Warning: The Surgeon General Warns that before reading this article you should probably scroll down the page and read the "High Culture Vs. Popular Culture" blog, being that these two articles are intimately related and to understand one you have to read the other... so don't say I didn't warn you...
Now, we begin...
Hey there my fellow creatures of the night!
I'm going to write about a subject that has been bothering me for a long time and have wanted to elaborate on for over a year.
There is no denying that everywhere we look everyone has different tastes. Each and every person, depending on their experiences and perspectives, has a different appetite and different point of view on everything. This obviously extends to the musical department of life, where there are hundreds of genres to choose from.
Now, the key question in this article has to do with one genre in particular and its influence in today's culture and way of life.
Depending on the genre, a certain type of music might be technically superior to other types of music, and hence, of more quality and, as a consequence, enjoyed only by the more educated masses.
Traditionally there have been two main pathways from which music stems from: High Culture Music and Popular Culture Music. These two divisions (in music terms) have existed forever, and as you have read in the High Culture Vs. Popular Culture Article, only until recent times and due to technological advances has Popular Culture Rivaled High Culture in "quality".
High Culture Music refers to a musical elite which houses Classical Music, Jazz and New Age. These genres are characterized by their highly trained and skilled musicians and composers, who have both studied the theory behind music extensively and actively know and perceive the essence and science of music... In Other Words, THEY REALLY UNDERSTAND MUSIC. The consequence? Pieces of great musical quality and complexity that might prove more difficult to listen to for the average untrained ear and more appealing to those that really understand and enjoy music. Only the most cultured and knowledgeable people (musically speaking) can really understand and grasp the quality of this music and music in general... Think about it, an untrained ear hears dissonant music and instantly thinks it to be noise and turns to the next channel, whereas the trained or cultured person listens to it in an effort to try to understand it.
In contrast, what we know as Popular Culture Music refers to that niche in which the rest of music falls into. Metal, Pop, Rock, Rock & Roll, Rap, Electronic, Zydeco, Big Band all fall within this category, and are characterized by musical simplicity, less skill and formal training for the musicians and little of no knowledge of REAL music composition and theory for its composers. In other words, popular music is created by musicians who have not formally trained neither in the areas of musical theory and composition. The consequence? Popular Music Pieces are characterized by less musical quality and more simplicity, which in turn appeal to a less educated audience (the untrained ear prefers simplicity over complexity).
Now, this is where the problem comes into play...
As I said in the High Culture Vs. Popular Culture article, Popular Culture has completely overrun High Culture due to the rise of technology and the internet. Hence, High Culture has become something of a High High Culture which has dropped to a second plane which only Highly Cultured people are acquainted with. And as a consequence Popular Culture as a whole has further divided into two separate cultures, a Popular Popular Culture and a Popular High Culture. (Think of it as two separate versions of the High Culture Vs. Popular Culture Scenario, where Popular High Culture has become High Culture and Popular Popular Culture has become its infamous but more well known counterpart).
In this New World Order, just as in the previous one, we have more educated people and less educated people... people with more musical training and people with less musical training. And, just as it happened in the previous stage, musical tastes have shifted in new directions.
Now we have (again) two different subdivisions within our sphere. We have the New High Culture Music, which mostly includes Rock but also includes other types of music such as Avante-Garde, Zydeco, Heavy Metal, Blues, Bluegrass and other types of Music. And then we have The New Popular Culture Music, which encompasses Rap, Pop, Electronic and similar, more popular genres.
These two pathways follow the same rules as the High Culture Vs. Popular Culture theorem, in which the more complex a style of art is, only the educated (in this case "slightly educated") masses will turn to like. Hence, the music pertaining to the New High Culture movement is liked only by slightly more educated and trained people.
Just as happened before the rise of Popular Culture, when Classical Music was the musical aristocracy of the time, an absence of real High Culture has propelled the elite of Popular Culture music (in this case New High Culture) to take the role High Culture once had. The result? Classical Music has been replaced with the upper crust of popular music: Rock; Rock is the new Classical Music; Rock is the Musical Aristocracy of our time.
