Friday night. Home from a late night at work. Turns out that Amy Winehouse is popular with everyone from Adult Contemporary show Cafe Tonight to grime MC Shystie. That got me to thinking, either this gal is a good singer, fresh (in that retro way we all love (because NO ONE is doing anything good that is new)) or we're all being duped by a rather provocative deceiver. I enjoy pop music, but after too much deep thinking I believe that I enjoy it in the same way I enjoy donuts, bootyful hip-hop videos, and suburban sprawl. It feels good at first then a dull pain sets in and I feel bad in a grinding way that isn't very obvious till I've sink into a mini-depression.
I've been battling with the media, friends, and myself the past few years whether or not contemporary music is redemptive at all. I enjoy it, but I still don't think it is all that redemptive. Most of the music out there is negative, self-deluded, and at best, escapist. Historically popular music (from rock to hip-hop to soul to whatever u like) is just self-absorption and decadence and I don't think that has changed at all. 30 years after trashing hotels and drinking yourself to death became passe people still think it is cool. If you don't believe me look at Fly Life in the Village Voice to see what passes for entertainment.
I was thinking all of the above after hearing Ms. Winehouse on WUWM's Cafe Tonight. Later I turned on the nutty Religious station WVCY which I tune into for conviction and comic relief. Of course I tuned in during the middle of a show demonizing Rock n' Roll. Naturally, they went into the excesses of the Sixties, the deaths of Janis Joplin, Van Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix. Then into the deaths of 2Pac and Biggie Smalls. This show solidified my thinking that Rock n' Roll and most of it's offshoots (nearly all of today's popular music) is decadent, negative, destructive, and at least trivial. Even stuff that I enjoy, much of which is off the radar and somewhat positive, proves to be deluded, indulgent, destructive, selfish, and meaningless. Someone please let me know what they find redeeming about the music they like.
I am a big fan of music yet I feel that it rarely serves any purpose and only leaves me more unsatisfied than before I listened to it. Sure I have a bad attitude, but that isn't all of it. I think the problem is focus. Artists aren't focused on anything but themselves and thus have nothing to offer us in today's topsy turvy world.
That being said I spent last night listening to the escapist gem Breath From Another by Esthero and reading trashing Southwestern short stories in Naked Pueblo by Mark Jude Poirier. So I'm a hypocrite and don't feel good about any of it!
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4 comments:
I can think of very view bands with even the slightest redeeming qualities. It seems that there is an inverse ratio between the positivity of artists and the quality of their music. There are a few exceptions and the execptions are worth mentioning: Sly and the family stone, Robert Randolph and the family band, Alexi Murdoch, occasionally Nick Drake, some of Jurassic 5's tunes, some tunes from Mos Def (at least 3 off of the blackstar album), that's all I got for now but I will keep listening
Okay, there is some stuff: Kim English (some of her tracks like 'Unspeakable Joy', 'Higher Power'), some Johnny Cash, an occasional Kanye West tune; maybe even Ann Nesby. I don't see what is redemptive about Nick Drake. Enlighten me.
Though the bigger issue might be what do I mean by 'redemptive'? Is it merely more positive over negative? Or less negative? Or a tune that makes you feel good when you're down? Damn relativism!
Also, considering that today's "Positivity" movement really isn't redemptive in more than a short run I have to say that only Christ offers true redemption. But does that mean that only an artist giving props to Jesus is doing anything redemptive? Probably not.
I actually enjoy going to Lit.
I said occasionally Nick Drake, and only if you negate the ending of his life and yes almost all of my picks are completely relative to what definition of "positive" you choose. I think that the problem is separation--music no longer has an expressed and understood purpose. It seems that music is made now for music's sake. I think of the songs slaves sung just to make it through the day, or guide them to freedom in the north, or the songs that indiginous peoples all over sing at certain times, it seemed like every event in life had an appropriate song. Now music, and musicians, especially hip-hop, is just to showcase the artist's ability or even worse to sell records. I'm sure that there are exceptions, but I think the problem is that musicians are now too far removed from real life and not at all interested in the effects--positive or negative--that their songs have on the rest of the world. Well, that and capitalism. I could go on for days, but I think that's good for now.
peace.
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