Music, in my view, is the most predominate art form - when was the last time you heard someone reciting Shakespeare whilst walking down the road? Yet we all humm tunes to ourselves (well I do).
Possibly its uniqueness is down to the variety of sounds music can cover, and as far as I am concerned the only thing to do, is like them all. Music, like any other art, tries to convey emotion and each type of music puts across different attitudes, and the type of music I choose to listen to, depends on how I feel.Although there is bad music, good music is always excellent, its better than TV, its better than football, its better than sex - well, maybe not that good.
So what is good music?
Firstly there is a definite distinction between good music and a good tune or melody.
The other day, whilst I was travelling on a bus, a nice, kind young man decided to share his taste in music with all the other commuters by playing his latest purchase full blast through his personal stereo. Even though I had headphones on too, I could still hear this lovely, vibrant, high pitch tune emminating from the rear of the top deck. It would have gone nicely in a lovely, vibrant song to some lovely, vibrant lyrics. Sadly the composer of this tune had decided that a 15 second tune repeated over and over would make a fine 4 minute track, making the obvious difference between a good tune but a totally trash recording.
In my opinion music must do two things...
1. It has to convey thought, whether it thro' violins and kettle drums or electric guitars and bass drums, there must be ideas there- something you can relate to.
2. Music must be active. By this I am not referring to tempo but to changes in the music (movements). I personally prefer a one or two bar static period. What I can't stand are those boring, repetitive beats and tunes that just go on and on for five minutes or so.
I was always told by my art teacher : 'Art is something that makes you think'.
But you can often look at a painting which makes you think - 'What a load of b*****ks' - which is surely not art.
So I always extend this to:
'Art is something that makes you think of something other than what it is'.
Or to look at it another way: 'Art is something that can alter the mood of your soul'.
Music is the pleasure the human soul experiences
from counting without being aware that it is counting
Gottfried Leibniz
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A good example of bad music (as far as i'm concerned) is the rave era, a fad which seemed to have spread right across England when I was in senior school (and sadly still eeks out an existance in some nightclubs).
I can still recall watching a documentary on Childrens TV called the LowDown. This particular show as following a young DJ who had all the latest tracks (ie rave CDs although whether you need more than one is debatable), but what really shocked me is when he said - and I think I may quote - 'I like rave beccause it's in.' He didn't like it because he thought it was good, only because everyone was buying it. This was a fourteen-year-old lad who lacked so much opinion he had to get other people to tell him what music was good.
You may think i'm attacking that lad alot (well he'd be a man now) and you'd probably be right, but it had to be said - it seemed the whole teenage population of the country was buying this type of music and they all were buying it simply because everyone else was?!?! It was such a sad conclusion to draw, that all these young people couldn't make a firm decision for themselves and decide what they liked.
Whats in a beat?
In a fairly recent survey on tommorows world it was found that listening to music does stimulate the mind! Pupils, at primary schools across the country, were asked to test the 'Mozart Effect'. For 20 minutes, just before taking an elementary IQ test, some pupils were asked to listen to classical music, some to pop music and others sat in silence - all to see if music improved their results. Overall the pop group came significantly out on top. I would put this down to the fact that these pupils probably felt more at ease when taking the test, due to listening to music that they possibly listen to at home.
Note then, that this result does not justify you night-clubbing on the night before an exam. (shame)
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