce, Zeppelin, Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, etc. I'm simply trying to say there is no timelessness in the music being mass-produced today.
I just think it's about time we elevated the world by cutting off the musical gristle. That means, yes, elitism.
And proud.
Also because I'm not a musician, and the longer and louder I yammer on, the more likely it is that someone will get all fed up and go "oh shut up, Yoko!"
Well, not I, my asshattery notwithstanding.
I mean, making myself persona non grata in the entire Antip virtual household is too much in one week even for me.
Thanks for the response, Der.
The trouble is, well, I like a lot of the recent bands you listed. Maybe not the staples of my collection, but more than listenable; I mean, I'd turn up the stereo for almost any track on Sixteen Stone. I realize you have very specific things you're using as yardsticks, but I can't bring myself to care that much about most of that - indeed, I'm a fan of seeing simple elements come together in interesting ways to be more than the sum of their parts. And, mostly, I'd rather just enjoy what resonates with me, and ignore what doesn't, and accept that those things are going to be different for every human being who can hear.
Timelessness? I dunno. Really, I think that's not even for the current generation to decide. Mozart died in poverty, yanno? Things endure that need to endure. Pull up a Top 40 list from decades back and see how much of it is unrecognizable; 1964 wasn't all Beatles. The gristle washes away. In the meantime, I'm not really prepared to tell 14-year-old girls everywhere that listening to the pop icon of the hour is badwrongfun and I'm taking it all away for their own good, even if I had that power. What good would it do, except to suppress joy? And what real harm does it do me? The radio has an off-switch. And those 14-year-old girls aren't going to listen to the stuff I'm making or want to make anyway, and the 14-year-olds of twenty and thirty years ago wouldn't've either. It really is a big enough world.
As far as good, complex music not getting support - well, I'm right there with you on the suckiness of that. At the same time, I really think that the best response is to support, personally, the artists you do like. The more that happens, the more independent musicians won't have to water down their work to make it "accessible" just for the sake of continuing to make music, and they also won't be at the mercy of the monolithic major-label recording industry, which seems to be going out of its way to turn into the kind of brutal oligarchy that keeps William Gibson up nights.
I suspect you and I are unlikely to see eye-to-eye on the subject of elitism; I have too much fondness for the egalitarian punk ethos that invites everyone to participate. Anyone can be a musician? Well, maybe not, but I'd rather live in a world where more people feel free to try. Once again, keeping the spheres of music pure and untainted is not worth, to me, quashing the joy and enthusiasm of every kid who watches their favorite rock star and thinks, "Wow, I bet I could do that." Does that mean sifting through more stuff that's banal and uninspiring to find the true gems? Sure. There really are worse fates, though. And I'm frankly more than willing to put up with a world of Salieris for the sake of even the possibility of a few more Amadeuses.
Well, insofar as I have no business commenting on things I don't understand, I think the accusation of "Yokoism" could be probably more-or-less true in certain contexts.
However.
I do have something to say on the subject of whether music is the property of The Musicians or The People.
I know a lot of musicians. I hang out with them in my living room more evenings than not. Some of my best friends are...etc.
Perhaps I have the luxury of saying this specifically because I'm not a musician, but I'm all about The People, musically speaking.
it doesn't matter to me if I like it, or hate it, or even "get it". but I feel strongly that all people should be encouraged to make their joyful noises as they are capable. Because music is good for you.
I wonder though if there is not some sort of across-the-board minimizing of what we think we are capable of, musically, and also a homogenization across-the-board of what most people here in the US think is music.
Part of the problem is the monopoly of Clear Channel Radio, the ubiquitous arbiter of musical taste from sea to shining sea.
And one can't argue that, in the great mythical land-of-Oz that is the music biz, the overwhelming pressure to be hip/young/attractive/stylish crushes individual creativity and minimizes the need for virtuoso skill (or much of any skill). (or so we're told.)
And I think this is somewhat an innovation from the pop world of the early 80s, when Christopher Cross was able to get a contract, or the rock zeitgeist of the 70s (think those dog-ugly monsters of rock Boston), or even the big-band era of the 30s and 40s. I mean, I don't even remember what Glenn Miller looked like...but I sure remember In The Mood...
