Chron Review Illustrates What’s Missing From Music
June 19th, 2007 by jeff
We all know about Fall Out Boy’s penchant for hoodies and eyeliner.
Early acts Cobra Starship and The Academy Is … could have been refugees from a Calvin Klein fashion show, complete with skinny jeans and even skinnier, androgynous lead singers.
Even Paul Wall showcased style via tattoos and his trademark teeth jewelry.
Oh yeah, the music. There was plenty - almost five hours total. Some mediocre, some mildly entertaining and some with the faraway promise of musical growth.
This would seem a fitting description of not just the Fall Out Boy concert at the Woodlands last night, but an accurate assessment of the commercial music business as a whole - a crush of celebrity, hype and fashion that, oh, by the way, happens to include some songs if you are interested.
I caught a small pullquote from a magazine story about the White Stripes the other day when I was at the bookstore. Jack White was lamenting the fact that among the hip, indie music fans, scant few actually understand why they like music despite having hundreds of CD’s and, of course, vinyl in their collections. His ironic depiction of a young fanbase driven by a frezied desire to connect to music reminds me that even those who are passionate about music often miss the point.
Music is no longer the touchstone of America’s youth. It no longer propels us to do anything or to feel anything. Paste Magazine dedicated its most recent issue to rockers with causes. They talked about benefit concerts, Bono, New Orleans, human rights and the environment. Artists like Peter Gabriel spoke of how his involvement with South Africa was an accident after his song, “Biko,” became an anthem for the anti-apartheid movement. He had unwittingly introduced many artists and music fans to what would eventually become an obsession for the socially motivated.
The point is that it began from a place of artistry. Gabriel wrote about what moved him just as Bono wrote about starving Africans in “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Music wasn’t the delivery method for the cause. Music was just a delivery method for the feelings. It isn’t as if Bono was some political activist turned musician. Just the opposite, in fact.
Today, we have musicians far more interested in celebrity and image than in artistry. Certainly, fashion and glamour have long been a part of the music business. Whether it was the theatrics of David Bowie, the in-your-face glam of the New York Dolls or the tribute to nerds everywhere that was Devo, rock stars often became pop stars and pop is short for popular. Trends are just a part of the culture.
Trends notwithstanding, no legitimate artist in any medium would ever trade making great music (or any kind of art) for living the life of pop icon. Artists are driven by their need to express themselves through that art. Occasionally, the two will merge in a symbiotic, Andy-Warhol-like amalgam, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Ultimately, you are still that kid who couldn’t stop listening to records and trying to figure out how to get that feeling for yourself.
Today, it is culture that drives music. There has been an inversion of music and celebrity paradigm that gives us musicians whose primary desire is to become famous rather than make great music. Music is just the vehicle that gets you to where you want to go. In this case, it’s a stretch limo that delivers you to the red carpet.
Much of that is our own fault. We’ve allowed music to leak out of our cultural experience. When the Chron’s music blog, Handstamp, recently asked for people to give them their favorite summer songs, the vast majority were 20 years old or older. Music is no longer the backdrop for our lives. It’s just another disposable entertainment medium to throw on the pile with on-demand television, the interweb and video games.
Think about this: when is the last time that you can remember a single song being directly identified with a single film? I can go back to the 80’s and find dozens of films with immediately identifiable themes and songs. Hell, right off the top of your head (and excepting the Who song intros from the various CSI’s), sing me the theme song to a television show that is on right now…in the last 10 years… Ok, now go back and sing me the theme to Welcome Back Kotter or WKRP in Cincinnati or Laverne & Shirley.
Pick a theme from a current movie and hum a few bars…no luck? How about the theme to Star Wars or Jaws?
Now, think of pop music. When I mention “Don’t You Forget About Me” or “In Your Eyes,” who CAN’T come up with the associated films?
Music is just a backdrop today. It’s the curtains we picked out three weeks ago that look nice hanging on our windows but don’t really matter much in our daily lives. To get geeky, music is our backup hard drive. It’s nice to have because it protects our data, but it’s ultimately disposable and generic and getting cheaper by the day.
As someone who grew up with music as a part of my everyday, it’s awkward to see this transition of music from the soundtrack of our lives to what they play in the dentist office to calm us down when they are drilling into a cavity. Maybe this is just the inevitable conclusion of what started in the 50’s innocently and organically. Maybe the intense pressure of machine of industry just crushed the life from music as a cultural artform that was, at the same time, commercially viable. Whatever the case, making music a synonym with celebrity ultimately means neither will be achievable - at least in tandem.
In the world today, apparently the width of your jeans and the density of your eyeliner can make an open D chord rock harder than it used to.
