Could you be more satisfied with the music you're surrounded by? In my interactions, I've found that most, if not all would answer, "yes." I began playing guitar in middle school(90s) and early on the defeated and jaded mentality of many musicians I met was apparent. I felt it, subscribed to it, and often supported it through high school and my years as a college music student. I believe we were taught indirectly that the common man didn't care about what we made or even worse "Didn't have the capacity to care." If you know me, you know I'm not a gambler or a risk taker, but I believe with minimal effort we can bring back the type of musicians and artists we're proud of admiring. By recognizing what we value in music, we can improve the quality of the music we're surrounded by. First of all, don't support music that doesn't completely embody what you value in art. Silence is better.
You might ask yourself while watching t.v. or listening to the radio, "Would I be hearing this song if the singer were ugly?"
If you answer "no" and value musicality,artistry, or virtuosity over genetic appeal, change the channel,
don't buy the album, or the ticket. Unfortunately we can't have it all, so the more
we value attractiveness, the less likely it is that our society will produce musicians with quality in other areas. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying
that valuing attractiveness above all will worsen the quality of future music... I'm not that kind of guy.
I want what we want above all,but it comes down to a large group of people choosing what they'll value to make a change. But wait... Is that possible? Yes.
The admired elder/attraction influence. Take a minute to think about the first music you heard
that moved you. How did you come to hear it? My older brother introduced me to the first music I loved. By falling in love with that musical group or person, a chain of musical values develop that lead you down a given path. Along this path, other people drastically change our musical values and perception. On little more than one hand, I could count the people who influenced the music I listen to today. I remember this girl (Holly) in middle school who told me she liked a rock band called Silverchair... I listened to that group solely because of how attractive I found her to be. That's normal young boy stuff, but here's the interesting part; I fell in love with this band because of her. After listening to them, I liked them and probably followed them for over ten years. Yes, the band was great, but I wanted to like them and that's powerful. Its similar to how I wanted to share what my older brother valued in music. For totally different reasons(that's gross), but the point is, I wanted to value what they valued, then afterwards I genuinely loved and valued both groups and their music moved me. These are insignificant events on a very small scale with reference to my main point, but I think we choose what we like and influence each other's values more than we think.
The nostalgia effect. Everyone can think of a horrible song that moves them because of it's nostalgic effect. We fall in love with a song because it happened to be playing while something memorable was happening. The key to remember here is that what we were doing was often important not necessarily the music . This is just another reason to choose your music. Play something that you support in every way or choose silence. Let the smell that day or silence itself remind you of that memory.
Its important for us and the people we influence to choose better music or silence instead of diluted art. One person's musical values mixed with an other's creates a more universal idea of "good music," but if some people "let" themselves be fed music that they don't care about, I believe they're likely grow to care about something not worth caring about. So the commonalities between the music I value and the music you value are the foundation of better music. If you were to add a third person, there would still be values in common and those values would be even more important. It is those values that MUST be present for the art form to grow. By recognizing and supporting what we value in music, we can improve the quality of the music we're surrounded by.
