Music isn't really important anymore.
- Thread starter swears
- Start date
True, but I think music in the second half of the 20th century used to evoke a (false) sense of importance and meaning in teenagers and young adults, and perhaps kids these days actually do feel that in emo or something, but I feel like there's a more cynical and ironic tone in a lot of music now, particularly indie, where you can be very into the music but have a knowing detachedness from it.
I do think there are traces of a return to sincerity and spirituality in the freefolk/noise/psych/drone scenes though. One could say that that's nothing new (although I think noise and drone bands are some of the only bands doing anything fresh right now besides dubstep), but who says music has to be "futuristic" to be moving forward? Isn't modernism retro now anyway? I don't suscribe to the idea that the technology is the only relevant way forward in music, although at times it is part of it. I think it's more the cultural mood reflected in the music, and that could very well be a rejection of modernity and return to spirituality. After all, weren't the pre-raphaelites considered the first avante gaurde movement?
the undisputed truth
Banned
What do you mean return to spirituality ? A return in itself signals a move backwards. If you don't embrace technology you're not moving forward. You may be moving sideways or backwards but the only way forward is through technology either in the making of or distribution of music.
What i think is important, is discovery, especially by youngers. That irreverence for the past and reinterpretation of it. Flushing it all through their own innocent and largely ignorant life and experiences. I can tolerate most arty stuff but what i need to feel is emotion and attitude. Real emotion I can resonate with and real attitude not fake gangsterisms or hip bandwagon jumping sceneters. People being true to themsleves and their art.
Maybe spirituality wasn't quite the right word. I'm more getting at the idea that music doesn't have to primarily be a meditation on the technological aesthetic in our lives, because technology's become a presence that we take for granted. It's there to enhance our lives, not define it. Music that focuses on technology itself may be outdated right now, while in the past technology was still a bit of a novelty, or at least electronic music was. Now that it's been attacked from seemingly every angle, we recognise that we're not robots; we're not cold and unfeeling, we're still natural, emotional, culturally-defined, and sometimes irrational creatures, and music should reflect the other dimensions of our psyche and environment too, not just our scientific side and the modern aspects of life. I guess sometimes we'll be mesmerized by new technological advancements and our music will reflect that, but sometimes we'll feel a need to acknowledge other dimensions of life in our music, and I don't think that's moving backwards, it's just creating a more holistic perspective as we more forward.
Damn, didn't mean to sound new agey there...
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matt b
Indexing all opinion
you've not heard neu! then?
plenty of my students are nuff into music. you're just jaded.
mistersloane
heavy heavy monster sound
Chris has got the best avatar on here. I'm kinda jealous I didn't think of that.
swears
preppy-kei
So in a sense I guess you could say that irony, eclecticism, and nostalgia really are the defining characteristics of our time... therefore indie really is the expression of this decade, like it or not.
Which decade? The 90s?
swears
preppy-kei
I make sure to do all of these, except the last, a beautiful woman wouldn't even make eye contact with me, let alone "love".
mistersloane
heavy heavy monster sound
A blind beautiful woman?
Swears world more
Tactics - you took the words right out of my mouth.
Swears , i was going to write a similar entreaty to you last night after rding your posts all over Dissensus , esp. recently (hence , 'you are on a roll son' tag on on of my last politico posts).
Please get out more, move on out from Liverpool , take some air at age 23 (wasn't it ?)
and if you haven't gotten out into the rest of the world , please do so -
then come bk and tell us how it went.
You sound like you are boiling all over yourself sometimes man .
Posting 'Music isn't really important anymore' - on a music forum and all.
Have enjoyed the spin off comments in themselves but original premise/ comment is the kind of stuff that kept me off the music forum /bored with it for some time.
Get on out there ... you can plainly read the excitement about the many kinds of music happening right now -today, tonight , unreleased and down in basements the world over ...
Tactics - you took the words right out of my mouth.
Swears , i was going to write a similar entreaty to you last night after rding your posts all over Dissensus , esp. recently (hence , 'you are on a roll son' tag on on of my last politico posts).
Please get out more, move on out from Liverpool , take some air at age 23 (wasn't it ?)
and if you haven't gotten out into the rest of the world , please do so -
then come bk and tell us how it went.
You sound like you are boiling all over yourself sometimes man .
Posting 'Music isn't really important anymore' - on a music forum and all.
Have enjoyed the spin off comments in themselves but original premise/ comment is the kind of stuff that kept me off the music forum /bored with it for some time.
Get on out there ... you can plainly read the excitement about the many kinds of music happening right now -today, tonight , unreleased and down in basements the world over ...
Guybrush
Dittohead
Ah, gotta love self-defeating boloney. Of course she would, but you thinking she won't is part of the problem. Maybe we should start a relationship thread?
Guybrush
Dittohead
They have, and thank god for that. The "death of irony" is one of the best developments of the last years, I think. As some of you were writing in another thread (I can't remember which one), the 90s produced a lot of crap that is still held in much to high esteem for my liking, and "the postmodern games of irony and appropriation" are right up there at the top of my imagined "Most Overrated Concepts of the 90s" list.
The statement "Music isn't really important anymore" is true to an extent, but that's true for most everything, isn't it (books, movies, exercising -- even television, I would say)? I think music doesn't come as contextualized today as it used to, so you have to create a context yourself. Doing so is actually harder than obtaining the music itself, I think, but it's of uppermost importance. (It seems like a lot of people on this board are DJs, if so they are already blessed with a natural context for their songs to gain value in [observing the dance floor; watching the punters reactions to certain songs].)
Guybrush
Dittohead
Yeah, you're absolutely right, but I was thinking of how it is often used to shield oneself from taking a stand, and that bothers me a lot. (Whenever I play ultra-cheesy euro-dance I always tell anyone who asks that I actually, genuinely, love what I'm playing; I think that makes it easier for people to appreciate the records I'm playing [knowing that at least one person in the room unequivocally loves the music].)
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
Do you want to restate your original premise as 'music I like isn't important any more' or 'music isn't important in the way I feel it should be important any more'? There are kids tattooing Razorlight lyrics on their arms with biros up and down the country, and just because I think Razorlight are the most tedious thing since the concept of tedium was invented doesn't mean that I can sit here and deny that lots of people are having a meaningful response to music.
the undisputed truth
Banned
importance isn't really important anymore