A Poll About Humour in Music
I recently listened to a WNYC reporter on NPR's Soundcheck mention during an interview with They Might Be Giants, "Humor in music can be a kind of dicey thing". He was talking about how they walk a fine line with what some people perceive to be humour, even though the band and the fans don't really see it that way.
An example is the name of the band itself. To discuss this perceived use of humour, John Flansburgh went off on a tangent about how this misperception relates to everything about the band:
"In some ways it ('The Else', the latest album's title) kind of hearkens back to the name of the band. And this kind of shows you how disconnected we are to the way people understand us:
We thought of They Might Be Giants as a very outward-looking, very paranoid name for a band; When of course most people think of it as this kind of jaunty, upbeat kind of optimistic, self-referential thing, well we thought it was like, (in a scared, paranoid voice) "There's a guy outside the window. I wonder who that could be".
What the NPR interviewer brought up is something I've always perceived that most people approach in their relation to music. However I'd never heard anyone so staunchly state the concept that music with a perceived amount of humour to it is inherently suspect, a novelty at best, and is quite disposable after the first chuckles have been had.
Why is this? Do you agree that humour in music turns people off generally? Why should musical lyrics that are enlightening through being funny or deliriously optimistic be frowned upon by music lovers? This issue is brought up because of this specific comment that was made in the interview, not for any relation to TMBG. Because TMBG are quick to point out that none of their lyrics are ever meant to amuse; If anything they're darkly ironic. Since irony is a form of comedy, people automatically assume they're trying to be comedians I guess.
But even with an artist like Weird Al, whose sole goal is to amuse, he's still relegated to the dark closet of the music industry after everyone's had a good chuckle at the latest video and single and given him his token Grammy awards. I get the idea that people regard comedic music as a disposable commodity. When in fact the only difference is that the lyrics happen to be in a different style; otherwise music is music. And given the choice, wouldn't it usually be best to write lyrics that cleverly amuse, rather than just being some droning dirge, a super-complicated political message, or some mindless pop ("Yeah baby! Give it to me! Ooooh yeah! You know I like it!")? Aren't comedy movies, like It Happened One Night (1934) among the most enduring? So why isn't it the same in music?
Give me your thoughts on this burning question!
An example is the name of the band itself. To discuss this perceived use of humour, John Flansburgh went off on a tangent about how this misperception relates to everything about the band:
"In some ways it ('The Else', the latest album's title) kind of hearkens back to the name of the band. And this kind of shows you how disconnected we are to the way people understand us:
We thought of They Might Be Giants as a very outward-looking, very paranoid name for a band; When of course most people think of it as this kind of jaunty, upbeat kind of optimistic, self-referential thing, well we thought it was like, (in a scared, paranoid voice) "There's a guy outside the window. I wonder who that could be".
What the NPR interviewer brought up is something I've always perceived that most people approach in their relation to music. However I'd never heard anyone so staunchly state the concept that music with a perceived amount of humour to it is inherently suspect, a novelty at best, and is quite disposable after the first chuckles have been had.
Why is this? Do you agree that humour in music turns people off generally? Why should musical lyrics that are enlightening through being funny or deliriously optimistic be frowned upon by music lovers? This issue is brought up because of this specific comment that was made in the interview, not for any relation to TMBG. Because TMBG are quick to point out that none of their lyrics are ever meant to amuse; If anything they're darkly ironic. Since irony is a form of comedy, people automatically assume they're trying to be comedians I guess.
But even with an artist like Weird Al, whose sole goal is to amuse, he's still relegated to the dark closet of the music industry after everyone's had a good chuckle at the latest video and single and given him his token Grammy awards. I get the idea that people regard comedic music as a disposable commodity. When in fact the only difference is that the lyrics happen to be in a different style; otherwise music is music. And given the choice, wouldn't it usually be best to write lyrics that cleverly amuse, rather than just being some droning dirge, a super-complicated political message, or some mindless pop ("Yeah baby! Give it to me! Ooooh yeah! You know I like it!")? Aren't comedy movies, like It Happened One Night (1934) among the most enduring? So why isn't it the same in music?
Give me your thoughts on this burning question!