Is music relevant?

[tapper mike]

http://allthingsal.wordpress.com/2013/1 ... rrelevant/

I have some reservations as to many of the assumptions of then vs now. I lived then and I live now.

[HaganeSteel]

That question is silly.

Music is never irrelevant.

Music influences and affects who we are as people.

Sex isn't irrelevant just because there's porn all over the place.

Music, like sex, inspires us and makes us feel good, and changes who we are, and is in so many ways essential to our lives that it'll never go away.

Sex gives us life, right?

I argue that music gives us character and identity by inspiring us, making us feel belonging, and helping us make sense of the world.

I skimmed that article and it just looks like someone is complaining about modern music.

In the 60's and 70's, I always hear about how the older generation back then called rock "the devil's music".

Now all of us are like, "oh, music is devolving. That Rebecca Black! Dern kids! Now where's my walking stick!"

So we're all doing the same thing now.

We can say and think what we want about Bieber, but I will say this:

Backstreet Boys was good music when I was 10 years old.

Edit: Just to add: When you're a child, the things we look at now as adults, and especially as musicians, don't matter.

The only things that matter are the melodies and the general "feel" and pacing of the song. Kids can't pick up on the mistakes we do as adults. Sometimes they're not mistakes at all, but we interpret them that way, and we're still not wrong, but neither are they.

[HaganeSteel]

Oh oh oh, one more thing.

See, here's what really matters.

When I say music "inspires" us, I mean it inspires us to be creative.

Humans evolve through a process of creative problem solving.

Music stimulates our imaginations and creativity, turns both listeners and makers into enlightened people - creators.

Ergo, it can be argued that music is essential to our evolution.

This means that it's never an argument of whether music is right or wrong.

It's an argument of whether it inspires us to be creative.

There will always be enough music that does that, even the music we're quick to judge as pointless musical smut.

Like Backstreet Boys.

EVERYBODYYYYY. Yeeaaaaah.

[highkoo]

Even when we descend into war the drums will carry us.

[bradleyfilms]

No art form, be it music, painting, sculpture, literature etc. is irrelevant if it touches you. Even if an item doesn't do anything for you, it would only be irrelevant to you, and nobody else.
Steve

[SODDI]

Music is entirely irrelevant and that's one of the best things about it.

Anything that isn't about survival is irrelevant. Heart beating, breath breathing, thoughts thinking, urine peeing, body parts not hurting... that's all relevant.

But throughout all the history of the struggles for survival, for some reason humankind has developed music (and other arts). The Neanderthals, the other human race, carved bone flutes and treasured them, laid them in the graves of their dead.

One of my favorite cassettes is called "Echoes of the Forest" - music of African pygmies. One of the "songs" is about honey gathering. All the men in the tribe get together to go out and find a tree with a bee hive and they pick the skinniest, fastest climber they have to climb that tree, steal that honey and not invoke the wrath of the bees. And while he's doing that they sing this song in which they sing stuff like "Hey, I can see your butt" and "My grandma can climb faster than that" and "While you're climbing that tree I'm going to run back to the village and f*ck your wife." They don't NEED to sing anything; singing is entirely irrelevant to the task at hand.

These big brains we have are really good for a lot of survival stuff; they allow us to plan, to remember, to figure things, to see and know what that seeing means. But there's also room for fun, for pretty, for like.

Fun, pretty and like are all basically irrelevant - that's why they are so precious.

[deastman]

That article is a joke. A complete waste of time. I mean, really... today your audience in a bar is more focused on playing pool and talking to friends and their sexual pursuits, and can't tell real talent from a rock and roll wannabe with no credentials, and demands that you play songs they know, even if you don't know them? And when exactly was it not like that playing in bars?

Freebird!

[burkowitz]

I think when we are younger the music we listen to as teenagers or as young adults as we grow up is very influencial to us. There is a strong connection there and often we link different songs to different times in our lives growing up, or different eras of time..

I don't want to mean too much offense, but the tone of that blog post kind of comes off as a stale old fart to me, as someone from a younger generation. It's easy to look at the mainstream music, and what you hear when you go to some random gig.. there is this general idea around that music nowadays is somehow more disposable.. There will always be good music you just have to look for it or find access to it somehow.

