Published in “Soul Brasil“, Feb/March issue (unabriged version)
SAME OLD SONG
There’s no accounting for why we each repeat the same pointless ritual every day, despite failure after failure. Every day we spin and spin through the radio dial trying to find original, interesting music. Click…heard it, click…boring, click…eh. Different voices, modified lyrics, jazzed up arrangements, but the same old, tired songs. I sometimes think I’d rather have hot lead poured into my ears than listen to this stuff.
Perhaps all the songs have been written. However there remain three immense veins of musical gold open to further exploration. Each still holds a mother load.
First, experimentation: Getting musically messy - sloshing around in creative mud - is at the heart of originality. We have a wonderful, experimental workshop environment at local coffee shops where we find the open mic scene. This seething hatchery at the bottom of Southern California’s creative evolutionary ladder allows emerging, tentative artists to get on stage comfortably (because they couldn’t possibly do worse than the person before them), work through their material and fall on their ass. Every seasoned musician has fallen on his or her ass. Lord knows I have - I’ve got calluses on my rear end to prove it. From mistakes, all kinds of creation erupts. We all have stories of lucky accidents that lead to studio magic. The last enigmatic line on the last Beatles album was an accident: “Some day I’m gonna make her mine…”
Today, anyone can be a musician. The equipment required for high fidelity recording, which would’ve cost $100,000 twenty years ago, can be cobbled together by a teenage music geek in his parent’s basement with a family computer, bootleg software and a microphone. Because of this do-it-yourself era, the experimental spirit thrives.
Music software is so advanced that a chimp can push a few buttons, string together some loops, and knock out a tune in 15 minutes. With music so easy to create, the whole world, via the Internet, has access to vast quantities. On one hand, it is wonderful that so many people can now enjoy music creation, instead of just a small elite. On the other hand, the river of song flowing down the file-sharing networks is mostly unremarkable. While the enterprising lone artist may find new opportunities, it is tough for any one person to shine above this vast mass.
Next, great music is fertilized by cross pollination. When African, Native American, French and European sounds mixed with bare chested women throwing beads on all night drunken carnivals in a little town called New Orleans, a quirky new form of music was born called Jazz. When that sound swung South and swirled amongst Joao and Astrud Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sergio Mendes and Luciana Souza, along with Stan Getz, Charlie Byrd, Herbie Mann and Chick Corea, Brazilian Jazz spread internationally. Jazz can not be imagined without Brazil. Jazz got married in Brazil. We now have emerging Hip Hop sensation M.I.A. fusing Sri Lankan, Indian, English, Brazilian and Canadians influences. The same beats in her music can be heard pounding from boom boxes in ghettos in Rio.
Great movements of Art generally come from “scenes.” It is no accident that greatness emerged when Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, James Taylor, Carole King, the Beatles, the Beach boys, The Eagles, etc., etc., inspired each other. A new genre exploded from the resonance of this 60s/70s folk/rock music scene.
Los Angeles is the Mecca of musical amalgamation. I love visiting other cultures, but save the cost of airplane tickets here in L.A. by just getting in my car and driving a few miles to the next neighborhood. Have you tasted the food and heard the music at the Wat Thai temple in North Hollywood?!
Pop music loves that mix - and that means there is plenty of money to be made by blending together the sounds of different cultures. Take for example Ricky Martin’s song, “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” I count at least 5 different styles swirled successfully into this mega hit: Pop, Salsa, Rock, Ska and Surf.
Finally, profound art is found inside. I know you’ve heard that before, but let me explain. Here in LA, where every musician from Seoul to Sao Paulo comes to get rich and famous, just getting time on stage is difficult. Plentiful, well paying gigs…dream on. On the bright side (bright?), pack a city with desperate musicians and only brilliance will survive. Such desperation and fierce competition for limited resources (concert venues, label contracts, TV and movie placements) leads the artist either to simply give up, compromise their work, or to search deep inside Self for something extraordinary. Only extraordinary art has the force to ascend to the top of this ocean of talent. The rivalries and collaborations, the pushing and pulling, draws Darwin from Galapagos tide pools to Los Angeles night clubs.
Los Angeles is not a nice place for musicians. Yet, it selects for genius. Hence in our time, we may see a potent new kind of music emerge, have we the strength to find it “within.”
In my opinion, the richest region for that search is in our emotions. When did music become so emotionally monotone? Pop is happy/sexy; Rap is angry/sexy; Punk, rebellious; Country, sentimental; Gospel, inspirational. Today, each musical genre is limited, by and large, to one emotional note.
I’ve been to Operas that are alternatively beautiful, riotous, terrifying and heartbreaking. 100 years ago, people went to the opera to laugh, weep, rejoice and be taken on a journey. When the final curtain fell, the audience had been destroyed and born again. Where is that musical journey today?
Musicians of old saved souls from the unfeeling bog of monotony. Whether in a Hollywood club or concert stadium, only by excavating the deepest emotions can the musician dig out and free those “comfortably numb.” In the artist’s furthest extremities, and darkest core, lie the pathos, passion and fresh information that people hunger to find in the arts. Sophisticated audiences do indeed demand compelling, visionary music. We recognize great music because those who hear it are transfigured. From a wild, uneasy place comes such extraordinary creation.
Through the impossible struggle for both inward revelation and outward success - or merely survival, we must support our musicians: their acts of creation emulates and give voice to the work of the Creator.
By Peter Ludwig
Cellist, vocalist and producer Peter Ludwig (Mystic Pete) is creator of the online music magazine and distributor: Tonehenge.com