Put Your Shirt On
"Don't set out to raze all shrines — you'll frighten men. Enshrine mediocrity — and the shrines are razed . . . " (Ellsworth Toohey)
When I first read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, I initially failed to grasp that this quote from the novel's arch-villain concisely explained why what passes for "music" these days often sucks so badly.
Granted, Ayn Rand isn't everyone's cup of tea. Many have objected to her championing of individuality and capitalism, while others have pointed out (rightly so IMHO) that her moralizing often appeared to contradict her philosophy of freedom and individualism. But, just because an author may be objectionable in one way or another, one shouldn't throw away the baby with the bathwater. After all, Karl Marx didn't understand economics at all, and he was totally wrong about workers being important, but he did identify the true nature of religion really well.
So too did Rand really peg the way music has been destroyed in the past several decades. This struck me when I was perusing one of America's great satirical publications, The Onion, and I saw a shirtless picture of Usher with the subtitle: "Usher To Put Shirt Back On When Usher Ready To Put Shirt Back On". Mind you, I don't have any personal axe to grind with Usher. Hell, I wouldn't know him if I met him on the street. I gave up on pop music in about 1975 and I've never looked back. But, thanks to my better half (otherwise known as "she who must be obeyed"), I am occasionally exposed to modern stylings, and I'm consistently underwhelmed in the process.
I think this is just another by-product of the trend toward lowered expectations that has permeated education, politics and life in general for the past 20 or 30 years. Once the notion of equality before the law morphed into equality of outcome, the die was cast. To put it another way, reverence for achievement has been replaced by envy, as well as an ever-increasing demand that unequal earnings of every kind be equally distributed (which explains all of this American Idol nonsense).
How does this apply to music? Simple. To be a good musician -- to really master an instrument and play it with technical precision and creative passion -- is really difficult. It doesn't matter how much you "love music" or how well you feel you play .... the proof is in the performance. Either your chops are solid or they're not. Either you've got soul or you don't.
Yet this very notion of mastering an instrument seems to deeply offend many. Over the years I've heard lots of wannabes (i.e. people who are unwilling to put in the time and effort to master an instrument, but can beat on it sufficiently to pass as a player) actually express their dislike for highly skilled musicians. The terminology varies. I've heard really fine music derided as being "busy", "boring", and "egotistical". I've heard homilies about the virtues of "primitivism", "straightforwardness", and "rawness". People who can't tell a diminished 13th from a power chord stand in judgement of their betters and assume a tone of moral superiority precisely because they can't play nearly as well -- and they're resentful as all hell about it. They're actively razing the shrine of excellence and enshrining mediocrity.
Don't believe me? How many of today's stars write their own material? How many can really play an instrument well (if they play at all)? How many just stand there with a microphone and lip-sync (or grunt in illiterate English) to pre-recorded tracks while dancing around simulating sex? These people aren't creative musicians, they're flavor-of-the-year cookie-cutter clones who can be (and are) easily replaced after promoters and record companies milk them for everything they're worth. Yet millions of people obediently love and support them -- and will love and support the next one that comes along.
Some might argue that this has gone on forever, and to a certain extent they're right. However, the big difference is that in the past, no matter tacitly it was acknowledged by some, there was an underlying understanding that there was a qualitative difference between crap and art. Achievement (and the hard work that goes along with it) were seen as virtues, and the rewards that one reaped were seen as justifiable compensation for the effort it took to get there. No longer.
Today, the mediocre is everywhere, and people feel good about it. No longer are individuals judged by their shortcomings, or held responsible for their actions, or evaluated based upon any kind of objective standard. It's all about how one feels about oneself and nurturing one's self-esteem regardless of ability. It's turned education into touchy-feely, politically correct indoctrination; it's turned politics into substanceless, hysterical sloganeering; it's turned music into cRap.
When I first read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, I initially failed to grasp that this quote from the novel's arch-villain concisely explained why what passes for "music" these days often sucks so badly.
Granted, Ayn Rand isn't everyone's cup of tea. Many have objected to her championing of individuality and capitalism, while others have pointed out (rightly so IMHO) that her moralizing often appeared to contradict her philosophy of freedom and individualism. But, just because an author may be objectionable in one way or another, one shouldn't throw away the baby with the bathwater. After all, Karl Marx didn't understand economics at all, and he was totally wrong about workers being important, but he did identify the true nature of religion really well.
So too did Rand really peg the way music has been destroyed in the past several decades. This struck me when I was perusing one of America's great satirical publications, The Onion, and I saw a shirtless picture of Usher with the subtitle: "Usher To Put Shirt Back On When Usher Ready To Put Shirt Back On". Mind you, I don't have any personal axe to grind with Usher. Hell, I wouldn't know him if I met him on the street. I gave up on pop music in about 1975 and I've never looked back. But, thanks to my better half (otherwise known as "she who must be obeyed"), I am occasionally exposed to modern stylings, and I'm consistently underwhelmed in the process.
I think this is just another by-product of the trend toward lowered expectations that has permeated education, politics and life in general for the past 20 or 30 years. Once the notion of equality before the law morphed into equality of outcome, the die was cast. To put it another way, reverence for achievement has been replaced by envy, as well as an ever-increasing demand that unequal earnings of every kind be equally distributed (which explains all of this American Idol nonsense).
How does this apply to music? Simple. To be a good musician -- to really master an instrument and play it with technical precision and creative passion -- is really difficult. It doesn't matter how much you "love music" or how well you feel you play .... the proof is in the performance. Either your chops are solid or they're not. Either you've got soul or you don't.
Yet this very notion of mastering an instrument seems to deeply offend many. Over the years I've heard lots of wannabes (i.e. people who are unwilling to put in the time and effort to master an instrument, but can beat on it sufficiently to pass as a player) actually express their dislike for highly skilled musicians. The terminology varies. I've heard really fine music derided as being "busy", "boring", and "egotistical". I've heard homilies about the virtues of "primitivism", "straightforwardness", and "rawness". People who can't tell a diminished 13th from a power chord stand in judgement of their betters and assume a tone of moral superiority precisely because they can't play nearly as well -- and they're resentful as all hell about it. They're actively razing the shrine of excellence and enshrining mediocrity.
Don't believe me? How many of today's stars write their own material? How many can really play an instrument well (if they play at all)? How many just stand there with a microphone and lip-sync (or grunt in illiterate English) to pre-recorded tracks while dancing around simulating sex? These people aren't creative musicians, they're flavor-of-the-year cookie-cutter clones who can be (and are) easily replaced after promoters and record companies milk them for everything they're worth. Yet millions of people obediently love and support them -- and will love and support the next one that comes along.
Some might argue that this has gone on forever, and to a certain extent they're right. However, the big difference is that in the past, no matter tacitly it was acknowledged by some, there was an underlying understanding that there was a qualitative difference between crap and art. Achievement (and the hard work that goes along with it) were seen as virtues, and the rewards that one reaped were seen as justifiable compensation for the effort it took to get there. No longer.
Today, the mediocre is everywhere, and people feel good about it. No longer are individuals judged by their shortcomings, or held responsible for their actions, or evaluated based upon any kind of objective standard. It's all about how one feels about oneself and nurturing one's self-esteem regardless of ability. It's turned education into touchy-feely, politically correct indoctrination; it's turned politics into substanceless, hysterical sloganeering; it's turned music into cRap.
posted by DrJDG @ 14:11
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