Out of the Country

[ink_ling]

fiddle: toy: manipulate manually or in one's mind or imagination.

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I have just started reading In the Country of Country: People and Places in American Music, a series of travelogues and biographies about the people and places that originate and sustain "authentic" country music

Comments

[ink_ling]

Sometimes I think it may be more a musicians' body of work that's culturally influential. This really strikes me as a crucial point. It makes me think of songs in a similar light as poems. A single poem may be incredibly rich, pack a wallop in a tiny fist, just a single song might. But it's the accumulation of a variety of such poems or songs that allows the artist's particular vision to become evident.

Then again, I think that -- as you say -- we don't examine popular music the way we would a poem, or a painting, for example. We rarely look at all the constituent parts of a song with all the scrutiny, sensitivity, and formal critique that we've been taught to do with poems. In my opinion, since we don't, genuine artists are less recognized as such but I would also say that, the less it's culturally expected, the less a genuine artist emerges.

Are all songs popular music? I was trying to differentiate songs from long instrumental or vocal pieces as found in most classical music. I think the song has crazy potential as a form. But as popular music, the odds are longer (definitely not impossible) for it to achieve that potential because the mass market, I think (as opposed to what most die-hard capitalists might say) encourages deep uniformity, superficial difference, safety, familiarity, and the illusion of escape and choice. I am referring here, though, to the market that creates "stars" and "hits" -- just as in the movie or book industries where "blckbusters" and "bestsellers" are made. These are a phenomenon where the public buys what is already labeled a hit before it's even released, not where it actually fully chooses its favorites from a level playing field.

That said, there are differences, I believe, among the smaller markets. Bloodshot Records or Kill Rock Stars or Righteous Babe is not trying to make a "hit" in the same way. They simply don't have the marketing for it. Instead of selling based on a "must have" mentality, they are selling based on other psychologies, psychologies that make more space for authentic choice -- such as anti-establishment, lost tradition, or DIY ways of thinking. Yes, as many people have pointed out, these marketing venues have their own back-door potential for "must have"-ness, but I believe it is less and less likely as smaller budgets force marketing to become more personal and, therefore, forcing it to appeal with respect to its customers.

So, I guess I would say that popular songs can be art, but that where "popular" is increasingly defined as before-the-fact hit-making, the chances are proportionally damaged. Art suffers where choice is strangled. But there are always -- *gulp* -- survivors. So people like ... Prince? ... manage to work that stranglehold to their artistic benefit.

P.S. I think the music videos and live shows change the dynamic of this discussion. What about Madonna? I would be oh-so-loathe to say she's a great singer-songwriter, for many obvious reasons, but I would have to admit that, as a performer for stage and video, she has a unique talent, even if it's just to recognize the best directors, designers, choreographers, and then to embody their vision after buying their services. What would you say?

I still prefer Ani by far! You know I'm an "organic" girl! Righteous!