harmless? bananas!

only because you understand it


i started thinking of this, because if you click on the link above and it takes you to the youtube page. you'll see some guy make a reference to the nirvana bassist, krist novoselic. basically what radamanthys1982 said was that all these fusion jazz musicians were shite and that the bassist from nirvana pwned all.

and it makes me wonder abit, just where music is in our contemporary culture. you've got the more 'classical' or 'educated' forms of music such as the one featured above, and you also have the stuff put in the present limelight by popular culture. now, it could be as simple as saying that 'classical' music is close to 'real' music and that popular culture is a 'dumbed down', mass-culture version of what we had during the renaissance.

it's easier for the masses to follow because they don't need as much classical insight into understanding the theory and language of music. this argument is easily combated by seeminly complex forms of music such as blues and jazz which really found their birthplace within the slave ranks of early america, fusing the diaspora of african culture and western classical music, an entirely new form of music was birthed, which has further developed in both simplicity and complexity all at the same time.

popular culture need not necessarily be a total 'dumbing' down, because in today's contempory society, there are forms of music like neo-classical, progressive rock/metal which all rely heavily on classical theory. but they would never have become ideas for contention if it wasn't for the mass effect of rock 'n roll, or the motown which could find its roots in blues and jazz and even earlier.

music really is an interesting paradox, one that involves just as much classical discipline as much as an unbridled passion that breaks all the rules or heeds them no regard whatsoever. music is often at the heart of culture, for some reason we all find ourselves drawn to it, into the melody, the spaces in between intervals, the air between our fingers. it's both an art and a science, simple and complex, it functions regardless. as long as there is air and space between us, as long as there are lapses in communication, i think we will continue to find song there. the little nooks and cranies in what we call life.

some of the folks commenting in the link above might be slightly elitist, and radamanthys1982 might be slightly neanderthal, but it's good to see them communicating over something common.