Garg Essay
Essay: Musical Mutations
I just sent this draft to my English Composition Teacher. Tell me what you think.
MUSICAL MUTATIONS: FOR BETTER AND FOR WORSE (draft)
Perhaps I am a snob but I swear that when I was a kid music meant intrinsically more than it does today. As an eight year-old in 1972 an older friend introduced me to the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Chuck Berry. I poured over their records again and again, eating up the images and scratching the surface of their limitless possibilities. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. When I turned twelve my search for my own voice intensified. I began inspecting every rock 'n' roll record I could find for inspiration. Black Sabbath's "Wicked World" struck a chord:
"The world today is such a wicked place/ The fighting going on between the human race/People go to work just to earn their bread/ While people just across the sea are counting their dead."
"Wow," I thought, "There are people out there unlike my parents and teachers who actually think like I do." It was as the sister of fifteen year old aspiring rock journalist William Miller said in the film "Almost Famous" after handing over her LPs to him, "Little brother, these will set your mind free." It didn't take long before I was reborn.
Just as I was reborn, however, the music I would grow to love had already begun to die. In "Famous" rock critic Lester Bangs prophetically informs young William "It's a shame you missed out on rock 'n' roll. You got here just in time for the death rattle." That was 1973, and in ten short years the MTV generation would dawn, effectively ending the music industry's offering any decent new artists to the public, except outside of the mainstream. As time wore on the industry evolved into a callous money making machine that appealed chiefly to the lowest common denominator of the masses. Creativity and inspired art was placed permanently on the back burner. In early 1981, shortly after the untimely death of his friend and band mate John Lennon, George Harrison expressed his frustration of having his proposed record being rejected by his label in "Blood from a Clone":
"There is no sense to it/ Pure pounds and cents to it/ There so intense too makes me amazed/ They don't want real music but/They're making you sick with/ some awful noises that may get played."
That coupled with the phoniness of disco era made many people lament the sad state of the music industry. It indeed appeared like the dream was over.
The genre wars were only a symptom of the problem. Yeah I thought disco sucked back in the 1970s but now I appreciate the Bee Gees and some early Funk. Today I similarly dislike Hip Hop, or at least what I have heard of it. In a 2002 interview with Rolling Stone magazine Tom Petty said:
"I'm frustrated by what I hear. Maybe it's not for me. Personally I'm way too bright for a lot of the hip-hop lyrics to affect me I'm much too smart to think that jewelry or cool I am is really going to change much about my personality. If you're dumb enough that it entertains you, have a great time."
While Petty points out the pretentiousness that seems to dominate the hip hop genre, in his song "Damn it Rose" Don Henley takes it a step deeper as he alludes to the capitalization and promotion of shallow rap:
"We're being treated to the wisdom of some puffed up little fart/ Doing exactly what I used to do/ Pretensions to anarchy and art/ He speaks the language of a warrior/ He mounts his misinformed attack/ He wears the clothes of a dissenter/ But there's a logo on his back/ And it's a hollow rebellion/ As rebellions mostly are/ It's just another raging tempest in a jar"
Many of my friends who listen to hip hop tell me that there is a lot of thoughtful stuff out there in rap; but unfortunately it's the "gangsta" stuff that is promoted and played by the music industry that is the real culprit. In "Joe", Petty attacks the record executive with dollar signs in his eyes:
"Bring me a boy with a good looking face/ Bring me a kid who can remember his place/ Some hungry poet son of a bitch/ He gets to be famous, I get to be rich/ Or bring me a girl, they're always the best/ You put 'em on stage and you have 'em undress/ Some angel whore who can learn a guitar lick/ Hey! Now that's what I call music!"
