by Tom Kando
I was working out on a treadmill at my health spa.
The sound blaring out from the sound system was the usual “Muzak.” i.e. the typical nondescript elevator music, all vocal, all consisting of songs, almost invariably dealing with the vicissitudes of “love.”
I was thinking: How out of touch I have become, in old age: Today, all popular music sounds the same to me.
I have been an avid amateur of music all my life. As a listener, a concert attendant, a records collector, an amateur flute player. I grew up with classical music and modern jazz in Europe. Then, after I moved to America in the nineteen sixties, I became a fervent fan of popular music (as well): The Beatles and the Rolling Stones of course, and all the other fantastic groups of that era - Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Doors, Elton John, the Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Simon and Garfunkel and innumerable others.
Then, adult life being what it is - career, children, etc. - popular music went by the wayside. For a while, I tried to stay in touch via my children. I tried to listen to some of the music they liked. But eventually I lost track. Today, I have no idea what’s going on in the world of popular music.
But here is an impression I have: Nowadays, practically ALL popular music is vocal, not instrumental. Think of the currently most prominent idols: Adele, Beyoncé, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and dozens of others (far more women than men, by the way, which is fine with me).
So I am wondering about the fact that today, nearly the totality of popular music is vocal.
To be sure, one needs to distinguish between different genres: There is classical music and jazz (some would classify these as “high culture”), there is popular music, including country, rap and hip-hop.
Classical and jazz have traditionally been overwhelmingly instrumental. Classical music will always be associated with Europe. On a continent with dozens of different languages, it made sense that the overwhelming majority of music was instrumental. The great exception was opera. This was largely an Italian affair, with the Austrians, the French and the Germans also making major contributions to this genre.
Popular music has always been largely vocal. Some of this (rap and hip hop among other genres) is extremely creative. However, the almost total absence of instrumental popular music puzzles and aggravates me.
Granted, it’s not all black and white: As I said, there has always been a lot of vocal popular music - remember the crooners of the past, such as Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. But it seems to me that a few generations ago, we had more great instrumental popular music. Think of the Big Band Swing era, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, etc. Even during the age of rock, the sixties, a few instrumental pieces made it to the top of the charts. Remember Paul Mauriat’s wildly popular “Love is Blue”? (1968). Kitsch, to be sure, but charming. And don’t forget the Doors’ fantastic 7-minute long Light My Fire, with two of the greatest instrumental solos (organ and guitar) of all times.
Of course popular music still uses instruments, but today, 99% of this is relegated to accompaniment. And there is one dominant instrument: the guitar, in its various electric and non-electric forms. Surely the guitar, as a musical instrument, is inferior to the piano, is it not? So where are the piano solos, and for that matter those by violins and other strings, or oboes, flutes, trumpets and all the other great instruments?
And another thing: Music is intertwined with dancing, but dancing is associated largely with instrumental music, not with vocal music. Think of dances such as the Lindy Hop in the swing era. This is another cost of neglecting instrumental music.
That instrumental dexterity is less valued now is also evidenced by the fact that beauty pageant contestants rarely play an instrument when it is their turn to display an artistic skill. Almost 100% of them belt out a song. In the past, some of them offered a performance on the piano, flute, violin or some other instrument.
We have reached a sort of cultural laziness. To master a musical instrument is difficult. A song is a lot easier. In today’s culture, more so than before, celebrities, beauty contestants and everyone else has decided that singing is good enough.
I know, I know, singing is wonderful. Some of the most beautiful music on earth consists of songs. Singing has always been a central part of humanity’s repertoire. It is also true that some major popular culture icons (E.g. Taylor Swift) are adept at several instruments.
But for some reason, there has been a shift whereby the vast majority of popular music is vocal, as it bypasses the rigorous discipline of mastering an instrument. That’s too bad.leave comment here
© Tom Kando 2020;All Rights Reserved
15 comments:
Hi Tom: Only one correction - the guitar is in decline. With the advent of synthesizers keyboards started to take a bigger role in pop music, and that holds to this day. The typical rock group my and your generation think of has faded for solo artists. If you go WAY back, pre Baroque voice was king as well as the instruments had not yet been developed.
Hi Tom,
Your comments hit the nail on the head for something I've been thinking about since mid January. I was visiting with my mother. Her caregiver and I were talking, and my sister had Lexa, or whatever the device is called, start playing some music. I asked her if she could have it play the theme from Black Orpheus, which she did. As it was playing, the caregiver said, "Where's the music - where are the voices? I can't stand music if it doesn't have any voices - it's just noise."