Nowadays any peach-cheeked young casanova with an amplifier and a little moxie thinks he's the Next Big Thing...and the sad thing is he has just as much of a chance to be as anyone, this chance determined not by his musical skill or lyrical genius, but just by presenting the proper "package".
And even if this is REALLY not the REAL truth, I believe that this is the popular perception of how musical success happens. And that perception does kill a lot of the diversity and virtuosity naturally present in music, and may discourage those diverse virtuosos who want to participate in the music world.
Antiprincess (ignoring several elephants in her living room in order to participate in this discussion like a grownup)
Der: Without getting into the core of the argument, because I'm tending to see both sides, but as with any Art, I don't get upset with elitism when it's a tool of quality. This happens, when it happens, in music more than anything else I can think of. By that, I mean that elitism in music tends to have a direct realtionship to quality, where I don't see that so much being the case in other areas. So there, I'm definitley hearing what you're saying.
Dan: The punk ethos, though, while I have my own fondness for it, produces stupid statements like "Coming from Berklee makes you automatic bullshit." It also becomes (has become) it's own form of elitism, a particularly rancid one because it has no relationship whatsoever to quality. Also, this reminds me of I can't remember which critic saying that a 12 year old girl listening to Britney is realer than a 50 year old music critic loving on Sonic Youth. This is all true. More often than not, though, she won't be listening to Britney in 10 years.
Der: Also, are you familiar with a man who travels the Internets under the name 'Morgasm'? He's a jazz drummer, I think he'd love you.
There's that wonderful essay by (IIRC) Robert Fulghum where he talks about, when you ask a room full of kindergarteners, "Who can sing? Who can draw? Who can dance?" - EVERYONE raises their hand.
When you ask the same questions of the same kids in college, nobody does.
This is the tragedy of a culture that reserves the right of Joyful Noises to a select few.
"Is it hard to play guitar?"
"Not the way I play it."
Jean: Very true, wrt punk. The snobbery of "purity," and the endless contests of More Unpretentious Than Thou, are every bit as toxic as the other end of things.
You know, I am wondering whether it mightn't make at least as much sense to stop a sec and go,
okay, let's say a lot, maybe all of what's "out there," certainly what's/who's getting the attention and gravy train, is 'gristle.' But why? Is the problem -primarily- that 'goddam, these so-called musicians suck?' Or even 'curse the rubes who wouldn't know fine Waterford crystal from a Flintstones jelly glass?' Or is it also a question of: well, who gets these people on the air? Who signs the record and booking deals? Who's responsible for not only lowering the bar to near-floor level but ALSO making sure that the playing field is -not- in fact wide-open but is apparently getting narrower and narrower and narrower?
'cause I don't know much, but from what little I understand, a lot of it, I Blame The Industry, and even more so, the increasing Blog-iztion of corporations in the ever-more-noxious-atmosphere of blatant-oligarchy-disguised-as-"free market" and "democracy."
Because especially when this sort of person bleats about "democracy," I can see where one would want to retreat from the whole deal: fuck, if this is democracy, rule by not only the mob but the most brainless, venal, nasty people, then the hell with that: I am an elitist and proud of it.
I see a lot of that about, and I am not talking about music here either.
Trouble is, that word doesn't mean what a lot of people think it means.
And there's a really good reason for that, too: because certain people have a lot INVESTED in this notion of "everybody gets a shot, cream rises to the top, not that we really believe in cream per se anyway and we'll call you a cultural elitist if you do make a plea for deeper and smarter, we're all equal here, you just need to work real hard and you'll make it, yadda."
It's crap. It doesn't work that way at all. Hasn't for a long time if it ever really did. Works less and less that way these days.
But yeah: I see the music industry as just one part of a much MUCH larger pattern in that regard.
I wanted to clarify:
>certain people have a lot INVESTED in this notion of "everybody gets a shot, cream rises to the top, not that we really believe in cream per se anyway and we'll call you a cultural elitist if you do make a plea for deeper and smarter, we're all equal here, you just need to work real hard and you'll make it, yadda.">
well, a LOT of people are invested in actually believing this, or trying to, because this right here is the American Dream. If -that- crumbles then well, so goeth many of the underpinnings of many an American's core belief system.
Which can be, well, rather depressing, that. To put it mildly.