While music today has become dominated by shallow pop stars, low IQ gangsters, and corporate greed, there still appears to be hope. My brother Kevin, for example, fancies himself a talent scout in the underground music scene. Over the last ten years he's amassed an impressive library of new music, that's actually, dare I say, of high quality. He's always making me hip to great new music out there that you don't hear too much about in the media. Whether it is Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, Belle and Sebastian, The Cosmic Rough Riders, The Kings of Convenience or the Supernaturals, he's always a step ahead of the curb. Hell he claims the Pearlfishers are right up there with the Beatles (I don't think so, but they are pretty good).
Ultimately I believe we are all resistant to change. Resistant to anything that is different from what we have experienced in our youth. Yet, admitting that doesn't mean we have to listen to sub standard crap in the name of changing times or that we shouldn't say anything about it. Perhaps the radio was the way we were introduced to new music in the past. But things are different now, and in many ways they are better. We have our MP3 players and our endless sources of places to get our music. I carry around 15,000 songs at a time on my ipod and I want more. And you know what, I can have it. There are more bands out there than ever before, and many of them are good. They just have to be discovered unconventionally. I know its annoying that so much excrement is popular and all over the airwaves today. But doesn't it make you feel better when the masses are the ignorant ones? It does me, because it gives me an excuse to go on being the musical snob that I am without as much as an ounce of guilt.
Podcast
I just sent this draft to my English Composition Teacher. Tell me what you think.
MUSICAL MUTATIONS: FOR BETTER AND FOR WORSE (draft)
Perhaps I am a snob but I swear that when I was a kid music meant intrinsically more than it does today. As an eight year-old in 1972 an older friend introduced me to the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Chuck Berry. I poured over their records again and again, eating up the images and scratching the surface of their limitless possibilities. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. When I turned twelve my search for my own voice intensified. I began inspecting every rock 'n' roll record I could find for inspiration. Black Sabbath's "Wicked World" struck a chord:
"The world today is such a wicked place/ The fighting going on between the human race/People go to work just to earn their bread/ While people just across the sea are counting their dead."
"Wow," I thought, "There are people out there unlike my parents and teachers who actually think like I do." It was as the sister of fifteen year old aspiring rock journalist William Miller said in the film "Almost Famous" after handing over her LPs to him, "Little brother, these will set your mind free." It didn't take long before I was reborn.
Just as I was reborn, however, the music I would grow to love had already begun to die. In "Famous" rock critic Lester Bangs prophetically informs young William "It's a shame you missed out on rock 'n' roll. You got here just in time for the death rattle." That was 1973, and in ten short years the MTV generation would dawn, effectively ending the music industry's offering any decent new artists to the public, except outside of the mainstream. As time wore on the industry evolved into a callous money making machine that appealed chiefly to the lowest common denominator of the masses. Creativity and inspired art was placed permanently on the back burner. In early 1981, shortly after the untimely death of his friend and band mate John Lennon, George Harrison expressed his frustration of having his proposed record being rejected by his label in "Blood from a Clone":
"There is no sense to it/ Pure pounds and cents to it/ There so intense too makes me amazed/ They don't want real music but/They're making you sick with/ some awful noises that may get played."
That coupled with the phoniness of disco era made many people lament the sad state of the music industry. It indeed appeared like the dream was over.
The genre wars were only a symptom of the problem. Yeah I thought disco sucked back in the 1970s but now I appreciate the Bee Gees and some early Funk. Today I similarly dislike Hip Hop, or at least what I have heard of it. In a 2002 interview with Rolling Stone magazine Tom Petty said:
"I'm frustrated by what I hear. Maybe it's not for me. Personally I'm way too bright for a lot of the hip-hop lyrics to affect me I'm much too smart to think that jewelry or cool I am is really going to change much about my personality. If you're dumb enough that it entertains you, have a great time."
