WE’RE GOING WRONG

I once heard of Ernest Hemingway saying that a writer may write about anything he chooses, but if he is only insincere once, he will never be quite, the same again. He was speaking in regard to the literary field, but I would like to think of it as analogous to music. A musician may compose and play anything he likes, but if he is at anytime insincere, he too will never be the same again.

Have you ever wondered what could possibly drive musicians or anyone in the arts to dope, booze, or a seemingly dreadful existence? Why, here is this person, according to the stereotype, making money as fast as he can (there’s so much money in music), able to do or afford anything he desires just for a few albums and weekend concerts. If you think it’s like that, you and others are to blame for his demise.

You are the people, the masses, that the promoters have to figure out and if they can’t figure you out, then they must mold you into a pliable, predictable mass and cater, through their entertainer, to what they lead you to think is your every whim. “Shake that hair outa your eyes, boy, we only got twenty-four hours to get this album on the streets and start takin’ pictures for your next one. Outa sight, heavy, stone groove, shoot’em up, yeah.” And it’s another hit!!

Where will it all end? What is it all about? Why am I writing this? Hey, why am I writing this? I’m not in it for the money. I’m not selling records. Maybe I just like music. All kinds of music, it’s all around us—“listen to the music playing in your head”. Music is as much a part of our life as the language we speak, the clothes we wear and the way we think. Music reflects the nature of whole cultures. This is evident from the nationalistic Russian composers to the low-down ghetto blues. But sometimes it seems that music is no longer “of the people”.

So what can we as listeners do about it? Stop being just listeners, for one thing. A person should think of himself as an observer. He should apply the analogy to himself and become sincere in his attitudes about the music he likes. There are beautiful stories to good music if one takes the trouble to find them out. For example, find who wrote a particular song, not just who played it. Is it a part of his life or is it how he feels about something? What does he think about his music, or the music of others? The questions are limitless and it is possible to get a lot more out of music this way, than to remain a mindless sounding board for high pressure advertising.