The Future of Music
Long ago in a land not so mythical or far away as some would have you believe, certain corporate types over the age of 30 were intent on "engineering" a 'music scene' in San Francisco. It came to pass of an evening (in the vicinity of a stage) that a dispute concerning professional practices was resolved when one Bill Graham said to one Frank Zappa, "You'll never work this town again". Cut to our current climate under corporocratic rule where it is now possible for a 'promoter' (no longer an independent/veteran of city hall wars) to tell an artist (anywhere in the world) "You'll never work this planet again". This is real bad news for non-conforming types. Composers (or at least the one I know) are people who dream. They are not your target audience for an ambien-enhanced life sponsorship. (Perhaps someone should consider a piece on the Future of Sleep - in America at least.)
Moving right along: With the advent (and adventures) of the internet and coincident technological advances (Yes. You can get waaaay more information on the head of a pin presently than the Lord's prayer and all the lyrics of Neil Sedaka combined) it is now possible for more experimentation at a less expensive rate than having to hire a room full of orchestra to hear what it is the guy with the checkbook thinks you are doing. That potentially means more job ops even though the guy with the checkbook is more imaginary than ever these days. And with all those buttons to push and knobs to turn to administrate the frequential flow it makes it possible for everyone to be in the composing business. Oops! Just when it seemed that it was all good news a little flip of the switch makes it very bad - and even a little ugly on the side.
And now, just when you thought the news could not be worse, let's have a quiet little look at the future of copyrights. Exactly what and why are they? Turns out that the concept comes along with the concept of Freedom and all the rest of the stuff that is built into the Constitution of the United States of America - and other countries. This is part of the package designed to promote and protect the intrinsic reasons behind the salute to our flag. The idea here is that you can march with a beer in your hand but culture (and that is what we are talking about) is nothing more or less than the ideas of the people in this time in this place - and that is what it takes to make a nation. Such traditions as football may be tied to the morale of a country but music and all the other arts and sciences are its life blood. Find a place without music and you will find a dictatorship. Find one with state-sponsored, authorized music and you will find fascism.
Some believe the future of music is the future of spectacle - for that is what music is starring as these days. We know the show will go on. And on and on. Everything will be homogenized and recycled and well-lit. But let's address that last bastion of acoustical grandeur - the concert hall. (I smell some evolution brewing . . .) No matter how many orchestras continue to play the standard war horses, more, not less of them, are made up of players whose ears are more - not less - attuned to a wider variety of sound, including the music of recent generations. And many of these players are in bands of their own. I am not suggesting that this is dangerously so - just examining one tiny aspect of the evidence that suggests to me that the human race is genetically pre-disposed to love and require sound. And what is music if not organized sound. Although for many its enjoyment is social, for the few, the enjoyment of music - and its construction - is personal. Like the man said, "Without Music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
But I digress. As usual. So back to the future and a few predictions: Scientists (?) will prove that there is a "music" gene. The question will be asked, once it is proven that music changes your mind - literally, how? How does that work? And when the answer comes some will be surprised to note that, in the case of music, stereo does not refer to the number of speakers or ears. Music is exactly like sex in the sense that while human orifices are involved in the experience, the really fun part happens in the brain - the location of which will be found to be co-located in other regions of the body and even off-planet. And I hasten to add, when this happens, the deaf and others will hear real music and hearing will be redefined. And finally, it will be proven that humor IS a real component of music. Get some today.
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Gale, you're article is a real delight. You won't recall me, but the couple of times I've been to your home to meet with DZ or take photos of him for something we were doing, etc., when you've been there you were always so gracious. It was so cool to read your blog here and I really hope to read more postings from you. Total, wonderful stream-of-concciousness stuff there! Write more!
In addition to rock music I'm also a big fan of classical music. One of the things that is disappointing abut modern classical music is that its so uninspired and boring. The last classical composers that really move me were in the 1950's and that's one aspect of Zappa's tragic early death that I think people overlook. He had the talent to be, I think, a great writer of classical music. Which is not to say that he didn't write some pretty decent classical music during his life but when he died I think he was getting to the point where he had pretty much done all he could with rock and was financially secure and could have spent some serious effort on classical music. That and the new technologies that would have been available to him I'm sure would have resulted in some pretty amazing stuff.
"modern classical music is that its so uninspired and boring."
I am quite sure you haven't heard much of modern music.
Some suggestions:
Nixon in China-- John Adams.