I was enjoying it just fine, but I asked my sister if she could have a version played with voices. She did. Luckily, the version she played had Billy Eckstein singing the lyrics, so it was wonderful to hear. But the point remains. To the caregiver, if there were no voices, it was just noise. Funny, but Billy Eckstein was singing in Portuguese. That didn't seem to matter - like magic the music had become more than noise. Dave Covin
Hello Dr. Tom:
I agree! I think that instrumental music has taken a back seat to other forms of music. Interestingly, I was discussing a similar topic about music while at Verizon Wireless getting my cell phone fixed. When I walked into the store they were playing a jazz piece by Winton Marsalis. I was blown away because I hardly ever hear jazz music unless I’m at Starbucks.
I commented to the representative about how nice it was to hear Jazz and she replied that,
the current owner of the franchise at the location I visited comes from a family of musical talents and insists on playing jazz( instrumental) music from various (old school) artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, Sinatra etc. I could not believe what I was hearing but after talking with her in more detail she said that her grandmother used to sing for the church and was inspired by gospel music-a and that her grandmother was the church organist( I take it that she meant piano player).
We also talked about the absence of classical music... we reminisced over scores that we liked by Beethoven and Mozart —we then moved to discussing pieces by Eartha Kitt, Sara Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Lena Horne... And eventually ended our conversation with some African music by artist Habib Koite & Bamada — it was nice to know that people still tap into various genres of music.
I’m very glad Dr. Tom but you’ve introduced this piece because I’ve been concerned as well that a lot of our great instrumental pieces are being forgotten or drowned out by too much rap and contemporary music. All types of music are great! I think that a more well-rounded introduction of theater and opera and instrumental pieces as well as singing will especially, give the younger generation an opportunity to understand the wealth of talent and even connect with the emotions and feelings and some of the biographical narratives of the people who wrote the pieces and what they were going through during the period of time in which they lived( and are living).
This is my two cents!!! Thanks for creating a wonderful blog that always invites us to learn more and consider ideas and facts that are important to our social world.
Gail
Hi Tom
Enjoyed your piece.
You may not think command of millions of sounds counts as an "playing an instrument" ('twould be hard for Ms. Argentina to set up, while in her bikini with two minutes to show her talent). Just as you may not consider what people do during a rave, dancing.
Seems your sense of "today's music" is what you happen upon on bashing you from the most sickeningly commercial surface of the infinite world of contemporary music production, together with its 1000s of nooks and crannies and sub-nooks and sub-crannies.
Here is one tiny island of "instrumental" music
Insturmental Dubstep:
https://youtu.be/RK2q2V5p12Y
Insturmental Dubstep:
https://youtu.be/UKRLY9EptCY
Violin Dubstep:
https://youtu.be/UKRLY9EptCY
Electro:
https://youtu.be/49TlYcjAwR8
Epic:
https://youtu.be/e4eWbqAGEA4
Core:
https://youtu.be/pPj-Hj5mLE8
Chillwave:
https://youtu.be/vQzqTTaWefY
Synthwave:
https://youtu.be/qWZL5RnfgtI
This comes from just 5 minutes of walking through a tiny niche.
As I say, you may not like it. And it may not count in your eyes as "playing an instrument."
I appreciate your piece. I think you've touched on something that needs very careful attention.
God bless
Frank K
Hello Tom
I'm Chuck Hagopian's brother Bob. Like you, my musical tastes run across eras and genres. Great vocals often touch my heart. Of this I am certain.
Less verifiably, I'll say that great instrumentals touch my soul.
The most recent instance of this experience came last week. My wife Annette and I visited our local movie theater and watched Little Women. Greta Gerwig has directed and written another gem, following Lady Bird two years ago. Besides offering this prism glimpse into a dynamic American family of a century and a half ago, aided by sparkling acting and vivid cinematography, I was swept away by the movie's sound track, especially in the scene in which one of the characters plays Beethoven's Sonata #8 in C Minor. In a mere four or five minutes, I was transported to the near beyond.
I've always enjoyed your writing, which Chuck has forwarded to me from time to time.
All the best (and keep on moving on that treadmill!)
Bob Hagopian
Santa Cruz
Thanks! Just when I needed a bit of inspiration. So much of what I hear is noise to me. You reminded me of my father's shakuhachi. I loved the sound through our quiet farmhouse before the war.I don't know what happened to it since then. My father learned to play the violin in camp.
