From: David MOREY (us@divadeus.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Sun Feb 08 2004 - 21:55:23 GMT
Hi DMB
Sounds life a great lifestyle, don't know much of this stuff
but sounds good to me the way you put it. Yes, I like my
music from the people rather than fake fantasies.
I have wondered what the future of art and the internet may be.
Will artists be able to sell their wares direct to the audience, or
more radical still, we can get back to art as amateur pursuit,
a love and not a comeercial practise. By the way anyone enjoyed
my free novel yet, Anthony McWatt enjoyed it, Wim was not so sure?
regards
David M
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Buchanan" <DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org>
To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 8:17 PM
Subject: RE: MD Speaking of musical excellence
> Steve and all music lovers:
>
> My friend Todd thinks that the most popular, award-winning music is pretty
> much the definition of excellence. My friend Tom holds the opposite view
> just as passionately. He says that grammy winning pop stars are, by
> definition, total crap. I think they both make a good point because the
> relationship between musical excellence and commercial success is
> complicated. The Takacs Quartet, for example, won a Grammy Award and a
> Gramophone in 2002 for their Beethoven Cycle, yet they sold less than
10,000
> records and I seriously doubt that any MOQer has ever heard of them. (The
> only reason I even noticed such a thing is that my brother-in-law, Edward
> Dusinberre, plays violin with them.)
>
> Steve said:
> The modern great's greatness may be measured by their dynamic
contributions
> to the art of making music and also making popular culture, since modern
> popular
> composer's music cannot be separated from their larger cultural impact. (I
> don't think we are seeing anything new in Britney Spears, but we did in
> Madonna in the 80's though Madonna's influence was cultural rather than
> musical.)
>
> dmb says:
> Yep. I think Modonna started a trend that has now, sadly, become the
> standard. This trend puts style and marketing above musical talent. She
and
> Britney and a dozen other female vocalists have become rich and famous not
> because of their musical genius or artistic innovators, but merely as
> masturbatory fantasies. Christina, Shania, Faith, LeAnn, Lil Kim, etc,
etc.
> Its all about the wood, boys. I mean, compare that crowd with, say, Janis
> Joplin or Aretha Franklin. I'm not saying the songs themselves are always
> horrible, just that music itself has taken a back seat to sexy dancing and
> erotic lyrics. Think of Janet and Justin at the superbowl, for example.
They
> sang a stale piece of crap, but how many records will be sold because the
> world saw a single breast? I imagine the stunt will put several hundred
> thousand dollars into Janet's pocket. (I've even heard that there is a
> German vocalist who gets totally naked by the end of her show.) But then
> I've also heard Richard Thompson's version of "Ooops, I Did it Again", a
> song made popular by Britney. He did it in the trubador style of the
middle
> ages, which was both fascinating and hilarious.
>
> Steve said:
> The importance of an understanding of context in modern music is a part
> of the postmodern movement which is a logical progression if you can
> see how static quality goes stale. I think you may be selling short
> the dynamism of modern music. Despite the beauty of the mathematical
> sophistication of Bach, that mode ran its course. It lost its dynamism.
>
> dmb says:
> Hmm. Well, there are contemporary composers who work in the classical form
> without being stale, but I get the point. Its true that the great
innovators
> have always stood upon the sholders of those who came before, but I also
> think there is something different going on in this postmodern era. Now we
> have a situation where there is a great deal of self-consciousness about
> references to the musical past, as in the way today's hip-hoppers and
> rappers sample hits from previous decades. It seems to me that
postmodernism
> does this sort of thing across the board in popular culture. I saw The
> Handsome Family, one of my favorite bands, on Friday night. As one
reviewer
> put it, "they walk a fine line between tribute and parody". There's a
> self-conscous irony in their music and lyrics. They express radical,
> sophisticated and counter-cultural attitudes in the most unlikely genre,
> country music. Its like anti-Hick music done in the style of hick music.
The
> Gourds are like that too. As one person put it, their's is "music for the
> unwashed and well read". And then there is the Mekons, a punk band. These
> were a bunch of art-school types who did not play any musical instruments
at
> all when they began. And when the members started to get good with their
> instruments, they decided to switch so that the drummer picked up a
guitar,
> etc. Their wish to maintain a raw, unpolished sound led them to practice
> incompetence as an art form. And there is the "Zen Country" musician Jimmy
> Dale Gilmore. Imagine if Woody Guthrie was a mystic or if the Buddha was
> from Texas and you'll have at least a vague idea of what Jimmmy does.
Maybe
> its hard to see what I'm getting at without having heard this music. And
> maybe it would help if I explained that these kinds of bands have another
> thing in common. They all seem to reject BOTH popularity AND
sophistication
> as a measure of musical success. They have an ironic sense of humor about
> that. Of course, none of this makes much sense outside the context of
> popular musical history, but in that context its nothing sort of
brilliant.
>
> And my favorite thing about these kinds of bands is that they have all
> managed to remain mortal like the rest of us. They aren't rich or
powerful.
> They aren't sex symbols or high profile celebrities. They're just very
> bright, funny and nice people. I've meet them all. After Friday night's
show
> I bought the Handsome Family's newest CD while flirting shamelessly with
> Renny Sparks, the band's lyricist. (Because in my book smart is sexay and
> she is one very clever woman.) She wrote some sweet nothings and sighed
her
> name and then I talked politics with Brett Sparks, the band's other half.
> The chances of having this kind of relationship with the superstars in
> almost zero and personally, I find that unapprochable god-like status to
be
> alienating and phony, while these alternative country bands make me feel
> sane and at home in the world. Yep. My church is a smokey bar.
>
> Thanks,
> dmb
>
>
>
>
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