Life with an Idiot ( opera)--Schnittke
L.A. Variations--Salonen
Drumming --Steve Reich
Voices of Light-- Osvaldo Golijov
Penderecki -Threnody for Victims of Hiroshima
Offertorium -Sofia Gubaidulina
I have heard a lot of modern classical music. Until recently when my finances took a turn for the worse I had a subscription to the SF Symphony and Tilson Thomas regularly plays modern junk, er music, and I dragged my girl friend (who can't stand modern classical) to each one saying "we have to give it a chance", "this one will be different" and virtually every time I felt like Charlie Brown with Lucy being the latest modern composer. I began to understand WHY i hate modern classical music when I talked to a friend who is trying to be a composer. She told me that I didn't have enough background to appreciate the music (by the way I play a couple of instruments and know basic music theory). She said to really appreciate it you need to have at least an MA or probably a PhD in music theory. At first I thought she was kidding but she was serious. I'm not saying all modern composers feel the way she does but I think there is a terrible bias to academic music with no soul. But anyway thanks for the pointers, I've heard some of those composers but not all and I'm always looking to try and kick that football one more time.
Adams stuff is interesting, and some of it amazes. "Nixon in China" is great--until act 3, which is pretty useless. "Doctor Atomic" also needs a bit of editing. And I still have a soft spot for the late great Frank Zappa--I'd love to see the Joffrey or some ballet company do up "Gregory Peccary" the way it ought to be.
Here is a little known fact about FZ: he imagined online music before there was an Internet. At one point I got every biography I could about Frank from the library and one of them (or it may have been Frank's sort of auto bio book) anyway one of them had some of the entrepeneurial ideas that Frank pitched to people that never got off the ground. One of them was a service where people could dial in (via modems if you are old enough to remember what they are) to a server and download music, I think to a casette audio tape. Anyway, I remember reading it and thinking once again Frank was waaay ahead of his time.
I have bad news, folks. As David Bowie predicted some years ago, the DEATH of intellectual property as a source of income for the creators of same is IMMINENT. As Ms. Zappa correctly points out, anyone can play anything anywhere anytime for anyone. That about covers it, except for the Big Players, who are Major Labels, TV, Broadway, and unionized classical musicians and soloists.
Pop, rock jazz, and indie anything are now so democratized that music is the 21st century equivalent of making macrame' wall hangings via digital weaving. YouTube is an online craft fair..
So, humans DO in fact crave sound, so much so that everyone will be able to create their own. Sharing it will be like conversation, free for those who are worth talking to, and pay-per minute, for those who must survive parasitically, like telephone sex talk, only with digital guitars instead of the smooth sexy voice of Samantha, a 45-yr old paraplegic, or Sam, a romantic baritone with bad skin and thick glasses.
Create at your own risk, the pool is too crowded! And you will have to pay to get in, not GET paid to play.
...and other highly ambient domains...
I love technology, but the digital era has ruined things for real musicians (people who actually play an instrument, and understand the musical language). There is playing live, but in the larger cities there are so many wannabes the bars can keep an entire week booked and not pay a dime. Kids are willing to play free for the "exposure". The pool is far too crowded.
People said pretty much the same thing when the cassette tape came out. I don't see this as the death of music just another re-invention. Hopefully the major labels and the system of huge recording and promotional deals will die out and good riddance. Of course that means no more U2's or Michael Jacksons but somehow I think I'll survive.
Oh there'll be music... A lot I'm sure. Just of lesser quality, and no one's gonna make a dime.
Not yet, however. the courts still favor the creative over the theft of such. Fiction i s more legally protect ed than nonfiction. Some artists simply refrain from the suit. Tom Waits, as one example, made millions over the use of his songs or voice in commercials.
As you can tell by my screen name, I am a huge fan and always will be. Frank was one of my idols when growing up in bands and I'd always try to let a little of the humor he put in his music find a way into my own.
The internet started out as a great outlet for the less heard bands and musicians, but then evolved into a greedy mess of copyright infringement at a ferocious pace. With all advancements in technology we truly do open ourselves to regression. The regression of our in person social interactions. I fear it will only get worse as weasels rip my flesh...
The copyrights are over my head. I have tremendous respect for artistic ability being arts & science. I always regretted not taking music history at college. With the advent of guitar and dj hero the music seems to be shifting. I know people who love guitar hero.
One of my advanced piano students is an astonishing Guitar Hero player. I don't mind.
Although I wish he were as good at Hammerklavier, 19th century Guitar Hero advanced level piece :-)
There must be agreements with online providers to reimburse the music industry, though for years the music industry made out while the technologies shifted and what happened is ones old vynils, eight tracks, cassettes would collect dust while music lovers went out to update their collections with things like CD's. I mean the music industry was charging like 15- 20 dollars for a while there to get a cd. I couldn't afford to update my entire collection of cassettes, but with the advent of sites like youtube now one can listen to all those old songs.
I love having long lost songs to memory at my fingertips, especially all those crazy 80's videos.
One could assume that Gail was heavily influenced by Frank, or...
