dr. zooeuss
War Child
...Lately I've been doing some reading up on music, and honestly it's caused me to somewhat re-evaluate how I see "pop" music (which I would say includes most rock music, and a good portion of U2's music.)
I'm not a musician or an expert on music, but sometimes I do wonder what effect the last 50 or so years have had on music in general. ie: is pop music dumbing down music for everyone? For all the greatness of U2, are they contributing to this sort of dumbing down in some way? Edge is a great musician, Bono a great lyricist, though how do they stack up against past centuries of music?
I haven't had time to read this whole article yet, but it seems like a good (and challenging) starting point.
http://nomuzak.co.uk/against_pop.html
Just looked a bit deeper, to see whether U2 are mentioned at all, and a few of Bono's (in my opinion, at the worse end of the scale) lyrics are quoted on this page, in less-than-complementary way:
http://nomuzak.co.uk/against_pop1.html
Just like pop music fans can be stereotypically portrayed as shallow and talentless... classical music fans can be seen as snobby and completey out-of-touch... and somewhere there is space for common ground for those who can find it...
IMO, U2 are some of the few artists around who can bridge this gap- I know Pavarotti and Sinatra would agree, I guess I'm just wondering whether I personally, as a U2 fan, could explain and defend this viewpoint to a classically trained musician, or to put it more bluntly "music snob"...
anyone else out there thinking about sorts of things?
thanks.
*edited to add* -
The authors of the website seem to think this is the best page to begin reading-
http://nomuzak.co.uk/thinning.html
This site appears mainly founded to combat "muzak" and then goes on to complain against pop music in general. I tend to disagree with that association, quite vehemently.
Let me also say, some of the content on this site makes it tempting to attack the authors of the page as snotty and elitist. While I won't disagree with that view necessarily, my reason for starting this thread is to generate a productive discussion on how rock and pop music share the qualities the authors of this site value, and how "our music" (U2, rock, pop) can be defended to people who view music through this particular lens.
I'm not a musician or an expert on music, but sometimes I do wonder what effect the last 50 or so years have had on music in general. ie: is pop music dumbing down music for everyone? For all the greatness of U2, are they contributing to this sort of dumbing down in some way? Edge is a great musician, Bono a great lyricist, though how do they stack up against past centuries of music?
I haven't had time to read this whole article yet, but it seems like a good (and challenging) starting point.
http://nomuzak.co.uk/against_pop.html
Just looked a bit deeper, to see whether U2 are mentioned at all, and a few of Bono's (in my opinion, at the worse end of the scale) lyrics are quoted on this page, in less-than-complementary way:
http://nomuzak.co.uk/against_pop1.html
Just like pop music fans can be stereotypically portrayed as shallow and talentless... classical music fans can be seen as snobby and completey out-of-touch... and somewhere there is space for common ground for those who can find it...
IMO, U2 are some of the few artists around who can bridge this gap- I know Pavarotti and Sinatra would agree, I guess I'm just wondering whether I personally, as a U2 fan, could explain and defend this viewpoint to a classically trained musician, or to put it more bluntly "music snob"...
anyone else out there thinking about sorts of things?
thanks.
*edited to add* -
The authors of the website seem to think this is the best page to begin reading-
http://nomuzak.co.uk/thinning.html
This site appears mainly founded to combat "muzak" and then goes on to complain against pop music in general. I tend to disagree with that association, quite vehemently.
Let me also say, some of the content on this site makes it tempting to attack the authors of the page as snotty and elitist. While I won't disagree with that view necessarily, my reason for starting this thread is to generate a productive discussion on how rock and pop music share the qualities the authors of this site value, and how "our music" (U2, rock, pop) can be defended to people who view music through this particular lens.
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