Lack of Historical Perspective in Modern Pop Music Consciousness

Since I was fifteen years old I have spent a large part of my time reading, absorbing music and writing about it. As a creator of music as well, I tend to agree with a sentiment of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn — our culture is at a dire time when there is more commentary on a specific art form than actual art. With the proliferation of blog pages such as these, it seems that we are moving into an era when the possibility to actually listen to music, to understand it’s historical perspective, is diminishing under the weight of the opinions of the millions out there in the blogosphere. The main qualification for having an opinion on the web, is that one knows how to type and has access to a computer. How these are confused with the right to actually say anything constructive about the topic (beyond subjective stumping) is mind-boggling. I theorize it is deeply rooted in the American concept of validity in one’s opinion — which must be true to have a democratic state (or at least to convince people that they live in one). But this is a lie. Very few citizens of this country (politicians included) have anywhere close to an inkling of the knowledge required to make political decisions.

Some may say that this is overreaching — that to confuse the realm of popular music with theories about political right is a weak, intellectual metaphor. Philosophers of all times have written tomes on politics, morals, religion, and art. In this sense, any discussion of art should come with some sort of knowledge on the subject. General subjective experience is not knowledge. It is general subjective experience and should not be confused with an informed opinion. Informed opinions arrive after study, practice, and criticism.

In our culture, inundated with technological advancements (i.e. iPods, the internet) which are often confused as moral advancements, this problem is growing with increasing frequency. (If a listener has 5000 songs on his iPod, this means he has 5000 songs. Not that he has gained any further knowledge or valid opinion about the music. How could one argue, that our country, when possession is a higher value than knowledge, that the iPod generation is simply furthering possession as social status. It does not help the understanding or appreciation of music.) As I scan the internet reading various things, primarily from boredom and not true interest, and attend hyped up indie-rock shows, I grow in fear.

Last week I attended Danava and Witchcraft at the Sunset Tavern. Both bands are current indie-darlings in their respective circles. Hyperbole has been poured on them from various entities. The Sunset was full and most people sat around staring in blank incomprehension. They clapped when they were supposed to clap and were quiet when they were supposed to be quiet. The members of all the bands looked as though they had simply decided to wear some outfit that their favorite ’70s rock star may have been wearing. They had long hair, big burly sideburns, and played a lot of go nowhere guitar solos. It seemed more a pathetic ritual to summon long dead ghosts of a past which should buried instead of something happening NOW in our TIME. The entire time I was there, I simply wanted to hear some old Allman Brothers or Black Sabbath cuts which the acts on stage had obviously understood well, and were no representing in some barren state for consumption by folks that were never there. I stuck around mainly to understand, so that my opinions would not be founded in hyperbole — but instead in critical experience. Go buy Sabbath records, please. Understand that i happened in the ‘70 and it’s over and we should be on to something new.

I do not understand the success of such acts except in the context of lack of historical perspective. Good ideas preserve through time, but do not need to be recreated. Sabbath was an incredible idea. It was a singularity, and any attempts at the throne in such faithful ways are not an advancement, but instead a rehash. An imitation. Art is not imitation. Art is creativity. Children imitate their elders and the world around them, stupid as to their motivations — would we call them artists? Monkey see, monkey do.

The tone of the blogosphere seems to support each act as something new and valid and exciting. I read of garage rock bands, stoner rock bands, and the new “psych-folk rockers” as though their ideas were some new, valid idea. Punk rock, in it’s pure form, was a good plan. The Ramones were a fresh new idea. Most of the bands who have slovenly imitated the aesthetic originally developed by them are pale impostors. I would prefer to see a Ramones tribute band. Same goes for “garage rock” revivalists such as the Hives, etc. Take a listen to the Nuggets box set to see how original or relevant their feigned garage rock yelps are. Often when I read reviews, references to the past are never made. Bands are influenced by charlatans of the early 21st century ilk, apparantely. This of course allows for ignorance toward the ideas being espoused.

We seem now to be slighting our past — or the past of popular music and attempting to convince each other that new ideas which are simply rehash are actually original ideas. “Kill your idols,” Sonic Youth demanded — but now there are no idols to kill for all information comes in easy to digest, light weight form. It is not required of the independent music fan to be a fan of music — just a collector and perpetrator and distributor.

Does one seek entertainment or art? Entertainment is easy to come by. Art may be entertaining, but the two are not equals. If one’s goal in life is simply to entertain and enjoy, then please disregard the preceding comments. They are not for you. But life is obviously not solely entertainment and pleasure. It is a learning, creative, continuing process and an individual should always consider this. Death to stagnation.

(P.S. — To further the political/musical lack of historical perspective, just look to those opposing the war in Iraq with some new found shock. The war in Iraq is not shocking because we, as a nation, have done it before in more deadly forms. The war in Iraq is actually a repetition of what we have done before under many presidents — some who are now considered saints and others failures. The war in Iraq is indeed bad — but it does not indicate that we, as a nation, are weakening. It only indicates that we as a nation are the same as we were during the ’90s military involvements, ’80s covert operations, Vietnam, Korea, etc. One can understand this historically, and therefore in context to now, or one could be arrogant enough to deny that it has happened before and attack it/support it with naive fervor.)