He definitely found the right one! I still miss Frank and his incredible musical genius as well as his poignant social commentary, often derided as "juvenile satire." It's good to know that he and Gail were of one mind, and we need more people like the Zappas to keep us on our toes.
And Gail, thanks for channeling frank ("and even a little ugly on the side" from one of my all-time favorite FZ songs -- and albums).
I used to listen to Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention for hours on end-always hearing something I'd missed before like a great film or book. He was an amazing talent, a genius.
Interestingly, my ex, who was a guitar player, lived next door to you and Frank, Gail, and I can't recall if it was in The Village or Laurel Cyn., but he said many times that one of his proudest accomplishments was driving you to the hospital to deliver Moon.
People throw around the term "genius" so much in our culture but Frank was one of the very few who really deserved it. I completely agree about the nuance and complexity in his music, something missing from almost all other Rock and Pop music. Even the best of most rock is fairly simple, 4/4 time, a few chords, no dissonance, but Frank's music is more like classical music, different time signatures, changing time signatures, unusual harmonies, overlapping melodies, now that's genius.
Frank Zappa is one of my musical heroes, up there with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Glenn Gould.
I am a jazz pianist and composer with a classical background. I currently improvise free music that goes in and out of tonality (with my band) What you say about music is true: it is like sex and stimulates pleasure centers in the brain. It also calms you down if you are upset. In that sense, it is like a drug.
Frank was and is a great genius. He is supposed to have called jazz "unemployment music," and so it is, unfortunately, like most forms of art worth creating. I listen to all of his many styles of music regularly.
I had a dream about Frank Zappa shortly after he died. In the dream, he was on the phone with me from heaven. I asked, "How's the music up there?"
"It sucks," he replied.
Too many angels strumming vapidly on harps, no doubt.
I will enjoy reading your book, Gail.
Frank--to this day--was and is ahead of his time. I saw him 4 times, plus I saw Dweezil do Zappa on Zappa. No modern musician was as learned or more original than he was, and Gail has always contributed to and been a part of progressive causes. This family is special and it's so good to hear from her. And she's right: all organic, from the heart art forms, mainly music, are in danger of being co-opted by corporations and the like. Just look at MTV. I called my cable company and demanded it in the day and I used to see and hear music I might not of heard (120 Minutes, Alt Nation, though not enough Zappa). Now when I look at it, it's like some alien stepchild, doing everything it can to piss me off. There are no venues for original music--Frank type original--these days. Thje internet is only good if you've heard of these people. And we are all the losers for it.. God Bless Gail.
Music is the language of life. It's heard in nature through everything from a birds song, the babbling of a mountain brook or the wind in the trees. I can't confirm it, naturally, but I'd be willing to bet that the earliest cavemen embraced some kind of instrument or music, although we might not recognize it today. And on the same token, I'd also be willing to bet that when the last human dissapears from this planet, there will still be music even if there is no one left to hear it. Music is eternal. It can be changed, rearranged, mutated and distorted to varying degrees by those who interpret it on a personal level but in the end, like water, it's still the same thing. You can argue legalities, and no one disputes that artists should be compensated fairly for their work especially in todays cyber age ..but...in the end you can no more own music than you can own air, because music only has value when it's heard by everyone and once it's heard, it belongs to everyone, no matter how many lawyers disagree.
Frank Zappa was one of the most interesting and, dare I say, inspiring composers of my time - and I'm not even really a musician but then, even Frank admitted, he probably didn't have the guitar chops to pass the audition to be in his band and let's be clear here - Frank was an amazing guitar player as well as composer.
My guess is that Frank would have been very amused by - and made full use of - the internet - from the blogging and crazy porn to YouTube (be in my video, anyone?) - it would have been fine fodder for Frank.
I don't think he would like the unlicensed music sharing aspect of it - what responsible businessman would?
And I think he would have loved the musical tools now available to virtually anyone with a computer and a little dough (or program sharing applications).
Games like Guitar Hero would, I'm sure, be so much fodder - just like Dance Contests were for him 30 years ago but I think Frank would still be able to see that such frivolous gaming might inspire someone towards music.
Sure, Graham was dumb and more than a little ugly on the side but this is not to say that it held composer, Frank Zappa back - just as the corporate goons might hold some present or future act back, it can't stop them - music finds a way - usually out of garages and seedy bars and backyard parties.
It would be a good study for "kids" to check into Frank and Gail's story and learn how to not depend completely upon corporations to tell you what to do, how your going to do it, and when your going to do it. But to rely on yourself, your entrepreneurial drive, and vision to create what you need for yourself despite all the run in's with brick walls and kicks in the teeth artists have to deal with and still persevere.
Also, the Black Page isn't a alternative band you think you may have heard of.
See Joe The Nerd Ferraro's Profile
i just love hearing the name Zappa and the clear thinking that associates with it !
Great Post !
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