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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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In Reply to: Casper Hauser posted by gd on March 7, 2001 at 19:07:16:
Firstly, I'd like to express my pleasure at talking with someone who describes himself as a Village Voice Liberal; or a liberal anything, for that matter, during a period of time that seems increasingly populated with Rush Limbaugh wannabes of varying degrees of militancy. I'm damned tired being harangued by rightist crusaders with no regard for factual verity and apparently genetically programmed to reduce everything to Christian bible myth.I couldn't agree with you more about the fact that pop/rock has become the sonic backdrop of people's lives. It is, in fact, that very point that causes me such concern. The wholesale adoption of pop/rock isn't accompanied by an appreciation for other musical forms, and certainly not by even the most minute awareness of rock's profound limitations and brutish style of expression. Many people, especially gen-x-y-z, are barely aware of ANY style beyond their preferred pop/rock flavor of the month. I suggest that such was largely not the case in the 60s and especially the 70s, when the average listener was exposed (via the medium of AM radio, and to no small extent, the variety show on television) to a far larger selection of music styles, even within pop itself.
To some extent I agree with you. "They don't care." They, the none-music-specialist majority, to a some degree passively accept whatever cultural fodder is fed to them, Soilent Green style. This may be due to the powerful influence of childhood. Most of us have strong emotional connections to music that we grew up with.
The kids of the past generation have been growing up with nothing but rock. No meaningful exposure to jazz, classical, folk, broadway, etc. Nothing but some subgenre of rock. Nor is this depravation limited to lower strata of society where access to socio-cultural largesse frequently doesn't exist. As a college educated father proudly told me, he was extremely gratified that his 3-year old was jumping up and down and whirling like a dervish to the strains of Metellica, ACDC, Pearl Jam, and the like, which regularly loads into his 5-cd-changer, set to infinite repeat. A walk down Anystreet, America reveals that parents at every social level inundate their offspring with an exclusive diet of pop/rock.
Previously, schools offered some degree of music education, thereby expanding musical awareness in youth, even if only a little.
At least there was some choice. A Kentucky 6th grader might have listened to the rich melodies of Dvorak's 9th and instead preferred the strains of Hank Williams, Sr. But, he made a choice - that's important. And, the choice was made on the basis of familiarity not only with musical styles outside his culturally circumscribed community, but with some awareness of the quality of the greater world of art outside. As a high school senior (a football jock) said to me in 1973, "I've heard Beethoven's 9th symphony, and it's great music; but I prefer Alice Cooper".That's a choice, while unfortunate, we may nevertheless respect. It demonstrates an awareness of the both the limitations and the intrinsic superiority of each musical style. One of the icons of rock put it quite well: "It's only rock n roll, but I like it". The operative word is 'only'.
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Follow Ups
- The Rule of Rock, Part 1 - Neward T 11:27:38 03/08/01 (1)
- Re: The Rule of Rock, Part 1 - orejones 14:39:18 03/08/01 (0)
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