May 13, 2001
Musicians and Music
I keep thinking about trying to start putting up music reviews here. And I keep remembering that I don't write good ones yet, but they won't get better without practice. And even though no one reads this (yet) (except you! hi!) the archives will proabably haunt me in the future.
I'm not sure if reading more reviews by other people is helping or hurting the whole process for me, but I do it anyways.
This morning's NYTimes had an interesting article on Miles Davis (it also had an less interesting article about him) and how the views of music critics and the public influenced the perception of his work. I can't intelligently comment on Miles Davis in particular, since I have only made it through a small piece of his catalog, but I think it is an interesting topic.
Does what you know about a musician's life influence how you view their music? Is that fair?
It influences me a lot. I remember reading my first interview of Trent Reznor and being disappointed at how shallow and... similar to the people at my high school he came across as. This was the guy whose songs I listened to over and over? He didn't really have anything profound to say. Maybe he captured an emotion really well on an album (Broken) that resonated with my teen angst self, but there wasn't any more than that. And I was disappointed with his next album, which covered similar territory, and haven't bought another since.
Of course, NIN was also becoming really popular at that point, which is another big factor for people, both for and against. Did I not like Modest Mouse's new album as much since I knew it had been produced for a major label? Do I not like the Backstreet Boys just because they are popular? Does Fugazi sound better because I respect their commitment to their principles? How can I identify with sad songs from musicians that are wealthy and famous?
This issue of The War Against Silence (great title!) talks about some of those issues in the Guided By Voices review. Except he takes a different route - he wonders how our musical preferences shape other things. Should we not buy music from people whose lives are being damaged by their popularity? Is buying the major-label music supporting an industry that shouldn't be supported?
I think I try to strike a compromise between the music and the musicians. Yes, I am likely to prefer music by musicians that I respect and agree with. But my knowledge of that isn't the only criteria. I am sure I enjoy songs by people that I find reprehensible. And I am sure there are people that I would respect as a person that make music I don't care for. So I will keep trying to learn about the background of the musicians to gain a better sense of where the music is coming from, but I will try to keep from pre-judging it. Only pre-biasing it.
Posted by babar at May 13, 2001 08:35 PM