This is a response to a friend of mine’s blog. I’ve never met this dude, but he so eloquently and so fluently put together words to express what goes on in my head when i talk to people about “popular” music. Beautifully done.
My girlfriend and I get into this a lot. When we met, she was huge into Eminem. I actually found it kind of cute. Then I found out she was into 90’s Diet Rock [i.e. Matchbox 20, Gin Blossoms, Edwin McCain]. That was a little bit nauseating. Eventually, it became apparent that she also enjoyed a fair amount of Ciara, Beyonce and Lil’ Wayne [only the radio jams, of course].
Hmm. This was an interesting predicament.
I should point out she is a poet, and writes prose. She has quite a way with the turn of a phrase. I didn’t know what to do with this new information. Ciara? Really? Are we listening to the same song?
Everybody
Ma and poppy
Came to party
Grab somebody
Work your body, work your body
Let me see you 1, 2 step
My approach was to toss some new artists into the fray. Like the Fray [instead of Rob Thomas]. Like Little Brother, Pharoahe Monch, Talib Kweli, Kenn Starr, Oddisee, and the Roots [instead of Young Jeezy]. Like Lauryn Hill, Jill Scott, and Erykah Badu [instead of Shakira and Jennifer Lopez]. To my surprise, she embraced them whole-heartedly.
But here’s the trouble. My girlfriend is not the type to stand up for her music. She’s the type to categorize me as an elitist for dismissing as irrelevant 97% of new radio music. She is the type to be hurt by my witty jabs, and profound skewers. And part of me can relate. I would probably be annoyed by people like me, too, if I was not one of them. Who in the ham sandwich are YOU to tell ME what good music is? Well, I will tell you who I am.
I am a musician. I am 20 years of sweating and banging my head against surfaces trying to get fingerings and phrasing. I am Stevie Wonder records like “Gotta Have a Song” on repeat, trying to figure how the heck he made those changes work with that melody. I am countless jazz concerts, depressed by some 16-year-old phenom playing some instrument up-one-side-of-my-street-and-down-the-other.
I am so passionate about music because I have wrestled with it, hung out with it, argued with it, and slept with it. I have been punched in the face by it, and we have grown through it, grown closer, and moved on. We have stayed up all night together, just talking. Our relationship is such that I can pick it out of a crowded restaurant, or a bargain bin. That is who I am.
This is why it is annoying to see things like “Songs In A Minor,” Alicia Keys’ first album, knowing not one of those songs actually is. People are pretending. They are playing on the ignorance of the masses. And I think it sucks.
Lewis Black once said that the trouble with television is that it puts everyone on a level playing field. A Hebrew scholar who has spent the last 20 years in a library can be side-by-side with some upstart nut job who took an 8 week online course and wrote a book. They both look like experts. That’s true of music, I think. The radio plays Musiq Soulchild and Anthony Hamilton, and then Old Dirty Bastard. They seem the same. All legit.
I have to go, so I can’t get further into this, but I will close saying that I believe everyone is entitled to their own taste. I think the key is to find your own taste legitimately, and not have it forced down your throat by some Top 40 conglomerate devil. That is what makes music lovers angry. And that is what makes us come off like jerks.
Our love is being stepped on to make a path to a trash heap. And that sucks.
Music Suggestion of the Day:
Stevie Wonder – Songs in the Key of Life: Enough said, just take it in.
