BEST OF THE “OO'S”
At some point in our lives we all seem to have a need for what can only be called a note of ”sadness” or a “weird” offbeat sound in the music we most enjoy.
The Highland Scot, I suppose, would, usually take first place with anyone preferring weird sounding music. The bagpipes exemplify pretty much what most people call “the sour note” element which is so much a part of our serious music enjoyment. There are many people who will insist they do not have a choice of any particular type of music and are , non-musical. Every soul, I feel, has its thematic thread of intensely intimate and unique relation ship to the very composition of being. Music - that is, the artful arrangement of elements of living in a pleasing, inductive pattern. Music is, basically, mathematical and life itself is structured on such principles, so all parts of of it will co-adhere to such a standard.
The sensual sound of being off-pitch and, hence, in need of change, is not confined to the Highlander's complicated package of reeds, chanters and connective pipes. Westerners hear it in Oriental music quite often - a plaintive, questioning wail which defies natural acceptance; a sound which seems not to belong but which is accepted with enthusiasm by Orientals. The same, in a sense, is true of the cruder styles of music which assail us on all sides today. One generation sets forth a standard which, often tends to mock that which has gone before and causes trepidation among older music lovers. There are also occasions - not so frequent, perhaps - when the new generation chooses to ignore former standards and , more or less, start over again with basic elements and fundamental principles in their primitive state.
Have we experienced such a lapse in the present era of “rock” and “rap”? I hesitate to call it music at times, yet it seems to meet a need of those who are devoted to it. Certainly the “weird” elements are contained therein - even unto excess. No one, as of yet, has contained the rock and rap elements into a presentable package to allow comparison and study. It is still fragmented; at odds with itself at many points and running free and virtually unrestrained.
Imagine, if you can, what the “record show” or Disc Jockey entertainment of the next decade will have to be when Radio-TV-or Whatever attempts to reproduce the “best of the 00's” of our century!
Talk about something being weird ... that show will be the ultimate.
A.L.M. August 11, 2004 [c440wds]
