Alex,I could not agree more with the points you made about how history directly influences who we are. However, I would like to take this one step further. Why do we look at history? To improve the present, as you stated. However, why do we want to improve the contemporary aspects of life? For the future. It seems that everything is about the future. In technology, scientists are creating and looking to the future. Exploring space and finding cures to untreatable diseases. In politics, policies are made to look for the future such as future withdrawal of our troops in Afghanistan. For academics, if you think about it, why do we go to school? So we can have an improved future. However, music is an outlier. Music is all about now. It is a direct reflection of society at that point in time. What is valued? Can we still see the beauty in past music? Although history and the present are more perceptible, the future is what these two periods of time aim to form. The outcome of this synthesis is the yet to come.
I agree with much of what Alex says. Many people in our society like, and are inspired, by older culture. For example, on top 40 stations, which play the most popular music, many songs have hints of older songs within them. Whether it is taking the beat from a 100-year-old children song, like Ke$ha’s “Take It Off” or changing the beat and a couple of the lyrics from an eighties song, Flo Rida’s “Right Round,” new artists commonly hint to, or even re-use, parts of older songs in their compositions. People often like to hear old familiar tunes and beats placed in a more modern and interesting context. This brings up the question whether artists now use older music as inspiration or because they lack inspiration and the musical talent to compose. Auto-tuning and other production technologies help artists seem better than they actually are. Thus, it seems that the quality of musicians has gone down significantly. Many artists cannot sing (listen to Gwen Stefani in concert), cannot write meaningful lyrics (unless there is deeper meaning to ‘shawty’ than I know), and display little talent as a composer. Several times I have listened to someone popular sing live and wondered how someone with such little talent became such a well-known artist. For these ‘artists’, incorporating older songs may be an attempt by newer artists to confer meaning and interest in their songs. I just hope that their songs won’t be recycled in the future.
Alex,I definitely agree with your main points that the past very often makes up most of what we think of as the present. Though I am a fan of string quartets, I'm going to switch the music to a Capella. Look at (or rather listen to) the song "Under the Bridge," also originally by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xGN2R0vq1w). This music is even older than a string quartet, it's using the oldest instrument known to man, vocals, which have been celebrated throughout history. While delving into this song would largely rephrase what you wrote, it brings up one new point, imitation.In this song, people are using their voices to imitate the original instruments, much like a string quartet imitates vocals, guitar, and drums. This shows that people like not just a blending of styles, but also hearing a different way to do things. This is the reason that we see very few copies of the same song, it has to be done differently to be noticed.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more with the points you made about how history directly influences who we are. However, I would like to take this one step further. Why do we look at history? To improve the present, as you stated. However, why do we want to improve the contemporary aspects of life? For the future. It seems that everything is about the future. In technology, scientists are creating and looking to the future. Exploring space and finding cures to untreatable diseases. In politics, policies are made to look for the future such as future withdrawal of our troops in Afghanistan. For academics, if you think about it, why do we go to school? So we can have an improved future. However, music is an outlier. Music is all about now. It is a direct reflection of society at that point in time. What is valued? Can we still see the beauty in past music? Although history and the present are more perceptible, the future is what these two periods of time aim to form. The outcome of this synthesis is the yet to come.
I agree with much of what Alex says. Many people in our society like, and are inspired, by older culture. For example, on top 40 stations, which play the most popular music, many songs have hints of older songs within them. Whether it is taking the beat from a 100-year-old children song, like Ke$ha’s “Take It Off” or changing the beat and a couple of the lyrics from an eighties song, Flo Rida’s “Right Round,” new artists commonly hint to, or even re-use, parts of older songs in their compositions. People often like to hear old familiar tunes and beats placed in a more modern and interesting context.
ReplyDeleteThis brings up the question whether artists now use older music as inspiration or because they lack inspiration and the musical talent to compose. Auto-tuning and other production technologies help artists seem better than they actually are. Thus, it seems that the quality of musicians has gone down significantly. Many artists cannot sing (listen to Gwen Stefani in concert), cannot write meaningful lyrics (unless there is deeper meaning to ‘shawty’ than I know), and display little talent as a composer. Several times I have listened to someone popular sing live and wondered how someone with such little talent became such a well-known artist. For these ‘artists’, incorporating older songs may be an attempt by newer artists to confer meaning and interest in their songs. I just hope that their songs won’t be recycled in the future.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your main points that the past very often makes up most of what we think of as the present. Though I am a fan of string quartets, I'm going to switch the music to a Capella. Look at (or rather listen to) the song "Under the Bridge," also originally by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xGN2R0vq1w). This music is even older than a string quartet, it's using the oldest instrument known to man, vocals, which have been celebrated throughout history. While delving into this song would largely rephrase what you wrote, it brings up one new point, imitation.
In this song, people are using their voices to imitate the original instruments, much like a string quartet imitates vocals, guitar, and drums. This shows that people like not just a blending of styles, but also hearing a different way to do things. This is the reason that we see very few copies of the same song, it has to be done differently to be noticed.