...I don't want to waste my time just listening to technique or gorgeous high notes. It's all great if it's there, but if it doesn't have a raw, soulful emotion behind it, it just isn't worth it."
- Matt Doyle
There are a few things that you need to know in order to understand me at all. One is that I believe in a lot of things that are difficult to verbalize because they're very ambiguous--I'm not big on absolutes. Another is that, like any remotely complex person, I'm full of contradictions. Another is that I'm very intuitive in nature--I know how I feel and what I think, but I don't always have good explanations for these feelings and thoughts. Writing is frequently how I search to express what I mean. Thank god for the backspace key. Me in a nutshell is pretty much any INFJ description you find.
Because of my ambiguity and dislike of extremes, I find myself feeling torn about a lot of things. One of these things is art. Many of my friends are intellectual and artistic snobs, in the least offensive way possible. They have higher standards for "art" than many, and don't throw the term around lightly. I'm pretty sure they'd look at a lot of modern art and wonder why it's art.
I do that too, sometimes. I think there are many works that I would concede have artistic qualities but are, on the whole, not art. And really, why is Jackson Pollock considered brilliant? I'm sure Wikipedia would tell me, but I don't think I care. What I do care about is Andy Warhol's belief that art is for everyone.
I can't decide to what extent I agree with him. On the one hand, I do believe that something need not be "high art" for a person to enjoy and appreciate it, and I don't believe that a person has to recognize that something is art or understand why they like it in order to appreciate it. I also understand that something can be technically bad, but still evoke reactions from some that high art would evoke from others. I can appreciate Warhol's notion of "corporate art" and why Pop Art is important. On the other hand, though, so much enters the mainstream that just isn't good. I just read a post on Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog entitled, "Lil Wayne's 'Prom Queen': Make it go away!" that has the tag, "Ouch! That was my ear!" I haven't heard it and I really don't want to, but it's the 9th most downloaded song on iTunes right now, which angers me.
I indulge in my fair share of music that is varying degrees of cheesy and dubious in quality. I'll admit it: I listen to Fall Out Boy. Yep. And when the mood hits, I listen to old-school Celine Dion. (But NOT "My Heart Will Go On.") So what? I'll be the first to admit that I don't have the ear for music that I deeply wish I had. I don't have the understanding of the theory aspects of music, I have no rhythm, and my attempts at piano and cello were technical failures when I was younger, even if my parents and teachers thought otherwise. I don't have a sophisticated ear, and I occasionally enjoy unoriginal sequences of power chords and over-processed, unexceptional voices. Or, I excuse those if I react to the sappy or silly lyrics. I'm okay with that. That used to embarrass me, but now I don't really care. I like what I like and that's that. This is an even sillier reference than my Devil Wears Prada one, but it fits--that chick flick Music & Lyrics. The musician defends himself to the doubtful lyricist, claiming that a three and a half minute pop song can do more to cheer up a person than any novel or film can do in three and a half minutes. I suppose he's right.
At the same time, though, I completely agree with the quote I opened with. "Fun" music is great. I like to sing it at the top of my lungs in the car on my way to and from school. Sometimes I'll even dance to it alone in my room. But at the same time, any music with soul is so much better. And by "soul," I mean passion--I love hearing a song and feeling instinctively that it was a product of passion, something that the singer and writer really believes in. I love Tapestry because I feel like Carole King really feels every word she sings. I love Chris Ayer because I feel like he believes in everything he writes. And The Cure's "Pictures of You" gets me every time.
There's a Pericles quote that I really like: "All things good should flow into the boulevard." They should. But of course, they don't. Not always. If we're going to go Warhol, "You don't decide what's good." And in our world you can't really dismiss the "bad", anyway--it still has a significant impact on the mainstream audience, which is huge. The good stuff's there, though. You just have to find it.
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Now playing: The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight
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