Here I am, 2 days from my first final exam and I just need a break. It’s hard to ingest knowledge all day along without a break. I know many people are like me and start looking for distractions, and since I already cleaned my room, did the dishes, no one wants to play Solitaire Showdown, and all the laundry washers are being used, I default back to my web page.

My first exam up on Tuesday will be MUSIC 140: Popular Music and Culture. This is my Complementary Study Elective (CSE) for this term and the only one I’ll get in 3 years. Overall I have been quite pleased with my decision to take it, especially since the instructor is Simon Wood who is quite hilarious and engaging. (Although sometimes his anecdotes are historically inaccurate) I’ve liked music for quite a while, but it wasn’t until Grade 8 when I took the Headstart program (go to a high school for class) and learned trumpet, that I began to really appreciate it. All of my musical training in the earliest time with music was with classical, and I’ll always have that classical training in my mind. After the great Mr. Cotton left my school and was replaced by a crappy music teacher that I moved onto other bands, including the Thunder Bay Symphony Youth Orchestra (TBSYO) and Thunder Bay Community Band. (Called City band by most of the members, who were there before it’s name changed) These both developed my knowledge of classical music as well as exposed me to other styles like swing, jazz and contemporary music.

The interesting thing about my current music class is that it is not a practical class. It is a music history class, something I’ve never really done before (though I got small history lessons in my regular music classes). The class is accessible to people who have no formal music training at all and rarely touches on music theory. A portion of the class is on listening examples in which certain characteristics are pointed out to us by the instructor (as we aren’t expected to have the knowledge to recognize them our self). Quite often after listening to songs we are asked if we “liked” the song or not. Generally (from my observations) roughly same groups tend to vote the same. Simon usually follows this with “Whether you liked it or not tells you more about yourself and your ideals and beliefs on music than if the music itself was “good” or not.” Yeah…we can accept that generally. Different people think different music is good. Agreed.

I personally tend to fall in the more professional, well produced music than the rough, recorded on the go music. I value professionalism, accuracy, organization and detail. I disagreed when Simon said that the opposite was valuing energy, spontaneity and improvised performance. Organized accurate professional music can be filled with energy, and and improvised performance can be very accurate and detailed. What I prefer it my view of what “good” music is: something with musical merit. Musical merit to me it not in the lyrics of the song, but in the rhythm, melody and harmony of the piece. So often in our course we focused on the lyrics and the content of the song. While the topics of the song are important, and even the form of the song (that we occasionally talked about) is important, there is so much in songs beyond that. A very good song writer can do it all: lyrics and melody. When that happens is when I find a truly good song.

When you look at my favourite bands (Weezer and Our Lady Peace), and their music, you can see why I like them. While their lyrics are often extremely good, the actual music that accompanies them is very well thought out (this doesn’t mean always complicated, but suited to the song). Lots of the current pop that comes off assembly lines is just boring. It’s frequently the same thing as the rival single. If one thing is popular, it is likely a similar thing will sell. It’s business. For the untrained ear, the lyrics become the only source of difference between songs, and in reality, it’s all that is really needed, because so few people truly examine the underlying music. In our class we finished off the syllabus with Hip Hop and Rap. If you take a current song from that general you have two cases: Either it is the same background music as a dozen other songs in the genre (simple base) and the rapping is what you listen to it for, or it is a variation on an older song, and samples from other sources, thus creating what appears to be a very creative single.

The fact is that much of the old emphasis on creative melodies and completely unique song writing has been dwindling and most people don’t even know. So many people didn’t know that Gwen Stefani’s “Rich Girl” was clearly a “cover” (if I can even call it that) from Fiddler on the Roof, or that the underlying (and memorable) music from Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” was actually from a Queen/David Bowie single called “Under Pressure” (which is clearly the better song!). I’ve played the latter before and people were shocked not to hear “Ice Ice Baby”. Many of the music world’s most successful stars have been taking free rides on past creative productions. Many of my friends know I’m not a fan of Rap (though I have to say that there have been the occasional song worth of my attention), and it is mainly because it lacks the underlying musical merit that I demand from music. This is the same reason that when we got to Funk in our class I now have a new found hatred of Funk because of it’s lack of melody and harmony.

This little discussion on musical merit was sparked by two events: One) my new All-American Rejects album, Move Along and Two) an essay I had to read for music before my final. I’ll talk about the former briefly. For those who are familiar with the All-American Rejects (AAR)you may know that they are shelved in the “Punk” section of the music store. They are not Punk: they are more Pop-Punk or Emo. Most people know them for their first single “Swing Swing”, though I believe that there are alot better songs on their album then it. In the end, unless someone enjoys the music enough to go out and buy the album, it’s radio that determines which songs people will associate with the band. The first single ont he new album is “Dirty Little Secret”, which I think is a horrible song. The lyrics of the chorus are “I’ll keep you my dirty little secret”…wow. Going for the young teenage girl demographic are we? But I’ve been talking about musical merit. Overall AAR are pretty good at the musical side of their songs, but this one is behind so many other songs on the album. So why was it picked as the first single? Because it was radio friendly. Because it is what people are used to. If they had picked the orchestral “It Ends Tonight” or “Can’t Take It” the audience expecting “Swing Swing” would be shocked. People now just don’t appreciate well orchestrated music as they used to in the past.

The second catalyst of this discussion was the essay I just read called “Beyond the Vocals: Toward the Analysis of Popular Musical Discourses” from Running with the Devil by Rob Walser. In contrast to our usual discussion of lyrics, themes and content of songs in class, this essay focused on the musical side and derivinginterpretations about the music from it. This is something to really appreciate music for! Earlier we had an essay by Theodor Adorno, a musicologist who in the essay we read seems to be very much in opposition to “Popular Music”. The arguments he brought forth are completely valid in my mind, and I can see why he hated much of the music when he wrote it. There has been alot of change since he wrote it and very good Popular music has produced song very artistic music (Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” comes first to mind). He has a very influential musicologist, and, in fact, the essay I cited and another essay we read mentioned him. Makes you think that all of what I said above about how musical merit is what we actually should be searching for in music is true…

Well, back to cramming for my next exam. I’m sure I’ll have a few more “study breaks” in the next week. :)

Currently Listening to: “Rhiannon” - Fleetwood Mac