Saturday, January 3, 2009

Music and Literature - how it all fits in

I'm at odds with myself about music. Is everything I know when it comes to music only a result of capitalistic/consumeristic influence? Have I been led astray when emotions take the priority in music instead of the brilliance, ingenuity and hard work? It has been ruminating in my mind that the music that I listen to and invest in today is the watered down perverted version of what music was at first. Music is meant to move the soul. All would agree to that. I assert that it is not intended to move the soul closer to oneself though but closer to something inaccessible and beyond what a human can reach. Music draws people together, it draws their souls together. Music unifies minds and desire and music draws humankind closer to the divine. All that I have known music to be is a self-serving entity in American culture. Music today surrounds the topics of sex, anger, love, and any range of emotions that in themselves are amazing gifts but they are all self-centered. Abused human emotion and instinct to better the wallet of suppliers. Of all this I am not entirely sure, but my desire for purity in this musical sense is so great that I am stripping down the paradigm of music for my generation, starting with myself.

This is not a vendetta against American culture in itself, but it is against what American culture has done to me. Influenced by popular music, no doubt my ideals are perverted and true music is something that I have to search for, to define. So to cut all popular inputs to my mind, I think, will bring clarity to my opinion.


In this I recall Radiohead's anti-popular, pure presentation. Yet even they play only for themselves. True music must combine self, creator and creation. That is, purpose and subject must encompass all and praise all; God for his glory and power (this above all), man for the creative entity (s)he was made to be, and creation for the beauty and complexity it exhibits. Truth is what music must praise.

2 comments:

DESIRED SHOTS PHOTOGRAPHY said...

eloquently put dear friend. i feel you.

but i see that MOST people ARE into following the trends, they don't listen to music for it to move their soul, so many kids are listening because the need to look cool, or the tune is catchy. i think that connecting to music on a spiritual level is probably not common in american culture (since that is all we have experience with). maybe thats what you're saying. i know what you mean, and i always hate how bands change to meet pop culture. they are playing what other people tell them to not what feels right and soulful within. all hail stripped down music! good luck! =] thanks for your thoughts alex! get me thinkin

Alex said...

I know this may sound like I really like conspiracy theories, but I genuinely think that the reason why kids like certain bands (us too!) and the reason why bands copy genre and the "formula" of music already in existence, is because of the marketing ploys of catchy music, overly-repeated choruses and mass media publicity. It is powerful stuff, intoxicating even, and because of that I loved Britney Spears when I was in Jr. High. Also because of that I loved Mae and Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco and any other band directly influenced by what Pop "music" has done to music as a whole. For so long I thought that Pop music represented and served our tastes, when the reality is that we are serving Pop music. Anyways, got carried away. thank you for your input! i really value it!!