Klarinet Archive - Posting 000017.txt from 1997/05

From: Lord Rob <rteitelbaum@-----.EDU>
Subj: Commercial Music (maybe off-topic)
Date: Fri, 2 May 1997 18:16:33 -0400

>...in the pop world
> there is only more money involved when you product has superior quality in
> the marketplace.

I must respectfully disagree with you, Jonathan. The marketplace is precisely
the place where inferior art thrives for contemporaries, and where superior art is
only fully recognized many years later. This has, thankfully, been less true of
music than all other arts (look at Van Gogh and Melville), but I still fail to see
the value of such contemporary songs as Kurt Cobain's "Rape Me" or the many
rap songs with "lyrics" that seem to have the sole objective of seeing how
offensive they can possibly be before people like me who oppose censorship
decide to change our minds. Admittedly, these are not the kind of "pops" songs
you are talking about, but this is what sells today, far more than John Williams
or even Elvis. Names also sell. You say that if Elvis produced inferior work,
people would stop buying his records. I think not. Once his reputation as "The
King" was firmly established, he could have produced any amount of worthless
crap and people still would have bought it. As for an example in the specific
genre of music that your argument seems to center around, I cite John Williams'
score to "Jurassic Park." It's a bit of a catchy tune, yes, but the whole score has
no development whatsoever. It's completely repetitive, and if it's to be considered
on the same plane of criticism as, say, a Mozart symphony, then I would judge
the "Jurassic Park" score to be an abominable piece of music. Yet people buy
both the CD and the piano music in incredible quantities, because it was a hit
film (and there again, incidentally, you see terrible art selling better than a fine
film like "Secrets & Lies"), and because it's John Williams.

Who will people listen to in 100 years? I don't know. Maybe Elvis will still be
heard, maybe not. There's probably some contemporary composer somewhere
who none of us have ever heard of who's producing exceptional music that will
be discovered after we're all gone. But I'm willing to bet that most of the stuff that
sells today under the guise of "music"-yes, that includes Kenny G-will not still
be around in 100 years, just like I'm willing to bet that people won't be reading
Danielle Steele by then. I can't picture someone pulling out "Rape Me" and saying
"Listen to this, son, this is what they used to play when my Great-Grandpa Rob
was alive. Isn't it great?"

Rob Teitelbaum
Claremont McKenna College