I love what you write.
Wishing you the best,
Kiyo
In my youth, I listened to AM Top 40 radio. There were a lot more instrumental rock songs in those days. Half of the surf music was instrumental (thanks to The Ventures). There were crossover songs such as "More" (Kai Winding).
I also listen to classical music on KFAC (fatcat radio in Los Angeles). Almost all instrumental, except for opera.
I miss instrumentals pop music, Tom.
Hi, Tom--I think part of this has to do with the loss of music classes in our public schools. Whenever there's a need for belt-tightening, it's the arts that get deleted. It's such a shame and costs us and our children more than we realize. Many families can't afford private lessons and count on the schools to introduce their kids to a range of music and the instruments that create it. Not only that, but the arts keep many kids in school who might otherwise drop out. (Sports do this, too.) We are not producing a generation of young people who even know how to identify the instruments, much less play them themselves. Such a shame.
Hi Tom, Here in Marbella we have a conservatory which if you show promise and commitment is pretty much paíd for by the Spanish government. My eldest is keen on the piano so I said start learning from youtube to prepare for September. Meanwhile I've learnt fůr Elise and have embarked on pachelbels canon. But my real love is jungle and drum and bass music though. Pop never did it for me except the sixties of course. Try timeless by Goldie from 1995. It has a few words though.
https://youtu.be/Usqwy2-E4SE
Xxx
RIGHT ON TOM
THANKS FOR YOUR INSIGHTTTT
DAN
Tom:
During the period of time you were listening to popular music there were plenty of people (Dylan, Beatles, etc.) who could not play an instrument worth a damn.
It’s good to get so many comments. Thank you all.
Unknown makes good points. Of course, the voice was the first “instrument.”
Dave’s comment is fascinating. I guess some people only respond to vocal music...By the way, Black Orpheus is beautiful either way...
Like Gail, I also enjoy Starbucks’ music. Interestingly, most of the jazz people whom Gail mentions are singers. Let’s not forget the instrumentalists we often hear at Starbucks - Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, etc.
Frank seems ambivalent. I’m always open to learning new things, including good current (instrumental) popular music.
Thanks for all the links.
Bob brings up a good point: one of the places where instrumental music continues to survive successfully is in movies. I remember many great movies via their musical scores, which often bring tears to my eyes...
Ann hits the nail on its head: The arts are often viewed as expendable, useless, the first to be cut out of the budget.
I congratulate Tomi for his musical activities.
To Scott: True, but don’t forget Jimi Hendrix.
I also thank Kiyo, Barry, and Dan.
Finally, let me tell you all something that happened to me a few years ago, something quite revealing: A couple of friends and I had a little trio and we used to give small musical recitals/performances in various shelters, group homes, juvenile facilities, etc (pro bono, of course).
One evening, after we finished, some of the teenage kids came up to us, to chat, to examine our instruments, etc. One 14-or-something-year old boy looked at my flute, examined the keys and asked: “which button do you press to get the music going?”
Could it be that pop music has become commodified. That means,lyrics, catchy tunes, flashy sounding effects, a bit of rap etc... The artist needn't play an instrument that sadly doesnt resonate with most people anyway. They needn't even be able to sing thanks to vocoders and other technology. Shakira and J Lo show that a great ass helps sell music though. Pop is now for the imaginationless.
On the other hand, we wouldn't want to outright ban crappy music like in egypt right?
https://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-bans-popular-street-music-after-deeming-it-too-racy/
Dad, there is a rich and vibrant scene in America for instrumental music that spans many genres. You're never going to hear any of that on the radio or in a Starbucks or other retail space, because these artists are not looking for corporate licensing of their music. But, if you check out the website for KDVS, 90.3FM, you'll find some great instrumental shows. And, there are dozens of shows throughout the year, right here in Sacramento, where people play instrumental music. These shows feature musicians from around the world, who come here to play. The next time I go to one, I'm bringing you with me! xoxo, D
I couldn't agree more! In my youth and as a young adultI I assumed that the music that saturated my life (all genres) would only get better with time. As it turned out the opposite happened. I am lucky to have absorbed so much of it while growing up -- including the instrumental masterpieces that shaped decades of grand films. Yes, people today don't want to spend years learning to play instruments and train their voices. And why should they? Most modern music is 90% rhythm and a few repeated words -- melody mostly missing. This loss is hard to describe in words -- music speaks to emotions. It feels to me like half of life's enjoyment is missing. .
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