Pop music
I think there’s somehow something about contemporary popular music – it’s ingenuity of invention stimulated by the sheer singularity of the drive on the part of the popular music industry to achieve commercial profit being an example of how pragmatically efficient the Capitalist ‘system’ is at meeting and stimulating demand btw – that’s just so symptomatic of an aspect of the ‘Esprit’ of our Age!
Pop-music’s all about ‘Fun & Entertainment’ needless to say but... does its' allure consist in those compelling sensual rhythms, overwhelming our sense of propriety, so intrinsic to the experience of it?...Or maybe perhaps in those fantacy-type melodies so idiosyncratic to it that serve to induce in you a sort of escapist pseudo-sense of romance? - Don’t know, but...I think nonetheless there is something about the general ambience of the genre that's distinctive of our times!
Personally btw, I also think that nothing in the entire cannon of modern popular music has ever managed to comprehend even an iota of objective reality - despite some of it admittedly having succeeded in symptomaticaly reflecting its' then concurrent social trends - and that the claim by some of its' apostles that even a few examples of it have succeeded in so doing is really just an indulgent illusion. - What's the difference btw between something being merely symtomatic of the Spirit of its' Age and something being a comprehension of same? - Therein I'd say lies the difference in kind that exists between Punk Rock and Beethoven!
Though - having said all that - I still find myself puzzled by the lack of perspicacity in some ‘young-uns’ nowadays - whenever I try tell them just how indescribably wonderful being present at a ‘Status-Quo’ concert really was! Like many in that audience of long ago of course - What wouldn't I then have given to be that lead guitarist guy up there on stage! :)
Pop-music’s all about ‘Fun & Entertainment’ needless to say but... does its' allure consist in those compelling sensual rhythms, overwhelming our sense of propriety, so intrinsic to the experience of it?...Or maybe perhaps in those fantacy-type melodies so idiosyncratic to it that serve to induce in you a sort of escapist pseudo-sense of romance? - Don’t know, but...I think nonetheless there is something about the general ambience of the genre that's distinctive of our times!
Personally btw, I also think that nothing in the entire cannon of modern popular music has ever managed to comprehend even an iota of objective reality - despite some of it admittedly having succeeded in symptomaticaly reflecting its' then concurrent social trends - and that the claim by some of its' apostles that even a few examples of it have succeeded in so doing is really just an indulgent illusion. - What's the difference btw between something being merely symtomatic of the Spirit of its' Age and something being a comprehension of same? - Therein I'd say lies the difference in kind that exists between Punk Rock and Beethoven!
Though - having said all that - I still find myself puzzled by the lack of perspicacity in some ‘young-uns’ nowadays - whenever I try tell them just how indescribably wonderful being present at a ‘Status-Quo’ concert really was! Like many in that audience of long ago of course - What wouldn't I then have given to be that lead guitarist guy up there on stage! :)
Comments (11)
Turn the volume up!
Funnily enough though - Can still sometimes recollect that adolescent sense of frustrated ambition whenever I occasionally hear the old anthem – Can’t remember now who sang it at the time - “I wanna be a Punk Rocker"! :)
It's an old story. Didn't Plato say something about the wrong kind of music being able to corrupt a society?
"Do I hear a Waltz?" The waltz originated in the 1600s in Austria, and was pretty much "folk" dance. When the waltz was introduced to high society in the early 19th century it was considered somewhat immoral because the young upper class folk dancing it were just a bit too close, a bit too exuberant. We all know where THAT leads.
My first exposure to exuberant rock and roll dancing was in college, 1964. I was sort of appalled and sort of interested at the same time. Maybe I appreciate the spirit of rock and roll (in its 1950s-60s-70s guise) now much more than I did then.
Anyway - Rock on! :)
Not really the point of it to almost anyone making music, and I'd say that anyone looking at it that way doesn't really get the idea of art.
Just curious where you'd been the previous 7-8 years.
Living under a rock may have been a contributing factor, but as a socially incompetent loner, there was no great benefit in being up to date with my would-be peers. Also, I grew up poor in a very small town. To be in the swing of things, such as they were, in this wretched berg meant either joining the even-more-outré in-crowd (which I wasn't exactly invited to do) or join the A-list in-group), but that was not a real option either.
Very small towns in rural America are great places to be a child, or to complete the dying process in quiet solitude. In between they are pest holes. Escaping to even a small state college campus was a relative heaven on earth.
Were I to have avoided this tragedy of the stagnant backwaters, I would have had to have grown up in New York City where I might have blossomed on time and fully. I would have needed progressive parents, nearby gay bars and docks to cruise on, more money, more self confidence, a circle of people like myself, and so on. As soon as the new affordable time machine comes on the market...
Ah, that explains it. ;-)
Pop culture is still all about 'glory' and 'identity'. The difference is in style - the next generation finds a style that it can call its own, but the 'glory' is still there - mainly in the form of media sensationalizing and attention.
Note that most of the world views 'pop' culture as childish, not knowing that we cling to it throughout our lives as a (futile) means to cheat aging...! (as we try to be perpetual fourteen year olds)....