With the absence of real qualitative forms of Music, Rock has taken the toll as the Crème de la Crème of Modern Day Music (and with good reason). When compared to other forms of popular Music such as Pop, Rap or Electronic (the most popular) Rock does rank far higher in the grade scale than these three forms of music in terms of musical quality (especially within the progressive rock sphere - a subgenre of Rock conformed mainly by pseudo classical musicians with some level of formal music training from which THE highest forms of Popular Music have stemmed from-). Rock is at least performed by real musicians, where as Pop is pretty much sung by good looking puppets who fake their singing, Rap is created electronically and spoken rather than sung, and electronic is made on the computer in a digitalized way (not to say anything about it, but it conflicts with everything music has ever been).
And Rock, with all its limitations aside, has also stemmed from a large wave of controversy and has travelled great lengths to become what it is today; it is THE most revolutionized genre of our times, which, in proportion, holds a slight relationship with what classical music once was.
So, what happened? With the displacement of an elite musical genre such as Classical Music to a rank of absolute supremacy (in which only THE most educated masses fit into) rock, the most developed (yet not most complex) musical genre of our time, has become the musical aristocracy of today. And why? Well, aside from what has already been explained, there are several reasons why Rock, and not something else, such as Zydeco or Bluegrass (which rank much higher in the quality music scale than the former) took the role.
Aside from being a musical genre, rock is also a way of life. From the moment it surfaced at some point during the 1950’s Rock changed the way people lived and looked at life. It changed the way people dressed, people spoke and people behaved. Rock defined a large portion of the second half of the 20th century, and even though we have come a very long way from Elvis and the Beatles, rock is still what it once was and now, more than ever, it has become the most popular form of music on the planet.
But what exactly does it mean to be THE musical aristocracy of our time, and, what does that imply?
As I said before people prefer simplicity to complexity, and people prefer what is easiest to listen to and what is easiest to understand (that is why a low life excuse for a novel such as the "Da Vinci Code" has outsold Martin Heidegger’s Being in Time, which is arguably the most complex books every written), which why Classical Music originally fell behind popular Music. The same thing happens with Rock (to a certain extent), but the real reason why Rock has become THE musical aristocracy of contemporary society (by aristocracy I am referring to the fact that only the "musically trained masses" listen to rock) is not because it is more complex than Pop or Rap (which it is), but because it is more alternative than the other two, it is mostly not disco or dance friendly, and listening to it requires a certain degree of commitment. Listening to Rock means adopting certain features of the lifestyle (at least wearing a Rock-T Shirt once in a while) and being sufficiently open-minded to enjoy music with guitar distortion, lyrics about things other than love and listening to stuff that might be stronger than the average pop song (with screaming and fast paced drumming joined with screeching guitar solos) as well as buying albums with covers that might not be user friendly or might insult the beliefs of some people (think of the cover of Guns and Roses’ Appetite for Destruction).
This open-mindedness is the key to understanding the reasons why Rock has become what it is now. Being a rock fan, attending concerts, buying albums and listening to music that criticizes society is rebellious, and people love rebellious... people love to be rebels; they love the fact that many don't have the patience or state of mind to listen to rebellious music that might challenge certain views or be loud enough to someone scare off.
This so-called “state of mind” that is so necessary to understand and enjoy rock, has replaced the level of education and training that was once needed (and still is by the elite majority) to really like classical music and has hence created a special trait required to listen to rock. And the interesting thing is that this trait is only possessed by a small number of open-minded individuals who have today become the intellectual elite that used to exist in the past, which is what allows Rock to become the musical aristocracy of our time; if only a few "educated" (in this case open-minded) people listen to it while the rest listen to rap, pop and electronic then Rock automatically becomes the music of an elite (just like classical music once was)...
Hence, we have the musical aristocracy of our time. Instead of listening to Bach people listen to Sebastian Bach, instead of listening to Beethoven they listen to "Roll Over Beethoven", and instead of listening to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart they listen to "Rock Me Amadeus", Beck’s Bolero instead of Ravel’s Bolero, The Doors’ “Orange Country Suite” instead of Peer Gynt’s Suite #1, and I could go on forever... Funny, isn't it?
That it all for now my fellow creatures of the night.
I'll see you in the future...
"I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me."
