Finding the Muse in Music... and a Very Hard Lesson Learnt

January 14, 2011 at 6:47 PM

Once again, here I end up writing about my utter frustration at how different I feel next to other people my age in and around school. I've been called 'sad' and 'weird' because of my obvious natural attraction to classical and modern alternative music opposed to the popular modern rubbish that pours out of the radio daily. I might sound rude or even snobby about modern pop music, but I really cannot stand how much it is overplayed and quite frankly murdered messily by people all around me. To me, modern pop music is hardly musical to my ears!

Moving on from my rant, I have come to write this blog today primarily about my English GCSE mock results. One of the tasks on the paper was to write an article aimed at teenagers about either Modern fashion, music or film. 'Oh dear,' I thought to myself as I stared at the page blankly. Rarely am I stumped for ideas during English tasks, but this one proved difficult to process. The reason is I hardly know a thing to do with these subjects. Fashion, film and music are fine, as long as it doesn't have the word 'modern' stuck in front of it. So, I thought about the topics carefully. 'What do I know about fashion?' I asked myself with a sigh. The answer was 'nothing.' I dress fashionably and enjoy a bit of shopping. I have my hair styled to the 'up-to-date' style too. But I am not the sort of person to religiously follow celebrity catwalks or read OK magazines like other people my age do. I've never had an interest in that, or even seen the point. So, I had to throw that idea out of the window.

Next, I thought about the film side of things. I enjoy going to the cinema and watching new films with my friends every so now and again, but I don't go very often so I don't know what the latest film rage is. That idea also had to go.

I sighed in despair and looked at the exam page blankly at this point. I was left with music. What do I know about that 'modern rubbish that is overplayed and murdered'? Nothing apart from the fact it makes my ears sore. All I could do was make the best out of a bad bunch. So, I got down to work, calling my article 'Finding the Muse in Music' and starting off in a very modern teenage-friendly way.

After the first paragraph, my article took a rather unexpected turn. I decided to ditch making a mess of trying to state what the latest singers are, but go with what I know. I described music right from the Medieval times and how music entered different genres over the years. I told the reader that without classical or baroque or any other old styles of music, modern music wouldn't exist how we know it. And I talked about the importance of having a 'healthy musical diet.'

But wait. What is the point in writing that last statement, without practising what I preach? 'It is important to have a healthy musical diet' is something I tell people, but do I actually do that myself? No. And after my struggle through the English exam, I realised that I need to push through my snobbery and listen to the 'rubbish that comes out of the radio daily'. I need to keep up-to-date with what people are listening to, because today's music will soon be yesterday's music. And yesterday's music shapes the music of today more than anything else.

All this history of music is something every one of us need to take into consideration. And even though some modern music now makes my ears bleed, I SHOULD listen to it and take it in. It might not be my preferred style, but at least I will know what will shape the future. Classical music is timeless, and pop is not so much timeless at the moment. But it WILL be remembered by many.

Finding the muse in music is not about listening to one thing; it is about listening to EVERYTHING. I have had to learn that the hard way, and I certainly hope you don't!

I got almost full marks for my article, but I really hope something like that won't crop up again! From now on, a bit of added pop music it will be!

From Emily Liz
Posted on January 15, 2011 at 5:49 PM

What a great blog. Thanks for sharing.

One interesting way to approach some pop music is to think of it as a continuum. Gradually follow the music from the Romantic era to the modernist era and then down the decades to electronic experimentation that happened in the 1950s to the present. Eventually you'll get to some avant garde classical music that is similar to avant garde rock, and from there you can gradually creep toward modern pop styles. I didn't think of this until I read Alex Ross's The Rest Is Noise, which is a history of music in the twentieth century. It was a really influential idea for me. I still don't listen to a lot of pop music but I see a day in the future when my consciousness is expanded enough for me to want to! :)

From Anna Meyer
Posted on January 16, 2011 at 1:08 PM

This feels a lot like what I feel :) I´m one of very few people around me that loves classical music and I greatly prefer it to pop music. Not that I listen to popmusic every now and then but i greatly prefer classical. But someday pop music will be remembered as a great thing of the past so I better listen to it.

From Julian Stokes
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 8:37 AM

We all have to ditch our pre-conceived ideas and open our hearts to the unknown. Music, when born(e) out of genuine emotion, has the power to move whatever genre it is.

From Janis Cortese
Posted on January 19, 2011 at 8:57 PM

I figure as long as the singers can actually hit the notes, and the musicians are playing their instruments for real, it's worth listening to. But I'm not going to bother much with anything that's been Beat Detective'd and Auto-Tuned to within an inch of its life. It's like Velveeta versus cheese. Unfortunately, that describes a lot of what you'd call pop music -- but not all of it. You just have to dig around. I could mention bands, but they'd be a bit far in the past for you. :-)

From Kathryn Woodby
Posted on January 20, 2011 at 10:20 PM

Also--there's more to pop music than what comes out of your friend's favorite radio station. I think there is a lot of modern music that not only will shape tomorrow's music, but will itself stand the test of time and become classic. The first thing example that comes to mind is film music--some is fairly blase but much is very very well-crafted, welluctured in the way it weaves themes together, and beautifully orchestrated. And even some of the radio artists do have some actual substance and quality, though that's not usually my first choice either :) Hope your essay turned out well!

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Finding the Muse in Music... and a Very Hard Lesson Learnt

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