CERTAIN people are invested in making sure that they TALK this line even as they work steadily to create a system that, well, never even mind the inherent contradictions in for example both believing that "everyone gets a shot; everyone's equal" and "the cream rises to the top;" SOME people are invested in neither real cream nor much less in everyone getting a shot; they have a different agenda altogether. But they know perfectly well they can't come right out and say,
"WE'RE TAKING OVER THE WORLD, PINKY!!"
so, you know, you get, well...what we have.
"WE'RE TAKING OVER THE WORLD, PINKY!!"
well, sure, Brain, but where are we going to find rubber pants in our size?
anyway, I am clearly going into My Own Shit here, because music, well, i got no real dog. "I know what I like;" I'm not a musician.
But for a long time I had a lot more invested in the notion of being "elite and proud of it dammit;" in fact I still own a shirt from around the last election that says "Intellectual Elite" on it; although i like to think i meant it pretty ironically by then, despite the genuine "fuck you" that was aimed at the horrible people who sling that as an insult (and made a good contribution toward bringing down Kerry, yup) who not only wouldn't know genuine populism from their deflated nutsacks but in some cases have a -very- active interest in opposing any such animal arising.
And so mauevering and this and that and the other, and eventually so it comes to pass that it's Kerry vs. Bush; "American Idol" versus something ever so slightly less vacuous being touted as "indie," maybe. No wonder a lot of people sneer and sigh and withdraw altogether.
And then too, related, there is this long and not-really-proud tradition of anti-intellectualism, which surely includes the Arts, even more so if anything, in the U.S. Bitch Lab has a lot to say about this; I've yet to read her elucidating -very- thoroughly, which reminds me to ask her.
per the arts especially, music and all: "the business of America is business." part of my own abiding bitterness wrt theatre, i expect. part.
But for example, my best friend who's Irish, tells me that whatever else the problems back Home, which are not inconsiderable, "smart and gifted kids at the back of the bus" was never one of them. The Heathers and the football jocks as the A-list: he tells me that this is very alien to his own experience, and I take his word for it.
Oh yeah: I had a miserable shit time in school, too. K-12, right on through.
>"Who can sing? Who can draw? Who can dance?" - EVERYONE raises their hand.
When you ask the same questions of the same kids in college, nobody does.>
When I taught creative writing, I can't tell you how many people would start off with, "oh, I'm not creative -at all.-"
sigh.
by the end at least most of them had changed their tune; even if as i got more and more sick of the dreariness of the job, among other personal shit wrapped up in it, i neglected them, much to my chagrin. It was wrong to not keep in contact with them; i phoned it in.
but at minimum i do think yeah, far more often than not and -certainly- for people who are coming from "well I'd like to but gosh I'd suck," the WORST thing you can do is come back with endless harping and picking and firm references to the idea that there is Good, and then there is everyone else, and, well, you, well....you.
Sure, there's such a thing as useful critique, technical criticism, yes; but that is an art in itself, i think.
For the beginners, especially as I learned and reconsidered my approach, I tried more and more to go with "amplification" rather than "change this and this and this." I also made the decision to pretty much ignore grammar and spelling, even though most peoples' were pretty appalling; I figured that look, I'm not the comp teacher, if they haven't learned it by now they're not gonna in these next few weeks, and it distracts me from what i -really- want to focus on, -and- that kind of "you're doing it wrong" criticism is gonna end up casting a pall on them actually using their imaginations without fear, even if it's not about the actual story...
...yeah, huh, wow. this is bringing up a lot for me; haven't thought about a lot of this in a while. and i never knew how to grade them and was increasingly disgusted with having to do it at all. the requirements got easier and easier; i'm sure it was an easy "A' for a lot of people; i just told them to do the work, period. and if they didn't do it, hey, who am i to nag? it's their money and their time.
meh. mostly i resented teaching something i felt i wasn't doing myself, much less getting recognized/reimbursed for.
and the relentless reinforcement of the notion that "oh, well but see, THIS is REAL; there are numbers and statistics and cold hard cash and i can tell you exactly how to diagram this sentence and letter grades and THIS is the REAL WORLD..."
no it fucking isn't. it's a poor shadow. FOOD and RENT are part of the real world, yes; but who the fuck says that all this other bullshit is what we have to do in order to get them?
