Musical Truths

Today was a great day for me, honestly. And it's not even over yet, so it could get even better.
Yesterday I had the whole day to be productive and I wasn't. Today I had limited time and I was.
There's something about urgency that makes us act, even if the urgency isn't related to the action.

I think that's why advertising works so well. They convince us that something is a limited time offer or special and we desire it more. Not because it's all of a sudden more valuable, but because we desire things that are unique and special.

But that's not what I wanted to write about today. My topic is actually much more shallow!

I was listening to music today, and I realized that I hate bands. I think it's a stupid idea. Before you freak, hear me out.

I love music. If I thought I would be any good at it, I would major in music. But bands, like rock bands and praise and worship bands and rap groups, are ridiculous.

Not only does being in a band setting make the music lower in quality, typically, it makes it harder for musicians who aren't in a band to publish music.

Bands make music lower in quality for 2 reasons: leadership and record labels.

There is rarely, especially in rock, a person in a band who has any sort of professional music education. Maybe a guitar or voice teacher, but rarely formal. So, there is no one person who directs the overall flow of music. In an orchestra, or in the case of a soloist professional musician, there is one single person who has an image of the idea of the song, and individual musicians who work to help that image be completed; this is a much more efficient system.

Record labels make bands suck for 2 reasons as well. For one thing, they force bands to chug out albums with 10-12 songs every 2 years, whether or not anything quality is produced. I can't tell you how many times I've bought an album with 3 songs I liked and then 30 minutes of effervescent hardcore rock barf. Secondly, no band can ever write music that doesn't fit the "image" that the record labels and the public force it into. I get really sick of conformist/non-conformist arguments but, really, I've seen like 40 bands with the same haircuts. Plus, unless you're an independent band, you can barely even branch out from the mainstream rock sound without being "too weird."

Don't get me wrong, I don't really like independent music that much, either. They tend to try to be like the record label bands so they can become one, and if they don't, they don't get popular.

I realize that I don't really like bands as a whole, I like individual songs. It's hard for me to say "I like Relient K," I just like a lot of their songs. But, not all of them.
However, I can say that I like Handel (check the song stuck in my head), because I love the way he writes his music. He writes a song, using complicated theory, with up to 20 different parts on different instruments. Anyone can play his song, and it will sound similar, because it was so well written. No one will identify a cover of his music as the cover band's song, it will be Handel's, because everyone recognizes that it was his talent that made that music great, not the musician.

I can't say that about anyone today, because the musical process and the sacredness of having a unified, whole and complete song is completely gone. The music is meant to be more important than the musician, but now the emphasis is on the image and skill of the individual musician.

So, I blame the public, for our short attention spans and need for sound bytes with exciting, yet repetitive music. You drag down my musical experience.
So, I just write my own crap.

P.S. - Sorry if my blogs have been too long lately. I think big or I don't think at all. No in-between.