The word music, as recently discussed in the Monday blogs, comes from the "art of the muse". Music has so many faces and forms, that it comfortably exists in all world cultures, and adds cultural distinction and expression wherever it shows. Within both our European classical roots and our contemporary wester music expression, music has many forms. There is the ballad, the lullaby, the march, the jigs, the durges, the pomp and circumstance, the rag time, the blues, jazz, folk, and all within the art of the muse.
Across the vast horizon of music, there are far points, much like the furthest altitude in a pendulum's swing. On one end, the sacred and inspiration works that stand all tests of time. These can exist in any and all genre's with classical examples being Handle's Hallelujah, and Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah On the other swing of the muses pen are the tragic and disturbing songs of the ages. Bitter fruit by Billy Holliday and Looking out my window, are two great examples of the disturbing nature of music and words. To be a muse, one must have the broadest vision and mental focus, to craft the highest forms of his/her art.
A lot of historically tragic songs, like when Johnny Comes Marching Home, become part of the societal consciousness, but get amended to be nice little ditty's and not outspoken protest. Even during the decade of American protest, most protest music was not in the tragic genre. It was meant to get the listener to think, to get the listener to open to new considerations, and to awaken people to perceived and or needed concerns. It seems that people don't like an excess of disturbing experiences, especially in the soothing world of music. Truth alone is not a marketable quality, and too much truth can be injurious to a musician's career.
Knowing that too much pain or too much rapture an not be a steady diet; there exists a huge landscape that doesn't justify the current state of musical mediocrity. Mainstream music is altering voices, using rhytm tracks, crafting poor poetry, and speaking to drivel of personal experiences. It is not trying to get people to think, to broaden the views, nor to awaken from slumber and fog. Hopefully, this too, is simply the swings of the pendulum, and significance and artistry can once again flourish in our western music.
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