Tosca
Zombie 10, DFZ
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2013
- Messages
- 5,725
That’s exactly, precisely, what my parents said about electric guitars and rock and roll.
“That’s noise, it’s not music!”
“Anyone can play that garbage! It’s amateur hour! Just listen to Mozart, or Benny Goodman if you want real music, played by real musicians.”
Here’s the best criticism they told me:
“Her voice only sounds good because they used an Echo Chamber!”
Listen: No one has a monopoly on music. People don’t buy music because they’re “lab rats.” People buy music that they like. And what people like changes from time to time, because folks get bored listening to the same diet of material. The Soviet Union tried to ban rock music because it was “decadent.” They wanted everyone to listen to Swan Lake. Or accordions.
Synths, drum machines, and yes, auto-tune, in the right hands, sound very good.
A synth is an electronic oscillator that gets filtered by the electronics. A guitar is a physical oscillator that gets filtered by the materials and construction. An electric guitar is a physical oscillator that gets filtered by the electronics, materials and construction. But in all cases, the sound is still organized by the player. A drummer hits skins on hollow frames to create oscillations, and organizes the peformance. A drum machine programmer uses electronic oscillators, and organizes the performance electronically.
The result is that different techniques are used to create the sounds. What makes one technique for sound creation somehow more legitimate than another, other than mere opinion?
No one can (or should) foist their definition of what music is, isn’t, should or shouldn’t be, on everybody else. It’s personal, and perhaps it ought to be personal, since each of us has our own brain and a unique set of things each of our brains respond to.
And since there are billions of individuals, each with their likes and dislikes, on this planet, maybe it’s time that people say, “You know what, it’s perfectly good that there are lots of ways to create music that satisfies each of those listeners.”
Speaking for myself, I create orchestral music, electronic music, rock music, jazz music, and other genres. Sometimes I mix them up. I write what I write to hear what I want to express. Take it or leave it, but it’s intellectually lazy to sit around and criticize the damn tools.
I have been firmly in the “technology is destroying musicianship and true creativity” camp...up until now...but you make a number of excellent points here Les.