Analyzing Music

Today a question was posed...is it useful to analyze music? I guess really that depends on what your definition of analyzing is when it comes to the arts. Is it simply exploring the possibilities on why, how or when it was created? In my experience, most of the time this is not the case. When I think of analyzing music, I think of people sitting back asking "What's the point of this? Why is the music so fast\slow? Why doesn't this song have lyrics? Why are they screaming?"...etc. This annoys me. Like Kurt Cobain said "Art is Expression. In Expression you need 100% full Freedom and our Freedom to Express out Art is seriously being fucked with." Real art is created when you take risks; exit you comfort zone and explore it. My old acting teacher taught me that. It makes it really hard to leave our comfort zone when people won't allow us to and are judging or "analyzing" our expression. Expression doesn't need opinion, it needs acceptance. I believe that is what Kurt Cobain is talking about when he said "Our freedom to express out Art is seriously being fucked with." In this day and age we think art has to be accepted by the majority and in order for it to be considered legitimate, we have to get the approval of not only our peers but the "professionals" like MTV, VH1, the record company or whatever "professionals" exist that are critiquing your form of art.

I've been involved in theater since I can remember and people always ask me why I haven't done any community theater lately and that's because of this very topic. I've found that in this valley there is a certain criteria for the people they cast in the plays every year. It's not necessarily bad, just bland and heavily judged by others. Almost every actor I speak to is talking smack about someone else's performance from the night before but are best friends to each other faces and are all in the same shows together. I guess that works for some people but not me. I can understand slim pickins' in this valley for people who have the schedule to be in plays and are interested but I don't understand judging other people's expression of art.

Maybe I'm getting slightly off topic but the point I'm making is that, from my experience "analyzing" music sounds formal, judgemental and getting away from whatever it is that the musician would want you to experience. Like Copland said in our article last week, a good listener should be unbiased and the reaction to the experience should come from the musical experience not the logistics of it. The beauty of music is that it follows no real pattern. There are a million different genres and a billion more sub genres. You want rock? cool! Classic? Alternative? Punk? Emo? Metal? Hardcore? New Age? Crossover? Acid? Ambient? Christian? Drone? Electro? Folk? Garage. Okay, Okay you get my point! It's endless and if there was criteria to be analyzed and critiqued and judged, those wonderful sections and subsections wouldn't exist. It wouldn't be unique or pleasurable for the listener.

The History of Music in my Life

I’ve always had a solid foundation in rock and roll music thanks to the influence of my parents. My mother always had classic rock playing while she was cleaning house and my father always had some form of rock on the radio when he drove around town. However, it’s safe to say I did some exploring on my own. As I grew fond of the Christian faith and began attending church on a regular basis I also gained a respect for worship and gospel music. I bought a lot Christian music and even soundtracks to movies with similar music like “The Fighting Temptations”. I collected almost all of the albums in the “Wow Worship” Series up to date. I knew all the worship songs that were popular of that time and my favorite thing to do was sit in my room, lie on my bed with my eyes closed and dream about the things the songs were about.

Nonetheless, I’m an adventurous and curious creature of change.  That being said, it’s obvious that I continued onto a new genre. I’ve always loved the theater but until recently stayed away from musical theater because of the fact that singing isn’t my strong point in music but my best friend in high school was and is in love with musical theater. He basically tricked me into watching a popular movie based off a Broadway play, Chicago. Even though I knew I would never star in it, I found myself singing the soundtrack anyway. I quickly racked up some more favorites and had a pretty good collection in my iPod. It ended up being a smart endeavor for my acting education as well.

Behind all of my dabbling in other musical genres I always kept up with pop music and held on to my passion for rock and roll. I began to really focus on it when I went to my first classic rock concert. I will never forget it; it was Aerosmith at the Staples Center. I never felt a rush like that in my life and I held began attending every concert I could including Foreigner, Pink Floyd, Slash, Ozzy Osborne, U2, what’s left of the Doors and the Beach Boys and plenty more. They are all experiences I wouldn’t change for anything and that is where my true passion is. All of that to say that my taste for music changes from time to time due to the people that I consider close to me. However, my drug of choice will forever be rock and roll whether it be new or old. I think this has to do with my deep rooted desire to be a free, wandering spirit and my willingness to accept everyone as long as they want to have a good time and don’t like to submit to a repetitive, boring lifestyle.

I have to admit my music taste also is very representative of my fashion sense too. You can never go wrong with converse, jeans and band T-shirts and that is something I live by.

Music

Music is one of the single most important components in my life. I've been collecting vinyl since I knew what music was. I guess this goes along with being raised by parents that also had music be a big part of their life. If its possible, music runs through my veins. Every member of my family has been actively involved in the music industry. My great uncle owns a recording studio that writes and records music for major artists and also does jingles for major industries like JC Penny. My other uncles are in bands and my great grandma toured Europe playing the organ for a traveling orchestra and choir. These are of my more successful family members but everyone in my blood line has a similar story. I started playing the ocarina when I was in elementary school, mainly because it was different and I wanted to stand out. Then my great grandma tried to teach me to play the organ but that wasn't my "style". So eventually I fell in love with the bass guitar and started playing for my highschool youth group. I quit when it became a job and not a passion. I still play Ocarina to this day and I still love that it's different but I've also grown attatched the culture behind it. It's one of the oldest known instruments and it has a pure sound that, to me, is timeless.

All that being said I guess it's easy for me to say that music is major part of the community, local and world-wide. No matter what store, resturant, office building or even elevator you go to, music will be playing over the intercom. Alot of studies have even shown that certain playlists can affect the minds of the customers in stores. If management puts the right station on, they might sell more of their products or keep the customer coming back. It's one of the most successful industries and fastest growing. Negative lyrics affect the minds of children and positive can cause people to have "out of body" experiences which is why music is such a fundamental part of any type or religious service that you attend. It can affect your mood and your attitude. There are websites like 8tracks.com that have playlists for every occasion or mood you can think of including one for "lying on your bed and staring at the ceiling." It's powerful in the sense that it's popular. It can reach millions of people and is dangerous enough to be banned by government officials if it's message is controversial or sways the minds of people who hear it.

Although my life has an un-ending sountrack and I will never stop listening to it, I still learn more about it on a daily basis because there is always a new band, new song, new album, new artist. So my natural goal for this english class that I'm enrolled in is to learn more but also understand music on a level that I haven't before. It's a first for me that a teacher uses music in a class that isnt under the music section in the course catalogue. So, I'm excited to look at music under a new light and find ways to utilize and appreciate it in a new aspect of life.