...sorry, again, yeah, my stuff, now current stuff.
"rent" being "shelter," really; since when did "what i pay in symbolically printed green pieces of paper" become synonymous?...
eh, anyway.
A recent Holly Black post provides some excellent perspective.
Jean- Morgasm? No, first I've heard of him.
In addition, as a Berklee dropout, I should state that the place, when I attended('93-'96), had everything from the most sublime virtuosity to the stone-eared rich kids who attended purely based on the fact that they could pay their tuition in full(as a young school it had few endowments though that has changed in ten years and now it seems even more antiseptic, perhaps coincidentally).
It's too damn late to be interesting, so I'll just sign off for now.
Don't listen to Jean.
She's just obsessed with words that end in "-gasm".
Have I been had?
nope - just teasing Jean about this: http://thesinkingfeeling.blogspot.com/2006/09/loose-ends.html#links
Now THIS is interesting.
Can you please begin throttling each other over the following statement: 'It sends the message that "anyone can be a musician"(I cannot disagree more vehemently'. I'm sincerely interested in hearing/reading this one out.
If that doesn't do it for you, try this: Yoko is a muse that has contributed to the art world and music maybe a hundred times more than all parties involved here. Like her or not, you have to admit the woman has the power to influence greatness.
AP: Coffee. Later. Love you.
I'm not here to throttle anyone.
What is the power to influence greatness? Coercion? A nurturing relationship? Adequate compensation? Yes, Yoko seems to be a catalyst of sorts; like Oprah, she seems to be firmly ensconced in the center of their universes. Also, like Oprah, not one iota of anything she has to say or do enters my consciousness for one second. Both have my admiration as human beings but seem to be given the added advantage of lots of capital and charisma.
As far as music goes, I think back to Yoko's singing with Lennon side by side with Zappa and the Mothers. Based on the quality of that performance(and there were many like it)I can no longer think happy-happy thoughts about her in a musical context.
I guess I can throttle Yoko a little.
ciao, baby!
hey, if John Lennon masturbated while looking at his wife's picture, would he be a Yoko Onanist?
Ba-dum--dum....cheesch!
you don't appreciate my sophisticated humor stylings, do you...
I think that most people, barring obvious physical or mental limitations that would prevent them, are capable of picking up, say, a pennywhistle or a strumstick and learning to play something pleasant-sounding on it, should they feel inclined to do so. At that point, you're engaged in making music, and therefore a musician; so, yes, in very broad and general terms I think almost anyone can be a musician. (The fact that not everyone actually has the kind of personality or interest that would drive them to find out makes the question sort of moot, but answering the spirit rather than the letter here, I think.)
Now, whether or not "everyone" (for a similar value of everyone) has the potential to become a great musician, or even a very skilled one, is another question. Certainly there are things about the subtleties of making music beyond a basic level that lots and lots of people are simply not wired for, in the same way that being able to spell seems to be something you either have or you don't, and no amount of flogging is ever going to force it to sink in. So there's that.
OTOH - and I realize this falls into the trap of letting the edge cases define the center - one of my favorite artists, David Tibet, doesn't play an instrument, and his voice is not at all melodic or tuneful in any traditional sense. Nonetheless: Musician. Because there would be no Current 93 without Tibet, and Black Ships Ate the Sky is an album I'm fully prepared to run up the pole as evidence against Music Today Sucks. I suppose it could be argued that what he really is is a poet who's found a band to perform with, but that's splitting hairs finer than I really care to.
That being said: I get the sense that the real underlying assumpton here is that you need a certain level of skill before you're allowed to think of yourself as a Real Musician, and while I sort of see that, I ultimately can't agree with it. You're making music, you're a musician. It might not all work, and it certainly won't all work for everyone. But music, nonetheless. It sort of sidesteps the question of what's "good" art and what's "bad" art, but meh. It should be apparent by now how little I really and truly care about being an arbiter of those definitions.
I am, however, like my fellow three-chord diva Dar Williams, utterly pro-Yoko, if for no other reason than Yoko-hate always seems to carry at least a hint of the taint of misogyny. But beyond that, as an artist she clearly gets the idea that you have to go Too Far to find out what's far enough, and that's a quality I can't help but admire.
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