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Music: an art in decline ?

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Music: an art in decline ?

killerofgod
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Posted 08/17/07 - 12:27 PM:	#21
Well, now that it's been a few days and no one seems to be arguing to the contrary anymore, it seems we have reached the consensus that popular music is indeed in a state of decline. So now what? Do we all just go on with our lives with nothing more than slightly more confidence that Paris Hilton's latest album is a piece of trash? What I mean is, is there anything we can do to stop the state of decline? Can we revitalize music, or is it lost forever? I don't know, maybe I'm still just frustrated from working in a store where the radio only plays pop music...
Just my own meaningless thoughts and opinions.

stay_in_school
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Posted 08/18/07 - 04:31 PM:	#22
I think the only hope is to listen to and support the music that we still find good, and support newer artists that have some "artsy" aspects to their music. If no one bought Paris Hilton's album, then she probably won't come out with a second. My point is the record companies will market and sell what's already selling. As long as people continue to buy crap the record companies will continue to sell crap. If people stopped buying crap and bought good music than the record companies will start promoting artists with similar aspects in their music.

lackofcolor
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Posted 08/18/07 - 07:34 PM:	#23
Can we revitalize music? You know, it's a great question. I'd like to think so, and I'd also like to think that some people are attempting to do that. But again, like so many have said, what sells is popular. But why are so many people liking what's out right now? This brings up the whole issue of what "good music" is. Is good taste an opinion? Are there some things that everyone likes? How can we revitalize music when so many people are stuck in a rut about what's "good" to them?

Post-burnt
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Posted 08/19/07 - 06:38 AM:	#24
I think there's often the problem that a great many people find it difficult to appreciate good things if they come from inauspicious avenues. The Paris Hilton album has 50% good tunes. Personally, I find her public persona uninteresting and vapid; she's obviously making records with a hell of a lot of financial backing. However, if you can ignore the crass means by which the album was sired, there are some very good songs on there. She's obviously had her voice tweaked and the production is very glitzy, but it is, in part, a good record. I'll re-iterate an earlier point - music is unspeakably broad. There's absolutely no need to worry about it 'revitalising'. There are as many great bands and composers as there has ever been.

killerofgod
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Posted 08/19/07 - 02:47 PM:	#25
"as many great bands and composers as there has ever been"? I'd venture to say that there are even more. The problem is that they aren't getting any recognition except within very limited circles. I'll bet you can each name a dozen bands or composers better than Paris Hilton who no on else on this thread has even heard of.
Just my own meaningless thoughts and opinions.

stay_in_school
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Posted 08/19/07 - 06:50 PM:	#26
...which returns to my idea. If everyone stopped buying Paris Hilton's album and bought "better" albums from "better" artists, then the record companies would eventually say "Well forget this Hilton girl, let's go where the money is." The record companies will bring what is in demand and if the demand is for crap they will supply you with it. Demand for better music and they will supply you with better music.

Post-burnt
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Posted 08/20/07 - 08:23 AM:	#27
killerofgod wrote: "as many great bands and composers as there has ever been"? I'd venture to say that there are even more. The problem is that they aren't getting any recognition except within very limited circles. I'll bet you can each name a dozen bands or composers better than Paris Hilton who no on else on this thread has even heard of. I'd rather argue for a plurality of taste rather than a puritanical, elitist 'music x is best'. Kaija Saariaho is easily my favourite spectralist composer. Franco is my favourite Soukous guitarist. I'm undecided on who I think records the best sea-shanties, and I'm pretty clueless as to my favourite Bhangra DJ. Paris Hilton by no means makes (what I would consider) the best pop music, but she is certainly not making bad pop music. The point I'm trying to illustrate - if you try and judge all music by exactly the same criteria you'll end up dismissing certain things. Would a critic of the Baroque era appreciate a Schoenberg or Shostokovich or even a Wagner? I very much doubt it - not because the music is bad, but because the dominant critical paradigm of the times would make a critical appraisal of each very limited. Is the F# of Beethoven's first an act of dissonance? Should we dismiss anyone using Dm (considered by 'early music' to be the devil's chord)? Is the Tristan chord nothing but decadent cacophony? None of these instances work if the critical appraisal of each doesn't move to accommodate the new paradigms. A parallel argument is that jazz music was considered, most notably by Adorno, to be an aberration. Now, of course, jazz is considered 'art music', and treated in similar regards to classical music. It was, in its earliest incarnation, little more than a dance music. If the critical thinking of the time doesn't think about jazz in different ways to how one thinks about classical, jazz remains a non-music. Likewise, one does not judge Paris Hilton, or Britney Spears, or Abba [etc] in exactly the same manner one does Beethoven, Bach [etc, etc]. It is not a question of demanding 'better music'. There is always plenty of very good music out there. It is not suprising that even a polymath like Xenakis is not wider known - it is not, by any means, easy music to listen to. Paris Hilton is, and, coincidentally, is also, in part, rather good at it. My life would be a great deal less rich if I existed on a diet of exclusively 'difficult' music. Man cannot live on bread alone [etc].

Avedis
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Posted 08/20/07 - 09:32 AM:	#28
“Paris Hilton by no means makes (what I would consider) the best pop music, but she is certainly not making bad pop music. “ Really? You do not think her music to be bad music? I would certainly qualify Paris Hilton’s album as an example of bad pop music. The album does not boast a single new musical concept, not even a rather useless musical concept. The album was simply the expected same old same old pop music record, stereotypical programming and sampling. The whole project was bland. Her album was far worse than Britney Spears’ mediocre (for a pop album) album. Now, I do agree that we must recognize that various styles of music should be judged by varying criteria, but this does not mean that some criteria do not carry over from genre to genre.

Makarismos
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Posted 08/20/07 - 11:15 AM:	#29
Paris Hilton doesn’t make music. she only sings it. her team of producers, writers, choreographers, managers, agents, stylists, make up artists, camera men and marketing people do the rest. Pop music is a combined communal activity, which has been given a young girls pretty face as its badge.

Avedis
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Posted 08/20/07 - 11:43 AM:	#30
"Paris Hilton doesn’t make music. she only sings it. her team of producers, writers, choreographers, managers, agents, stylists, make up artists, camera men and marketing people do the rest. " And both her singing and the work of her musical director's were sub par. "Pop music is a combined communal activity, which has been given a young girls pretty face as its badge." Actually, such cases seem to be the minority in pop music. Pop music had it's start (today's form of it) in the early 50's, notably with the doo whop acts. The modern boy band and teen pop star, while not new entirely, have taken an entirely new form. There was a time when even those pop acts were comprised of serious musicians and singers.

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