I have a feeling though there is a shifting in the dynamic between rockstar idol and everyday person as more people have access to home recording equipment.. in cities with vibrant cultural communities there are so many new bands starting up all the time. There are so many people out there making music. So you go to a pub some random night and the band seems kind of average. what do you expect? you've got to hunt out the people that have real talent. The best way I find is to find cool inspiring creative people and get recommendations from them about what new bands to go see.

Personally I don't care for stuff like indie that much and I kinda just focus my attention towards techno.. but actually I really like stuff like Destroyer/Daniel Bejar who does a kindof dylan/bowie-eque folk pop. His last record was kind of a new direction with lots of sax that was really cool and now he just put something out thats like an album of spanish songs. It's not really my favourite genre, but there are a lot of good indie singer songwriters out there you just have to look for them..

I just feel sorry for the person who wrote that blog post because it sounds like they are going through a period where they haven't found any music that sounds nice and fresh and good to listen to.

[DSmolken]

It is irrelevant. I've spent years playing music, toured in Transylvania, released a big vinyl box set, played a Britney Spears song in a packed symphony concert hall and so on.

Then this week I spent an hour frying up some bacon, melting chocolate and pouring it over that bacon. It got me more attention from women and made me more of a star than music ever did.

[vurt]

Sex isn't irrelevant just because there's porn all over the place.

without music porn would just be lots of squelching and moaning/screaming.

boom chikka wowow!

[vurt]

That article is a joke. A complete waste of time. I mean, really... today your audience in a bar is more focused on playing pool and talking to friends and their sexual pursuits, and can't tell real talent from a rock and roll wannabe with no credentials, and demands that you play songs they know, even if you don't know them? And when exactly was it not like that playing in bars?

Freebird!

play louder, f**k up as many pool shots as possible.
play loud enough and deep enough to make the tables vibrate!

40hz drones ftw!

[vurt]

ps: freebird

[GeckoYamori]

Music has been intertwined with celebrity worship since the industry's inception. It used to be important for more niche music to get some exposure through mainstream channels to be successful. Since the internet that is no longer necessary, since the audience can find the specific music they want more easily than ever. So this is why the mainstream outlets for music have consolidated around the lowest common denominator.

[Kriminal]

Sex isn't irrelevant just because there's porn all over the place.

without music porn would just be lots of squelching and moaning/screaming.

boom chikka wowow!

I saw some recently that had dubstep as the soundtrack....dubstep FFS!!!

[tapper mike]

Is Al real? Yes I knew him when I was playing the blues scene in an around Detroit. Since I've stopped drinking and no longer have a car I get around less.
Follow the rest of the links you'll find several recorded live sets.


Exploits. There was a time and what a time it was.
I've played to SRO crowds anywhere from 100 to 2000 seat bars. Had my picture on the cover of the Metro Times before there was an internet - http://metrotimes.com
Rest assured it didn't happen over night it took years and years. It wasn't about me it was about the band and the music. It didn't happen in my 20's it happened in my 30's.

Today I'm no longer playing out live. There used to be five local bars in walking distance to my place. Three have gone out of business and two have converted to "Sports bars" and feature no live entertainment.

A buddy of mine is not just "a" jazz guitarist he is "The Jazz Guitarist" He's been featured in JazzTimes, Downbeat, and Guitar Player Magazine to name but a few. He's recieved awards upon awards. Back in the 70's, 80's even 90's he was turning down more gigs then he was playing because there are only so many shows in a day one can do. Today he can't find gigs to save his life. He's thrown in the towel after 40 years of playing live.

Music is relevant to us because we make it relevant. We want to believe it's important however it's been marginalized in the general public's perception. However music is being marginalized in the conciousness of the public. By the same technology which is bringing music to wider audiences.

Computer technology brought a new insight into graphic arts. It brought many into the medium who would have never tried and cultivated an audience that could appriciate it. Such as Deviant Art http://www.deviantart.com/ And what do we have to show for it now? LOLcats