I am only on Chapter 5 of Amusing Ourselves to Death, (slow reader, yes.) And I am still thinking of Chapter 1. Television "recreated and degraded" our conceptions of thinking and knowing. We see things on the computer screens and the T.V.s that seem to make us less intelligent, but what about the music?
Personally I am not a fan of Justin Beiber, New Boyz, Owl City or mostly any artist that comes on KIIS FM, but if you compare their lyrics and song meaning to artists and music composers of the 19th and 20th century, you can see where perception and comprehensive reaction breaks down.
In The End of Education Postman discusses Roger Waters album "Amused to Death" that was partly inspired by the book Amusing Ourselves to Death. He goes on to say that "the level of education required to appreciate the music of Roger Waters is both different and lower than what is required to appreciate...most American students are well tuned to respond with feeling, critical intelligence, and considerable attention...to popular music but are not prepared to feel or even experience the music of Hayden, Bach, or Mozart; that is to say their hearts are closed, or partially closed, to the canon of Western music...There is in short, something missing in the aesthetic experience of our young."
I agree with Postman's statement and I can see how it relates to the subject matter and content of Amusing Ourselves to Death. Kids these days aren't into Classical music, or better yet, "Oldies" but more into "easy-money", repetitive, It-has-a-nice-ring-to-it-but-it-makes-no-sense kind of music. Not only has print broken down to mere folly, but has music gone too?
Personally I am not a fan of Justin Beiber, New Boyz, Owl City or mostly any artist that comes on KIIS FM, but if you compare their lyrics and song meaning to artists and music composers of the 19th and 20th century, you can see where perception and comprehensive reaction breaks down.
In The End of Education Postman discusses Roger Waters album "Amused to Death" that was partly inspired by the book Amusing Ourselves to Death. He goes on to say that "the level of education required to appreciate the music of Roger Waters is both different and lower than what is required to appreciate...most American students are well tuned to respond with feeling, critical intelligence, and considerable attention...to popular music but are not prepared to feel or even experience the music of Hayden, Bach, or Mozart; that is to say their hearts are closed, or partially closed, to the canon of Western music...There is in short, something missing in the aesthetic experience of our young."
I agree with Postman's statement and I can see how it relates to the subject matter and content of Amusing Ourselves to Death. Kids these days aren't into Classical music, or better yet, "Oldies" but more into "easy-money", repetitive, It-has-a-nice-ring-to-it-but-it-makes-no-sense kind of music. Not only has print broken down to mere folly, but has music gone too?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyfc10qDcR4
ReplyDeleteYou make a point. Music is going down a similar road, and the proof is in the new generations which as Postman said is no longer a twenty year gap. My younger brother by twelve years, he's four, loves that trashy pop music you here on the radio. So I'm thinking to myself what is going to happen to real music with a generation that only wants to listen to easy-to-dance-to music?
ReplyDeleteWhat only adds to this is that I followed Fletcher's link and then my brother comes running and starts dancing to it. He danced all the way through and asked to play it again.
I'm with Carina's little brother: that song makes me want to dance too. It is ABSOLUTELY BRAINLESS...but anyway, I just want to say that every generation hates the pop music of the generation that follows next. Pop music -- short for POPULAR -- that plays on KIIS and other such stations is always feeble minded...inspires the booty, not the brain. Then there's the high art music -- not necessarily jazz or classical, but thoughtful singer/songwriters who write and play about real humanity, actual issues.
ReplyDeleteI don't worry about music -- I just stay off the radio unless I'm listening to independent radio stations that are not beholden to commercial advertising.
When my daughter was young and the Spice Girls came out, my friends and I shook our heads in wonder. Now I kind of miss them. They seem sort of sweet by comparison to some of the sleezy baloney that our little kids are forced to consume.
THAT bothers ME -- how media just GOES AFTER little kids who don't have any filter or critical thinking skills. Yet it looks like many of us manage to survive it with our brains intact. And there are people my age and older who still love the superficial...and lots of my friends have not progressed past Santana's song, Oye Como Va or Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti. I acknowledge that these were great moments, but for crying out loud...that was over 40 years ago now. We can love it, the way I love my mother's music, but certainly there has been good music since then. My friends that hang on to that stuff haven't heard anything new that they've liked since 1974. Stuck.
By the way, speaking of music: the Strokes have a song called Soma. And I forgot about that Roger Waters stuff based on Postman's work...I'm going to have to look into that this summer.
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ReplyDeleteAnother interesting thing i've noticed is the parents of the current generation are never content with popular music. They always condemn it saying its the "devil's music." It happened in the 60's, 70's, and even now. Does this show that popular music is, dare i say, always been trashy from day one? Probably not (well maybe now-a-days). Though there are still those out there with meaningful songs that do have a message to say, even mainstream artists.
ReplyDeleteExamples!
Kanye West - All Falls Down
talks about materialism
Lupe Fiasco - Dumb it Down
talks about lack of substance in rap music
Common - Faithful
To poetic I can't understand it.