Wild boys always shine
Music
and sociology ought to be two totally separate subjects. By this I mean
that it should to be possible for the listener to evaluate a song and
the orchestra playing it simply by listening, and no background
information or visual imagery should be necessary for making such
evaluation.
Watching the last night Oscars I asked my wife if that winner "song" is even music, and she told me to "stop complaining, grandpa". Even so, when the group was being interviewed, she said herself that she couldn't even understand a word that they said. Seeing that I am completely unfamiliar with rap and hippie-hop genres except that I once browsed through the periodical "Murder Dog" in a bookstore (by the way, if this magazine is still published, I strongly recommend it for the immense humour value of its stupid posing pictures and absolutely inane commentary that accompanies them that almost equals the stupidity of rock and heavy metal magazines few decades ago), I wonder if it would be possible for me to listen to some sample songs of the artists of this genre and correctly sort them in order of quality, or even distinguish between a great group, an average group and a sucky group. Probably not.
I was once lucky to find ten Depeche Mode tapes in the $1 table of the local library, so I of course grabbed those as soon as I could. The best investment of my life, when measured with the ratio of hedons to dollars. My favourite 1980's bands are without doubt Depeche Mode and Talk Talk. I have avoided on purpose acquiring any information and visual imagery whatsoever about these two bands, since I bet that their music videos and the way they looked like would be stupid, just like everything else in that period. Can I just enjoy their great songs simply as music without any additional sociological package?
Duran Duran is another great band of the era, but the situation is different here in the sense that I was familiar with it when I was around 10 years old. I rediscovered the band a few years after going to university and was surprised how good its music was and how much more there was than the ubiquitous radio hits "Planet Earth" and "Hungry Like a Wolf". For example, the albums "Big Thing" and "Seven and the Ragged Tiger". Later, for some reason, many of my co-workers found it somehow humorous that I liked Duran Duran.
With Duran Duran, I unfortunately tried to watch a live concert on TV a few years ago, and it was truly a sad sight. Simon Le Bon himself looked like a giant baby, and the director had decided, probably very wisely, not to even really show the rest of the band, instead keeping the cameras on some new support guitarist who had a young bodybuilder physique and who smiled constantly behind his cool sunglasses. I am sure that this is all somehow very fitting, but I don't seem to be able to put it in words right now.
Watching the last night Oscars I asked my wife if that winner "song" is even music, and she told me to "stop complaining, grandpa". Even so, when the group was being interviewed, she said herself that she couldn't even understand a word that they said. Seeing that I am completely unfamiliar with rap and hippie-hop genres except that I once browsed through the periodical "Murder Dog" in a bookstore (by the way, if this magazine is still published, I strongly recommend it for the immense humour value of its stupid posing pictures and absolutely inane commentary that accompanies them that almost equals the stupidity of rock and heavy metal magazines few decades ago), I wonder if it would be possible for me to listen to some sample songs of the artists of this genre and correctly sort them in order of quality, or even distinguish between a great group, an average group and a sucky group. Probably not.
I was once lucky to find ten Depeche Mode tapes in the $1 table of the local library, so I of course grabbed those as soon as I could. The best investment of my life, when measured with the ratio of hedons to dollars. My favourite 1980's bands are without doubt Depeche Mode and Talk Talk. I have avoided on purpose acquiring any information and visual imagery whatsoever about these two bands, since I bet that their music videos and the way they looked like would be stupid, just like everything else in that period. Can I just enjoy their great songs simply as music without any additional sociological package?
Duran Duran is another great band of the era, but the situation is different here in the sense that I was familiar with it when I was around 10 years old. I rediscovered the band a few years after going to university and was surprised how good its music was and how much more there was than the ubiquitous radio hits "Planet Earth" and "Hungry Like a Wolf". For example, the albums "Big Thing" and "Seven and the Ragged Tiger". Later, for some reason, many of my co-workers found it somehow humorous that I liked Duran Duran.
With Duran Duran, I unfortunately tried to watch a live concert on TV a few years ago, and it was truly a sad sight. Simon Le Bon himself looked like a giant baby, and the director had decided, probably very wisely, not to even really show the rest of the band, instead keeping the cameras on some new support guitarist who had a young bodybuilder physique and who smiled constantly behind his cool sunglasses. I am sure that this is all somehow very fitting, but I don't seem to be able to put it in words right now.
Comments