Happy Hunting,
The WikiVampire
Now, we begin...
Hey there my fellow creatures of the night!
I'm going to write about a subject that has been bothering me for a long time and have wanted to elaborate on for over a year.
There is no denying that everywhere we look everyone has different tastes. Each and every person, depending on their experiences and perspectives, has a different appetite and different point of view on everything. This obviously extends to the musical department of life, where there are hundreds of genres to choose from.
Now, the key question in this article has to do with one genre in particular and its influence in today's culture and way of life.
Depending on the genre, a certain type of music might be technically superior to other types of music, and hence, of more quality and, as a consequence, enjoyed only by the more educated masses.
Traditionally there have been two main pathways from which music stems from: High Culture Music and Popular Culture Music. These two divisions (in music terms) have existed forever, and as you have read in the High Culture Vs. Popular Culture Article, only until recent times and due to technological advances has Popular Culture Rivaled High Culture in "quality".
High Culture Music refers to a musical elite which houses Classical Music, Jazz and New Age. These genres are characterized by their highly trained and skilled musicians and composers, who have both studied the theory behind music extensively and actively know and perceive the essence and science of music... In Other Words, THEY REALLY UNDERSTAND MUSIC. The consequence? Pieces of great musical quality and complexity that might prove more difficult to listen to for the average untrained ear and more appealing to those that really understand and enjoy music. Only the most cultured and knowledgeable people (musically speaking) can really understand and grasp the quality of this music and music in general... Think about it, an untrained ear hears dissonant music and instantly thinks it to be noise and turns to the next channel, whereas the trained or cultured person listens to it in an effort to try to understand it.
In contrast, what we know as Popular Culture Music refers to that niche in which the rest of music falls into. Metal, Pop, Rock, Rock & Roll, Rap, Electronic, Zydeco, Big Band all fall within this category, and are characterized by musical simplicity, less skill and formal training for the musicians and little of no knowledge of REAL music composition and theory for its composers. In other words, popular music is created by musicians who have not formally trained neither in the areas of musical theory and composition. The consequence? Popular Music Pieces are characterized by less musical quality and more simplicity, which in turn appeal to a less educated audience (the untrained ear prefers simplicity over complexity).
Now, this is where the problem comes into play...
As I said in the High Culture Vs. Popular Culture article, Popular Culture has completely overrun High Culture due to the rise of technology and the internet. Hence, High Culture has become something of a High High Culture which has dropped to a second plane which only Highly Cultured people are acquainted with. And as a consequence Popular Culture as a whole has further divided into two separate cultures, a Popular Popular Culture and a Popular High Culture. (Think of it as two separate versions of the High Culture Vs. Popular Culture Scenario, where Popular High Culture has become High Culture and Popular Popular Culture has become its infamous but more well known counterpart).
In this New World Order, just as in the previous one, we have more educated people and less educated people... people with more musical training and people with less musical training. And, just as it happened in the previous stage, musical tastes have shifted in new directions.
Now we have (again) two different subdivisions within our sphere. We have the New High Culture Music, which mostly includes Rock but also includes other types of music such as Avante-Garde, Zydeco, Heavy Metal, Blues, Bluegrass and other types of Music. And then we have The New Popular Culture Music, which encompasses Rap, Pop, Electronic and similar, more popular genres.
These two pathways follow the same rules as the High Culture Vs. Popular Culture theorem, in which the more complex a style of art is, only the educated (in this case "slightly educated") masses will turn to like. Hence, the music pertaining to the New High Culture movement is liked only by slightly more educated and trained people.
Just as happened before the rise of Popular Culture, when Classical Music was the musical aristocracy of the time, an absence of real High Culture has propelled the elite of Popular Culture music (in this case New High Culture) to take the role High Culture once had. The result? Classical Music has been replaced with the upper crust of popular music: Rock; Rock is the new Classical Music; Rock is the Musical Aristocracy of our time.
