KIS, Michael - don't blow my cover! I never actually used the word "
JAZ ... mmmpph"
KeepItSimple said:
I believe that the deepest music stems from social misjustice and life struggle. Blues is a classic US example, punk a good UK example.
KIS, I agree with what you said as a general idea. I also think it's worth considering that the passion and reality in music based on life struggle don't have to be group-based but can be individual and unique ... but there are elements in that unique struggle that can be understood as part of the human condition, such as loneliness, traumatic situations, etc.
By the same token, those who experience group or personal struggle don't always express their deeper feelings through their art, and opt for mannered stylisation and/or commercialism.
Here's a quote about the British punk movement, "Its good effects however are still with us, and this is its important legacy: the moves toward independence, sexual equality and stylistic diversity. The Sex Pistols and other money Hoovers had nothing at all to do with this".
I feel the British scene is different to the mainland European scene in some ways. For many years now musicians involved with highly noncommercial "arty" music have found mainland Europe far more welcoming than Britain; a number of artists from the US, the UK and Oz have found success in mainland Europe where they were more appreciated than at home. Prog, fusion and metal seem to do well there.
Scandinavia's metal scene appears to be as intense as the US's. The new brand of metal is full of anger and discontent. In the US, this seems to stem from annoyance at the rise of the religious right, which looks like a response to the Islamic play for the moral high ground. "Anything you can do I can do better" kind of thing.
In Scandinavia, however, I understand there's some racial/cultural tension regarding migration and, of course, they have a long history of eloquent melancholy as would anyone putting up with their awful weather (the Brits and northern Europe also share this misery to a fair extent
Punk/post-punk and metal seem to be the white expression of angst, equivalent to blues and rap.
Whether hip hop, which was born of suffering, is great art is another matter. It seems to me that each new genre that stems from suffering - blues, punk, hip hop - comes to fruition in an increasingly commercialised age. So, instead of evolving fairly organically before becoming commercial - as the blues did - each subsequent movement has been absorbed into the mainstream and commercialised ever more quickly. Who knows what hip hop could have been without the immediate distorting influence of commercialism?
Personally, I'm more moved and interested in music that is more about personal/individualistic expression - be it happy, sad or philosophical - than in "movement music". To me there's a usually greater depth to it than the sproutings of self-appointed "spokespersons for a generation" etc, which seems to inevitably carry a lot of ego baggage that dilutes any verities expressed IMO.
Ken yes, Joachim Berendt's comments about European music tending to be more meditative, sensitive, contemplative, many-sided - basically less physical and more philosophical - than American music was based on the scene in 1973 but I feel this is still the case. There have been some outstanding exceptions of course, e.g. Zappa. On the other hand, I also feel that US pop rarely sinks to the depths of crassness as the most annoying European pop achieves (think EuroVision).
When it comes to drumming, in the US the visceral aspects - groove and swing - appear to be more heavily emphasised than in Europe, where the music strikes me as tending to be more imaginative and less physically compelling. I also feel the American music scene is more conservative, tending to less likely to stray from traditional approaches to melody, harmony and rhythm.
Of course this is very broad generalisation (think Don Moye, Rashied Ali) and obviously all regions have interest in both the visceral and cerebral, so I'm only speaking as a matter of degree. Globalisation has no doubt narrowed the differences too.
I have not talked about my native Oz because we hardly bother with music here any more - why bother with music when there's sport, gaming, sport, TV, sport, renovations, sport and making money?