While Petty points out the pretentiousness that seems to dominate the hip hop genre, in his song "Damn it Rose" Don Henley takes it a step deeper as he alludes to the capitalization and promotion of shallow rap:
"We're being treated to the wisdom of some puffed up little fart/ Doing exactly what I used to do/ Pretensions to anarchy and art/ He speaks the language of a warrior/ He mounts his misinformed attack/ He wears the clothes of a dissenter/ But there's a logo on his back/ And it's a hollow rebellion/ As rebellions mostly are/ It's just another raging tempest in a jar"
Many of my friends who listen to hip hop tell me that there is a lot of thoughtful stuff out there in rap; but unfortunately it's the "gangsta" stuff that is promoted and played by the music industry that is the real culprit. In "Joe", Petty attacks the record executive with dollar signs in his eyes:
"Bring me a boy with a good looking face/ Bring me a kid who can remember his place/ Some hungry poet son of a bitch/ He gets to be famous, I get to be rich/ Or bring me a girl, they're always the best/ You put 'em on stage and you have 'em undress/ Some angel whore who can learn a guitar lick/ Hey! Now that's what I call music!"
While music today has become dominated by shallow pop stars, low IQ gangsters, and corporate greed, there still appears to be hope. My brother Kevin, for example, fancies himself a talent scout in the underground music scene. Over the last ten years he's amassed an impressive library of new music, that's actually, dare I say, of high quality. He's always making me hip to great new music out there that you don't hear too much about in the media. Whether it is Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, Belle and Sebastian, The Cosmic Rough Riders, The Kings of Convenience or the Supernaturals, he's always a step ahead of the curb. Hell he claims the Pearlfishers are right up there with the Beatles (I don't think so, but they are pretty good).
Ultimately I believe we are all resistant to change. Resistant to anything that is different from what we have experienced in our youth. Yet, admitting that doesn't mean we have to listen to sub standard crap in the name of changing times or that we shouldn't say anything about it. Perhaps the radio was the way we were introduced to new music in the past. But things are different now, and in many ways they are better. We have our MP3 players and our endless sources of places to get our music. I carry around 15,000 songs at a time on my ipod and I want more. And you know what, I can have it. There are more bands out there than ever before, and many of them are good. They just have to be discovered unconventionally. I know its annoying that so much excrement is popular and all over the airwaves today. But doesn't it make you feel better when the masses are the ignorant ones? It does me, because it gives me an excuse to go on being the musical snob that I am without as much as an ounce of guilt.
Podcast
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Garg Daily Blog...
Jan/Tuesday/2007 07:28 PM | Permalink
Was driving along today
I was kind of happy that I went another way
Stopped in a place that I never saw before
Had heard something about it
But often seeing is more
Another busy work load for me
When I take a little break I think I'm free
I like quiet time alone
Sometimes I hear noises
And its not the cat or the telephone
Heard a motor driving away
Carrying some people
Nobody wants to stay
This room may be silent now
But when my family comes together
This place will be thumping loud
Give me a lazy afternoon
With a thick stainless steel pot
And a tall wooden spoon
I'll make something special for us
Just try to relax a little
No need to fume or fuss
And it's passing by
Another day
Don't think too much about it
But you can't pretend you're not under it's sway
And it will come again
Another time
When what is mine will become yours
And what is yours will become mine
If I don't cry too much about it
I think that I'll be
Another day fine
I was kind of happy that I went another way
Stopped in a place that I never saw before
Had heard something about it
But often seeing is more
Another busy work load for me
When I take a little break I think I'm free
I like quiet time alone
Sometimes I hear noises
And its not the cat or the telephone
Heard a motor driving away
Carrying some people
Nobody wants to stay
This room may be silent now
But when my family comes together
This place will be thumping loud
Give me a lazy afternoon
With a thick stainless steel pot
And a tall wooden spoon
I'll make something special for us
Just try to relax a little
No need to fume or fuss
And it's passing by
Another day
Don't think too much about it
But you can't pretend you're not under it's sway
And it will come again
Another time
When what is mine will become yours
And what is yours will become mine
If I don't cry too much about it
I think that I'll be
Another day fine