[mplpost] Influences, young folk and toiletries (long and not PC)

[Bob MacKenzie]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Naffin" <takenote@interlog.com>
To: "MaplePost Mailing List" <maplepost@icomm.ca>
Cc: "Bob MacKenzie" <writer@kingston.net>
Sent: August 20, 2000 5:02 PM
Subject: RE: [mplpost] Influences, young folk and toiletries (long and not
PC)


> As an admittedly loose comparison to the aforementioned training and skill
> of the comb maker, I think many years of study and training in various
> disciplines are required in order to produce a well-rounded artist.  For
> instance, an instrumentalist, besides needing a modicum of talent, would
be
> well advised to learn music theory, composition, arrangement, the history
of
> her or his instrument and its players, communication, a bit of psychology,
a
> bit of style and social graces, a lot about performance, and the ins and
> outs of music business - and that's before anything is produced on stage,
> and before addressing things like conditions and intent of performance,
> subject matter and so forth.  So, in accordance with the society and
culture
> said artist works in, it could be argued that it wouldn't hurt to know
their
> history, politics, geography, and arts as well.

I agree.  Where I find the difference is in the nature of the end product.
You make one comb now and three hundred years later it's still the same
comb.  If you want a contemprary comb three hundres years later you have to
make a new one.  A song is much more organic than that.  Once created, a
song becomes a living, growing creature that adjusts to the times in which
it is being sung.  It has at once the ability to be the same song as it
originally was, to become a whole new song built around the same centre, or
a hundred songs derived from the source.  There are static arts and organic
arts.  All arts are organic in tems of the process that creates the end
product.  Some however produce static end products.  Others create end
products that continue to grow and change over time.

>
> Considering these points, I think in comparison to about 300 year old
> standards of composition and performance at least eighty percent of what's
> being presented on stage and in media today is crap.

Agreed -- sort of.  Statistical thory says any aberration, positive or
negative, from the norm tends to be about 15% of the total.  So the best is
probably only about 15%.  On the other hand, probably only 15% is total
crap.  The rest is just bland and uninteresting.

>
> Other cultures notwithstanding, in order to be a merely competent Western
> classical or jazz player, one has to acquire skills that are usually
> considered 'virtuoso' level in some pop or so-called folk scenes; and any
> late nineteenth century European hack composer knew a lot more about
> harmony, counterpoint, and arrangement than most working tunesmiths today.

This is very subjective.  Once you get past the basic technical skills, it
has much more to do with aesthetics.  For example, a friend and I were
recently discussing that a classically trained musician may not appreciate
some of the "noise" that shows up in indie productions ( or garageband or
punk or whatever) and yet this is a sound many of these artists actually go
for as part of their aesthetic.

>
> As an aside, somewhat in accord with Arnie Naiman's concern about young
> players' sources of inspiration, lots of budding jazzers today helplessly
> retread old bebop cliches, because the social and cultural conditions once
> responsible for or at least helping along bebop and postbop have moved on
to
> help produce triphop and gangsta rap.

Is this bad?  Or is it progress?  The good rap is really good.  Remember
that 15% theory?

>
> In the media, shows play music by instrumentalists who couldn't tell you
> the correct name of a given chord they're playing, let alone its function
in
> the harmonic system they're using...

Early on in my career as a writer, I learned that it's not as important to
know what the thing is called as how to use it effectively.  You can always
learn the right names for things later on.

> ... there's been an
> unfortunate historical development favouring individual self-expression in
> art and literature...

Sounds like snobbery to me.  Academic snobs are the bane of the arts.  They
stultify and eventually calcify everything they touch.  (My opinion and no
reflection on you Nick.)

>
> Be that as it may, there have been actual estimates of about 250,000 new
> CDs in the U.S. per year, with about 7,000 releases of singer/songwriter

But if 15% are the good ones, then logically this increase in overall
production presupposes an increase in the good stuff coming out too.  It's
just a matter of separating the wheat from the chaff.

> example of the comb maker does apply to the art and craft of music; in the
> sense that for instance 120 years ago a mass audience was perfectly used
to
> listening to and grooving to the structural principles of sonata and
> symphony ...

It was a different world then.  Perhaps we should get rid of the automobile
and recorded music and a hundred other modern developments too?  And they
said the Luddite movement was dead...

> , whereas nowadays radio geared to not upset the cubicle drone is
> formatted to no more than, what, seventy seconds of spoken word at a time,
> and tunes not exceeding four minutes, in structures not much differing
from
> children's songs....

I think you're not moving around your radio dial enough.  If you did, you'd
find a tremendous variety of wonderful -- and sometimes lengthy -- music.
And check out MucMusic and other channels like it.  Great stuff!

>
> Uh, you sayin' Britney isn't folk?!?

As far as I know, Britney isn't a songwriter.  However, some -- not all --
of the songs she sings could qualify.  Check them out for yourself.  Mind
you, I suspect most -- perhaps all -- of her work falls into that middle 70%
quality wise.  Anyway, I think it'a all folk, and none is.  I hate genre
classification -- another invention of the academics appropriated by big
business.  Music is music.

Peace and Love.

Bob MacKenzie


For reviews of new music releases,  go to Sound Bytes,
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