With the absence of real qualitative forms of Music, Rock has taken the toll as the Crème de la Crème of Modern Day Music (and with good reason). When compared to other forms of popular Music such as Pop, Rap or Electronic (the most popular) Rock does rank far higher in the grade scale than these three forms of music in terms of musical quality (especially within the progressive rock sphere - a subgenre of Rock conformed mainly by pseudo classical musicians with some level of formal music training from which THE highest forms of Popular Music have stemmed from-). Rock is at least performed by real musicians, where as Pop is pretty much sung by good looking puppets who fake their singing, Rap is created electronically and spoken rather than sung, and electronic is made on the computer in a digitalized way (not to say anything about it, but it conflicts with everything music has ever been).
And Rock, with all its limitations aside, has also stemmed from a large wave of controversy and has travelled great lengths to become what it is today; it is THE most revolutionized genre of our times, which, in proportion, holds a slight relationship with what classical music once was.
So, what happened? With the displacement of an elite musical genre such as Classical Music to a rank of absolute supremacy (in which only THE most educated masses fit into) rock, the most developed (yet not most complex) musical genre of our time, has become the musical aristocracy of today. And why? Well, aside from what has already been explained, there are several reasons why Rock, and not something else, such as Zydeco or Bluegrass (which rank much higher in the quality music scale than the former) took the role.
Aside from being a musical genre, rock is also a way of life. From the moment it surfaced at some point during the 1950’s Rock changed the way people lived and looked at life. It changed the way people dressed, people spoke and people behaved. Rock defined a large portion of the second half of the 20th century, and even though we have come a very long way from Elvis and the Beatles, rock is still what it once was and now, more than ever, it has become the most popular form of music on the planet.
But what exactly does it mean to be THE musical aristocracy of our time, and, what does that imply?
As I said before people prefer simplicity to complexity, and people prefer what is easiest to listen to and what is easiest to understand (that is why a low life excuse for a novel such as the "Da Vinci Code" has outsold Martin Heidegger’s Being in Time, which is arguably the most complex books every written), which why Classical Music originally fell behind popular Music. The same thing happens with Rock (to a certain extent), but the real reason why Rock has become THE musical aristocracy of contemporary society (by aristocracy I am referring to the fact that only the "musically trained masses" listen to rock) is not because it is more complex than Pop or Rap (which it is), but because it is more alternative than the other two, it is mostly not disco or dance friendly, and listening to it requires a certain degree of commitment. Listening to Rock means adopting certain features of the lifestyle (at least wearing a Rock-T Shirt once in a while) and being sufficiently open-minded to enjoy music with guitar distortion, lyrics about things other than love and listening to stuff that might be stronger than the average pop song (with screaming and fast paced drumming joined with screeching guitar solos) as well as buying albums with covers that might not be user friendly or might insult the beliefs of some people (think of the cover of Guns and Roses’ Appetite for Destruction).
This open-mindedness is the key to understanding the reasons why Rock has become what it is now. Being a rock fan, attending concerts, buying albums and listening to music that criticizes society is rebellious, and people love rebellious... people love to be rebels; they love the fact that many don't have the patience or state of mind to listen to rebellious music that might challenge certain views or be loud enough to someone scare off.
This so-called “state of mind” that is so necessary to understand and enjoy rock, has replaced the level of education and training that was once needed (and still is by the elite majority) to really like classical music and has hence created a special trait required to listen to rock. And the interesting thing is that this trait is only possessed by a small number of open-minded individuals who have today become the intellectual elite that used to exist in the past, which is what allows Rock to become the musical aristocracy of our time; if only a few "educated" (in this case open-minded) people listen to it while the rest listen to rap, pop and electronic then Rock automatically becomes the music of an elite (just like classical music once was)...
Hence, we have the musical aristocracy of our time. Instead of listening to Bach people listen to Sebastian Bach, instead of listening to Beethoven they listen to "Roll Over Beethoven", and instead of listening to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart they listen to "Rock Me Amadeus", Beck’s Bolero instead of Ravel’s Bolero, The Doors’ “Orange Country Suite” instead of Peer Gynt’s Suite #1, and I could go on forever... Funny, isn't it?
That it all for now my fellow creatures of the night.
I'll see you in the future...
"I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me."
Happy Hunting,
The WikiVampire
2 comments:
Interesting and informative info... Thx for sharing.
http://rapmonster.com
Thanks for reading... I really appreciate your feedback.
"When in doubt, knock 'em out!"
WikiVampire
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