{"id":33981,"date":"2016-02-09T14:13:38","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T19:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=33981"},"modified":"2016-02-09T14:13:38","modified_gmt":"2016-02-09T19:13:38","slug":"ask-the-professor-popular-music-puzzles-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/02\/09\/ask-the-professor-popular-music-puzzles-me\/","title":{"rendered":"ASK THE PROFESSOR | Popular Music Puzzles Me"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Credit:
(Credit: Christian Northeast)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hi Professor,<\/p>\n

It puzzles me that popular music, with all its tremendous limitations of format, harmony, subject matter, etc., there is nevertheless an unending stream of hits, artists and compositions that send audiences into raptures of excitement. It is a world forever cheering the “new” and “revolutionary” and “ground-breaking,” seemingly in a constant state of renewal, sweeping its audiences along with it. In classical music, on the other hand, there is precious little excitement about\u2014or even interest in\u2014the new, and precious few works. Worse still, precious few works, even as the decades roll by, are added to the standard repertoire. Is it because classical music is so complex that “hits” are so difficult and rare? Is it because classical music left audiences behind when it veered away from tonality and melody?<\/em><\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Puzzled<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

____________ ______ __________ ______ ______ __________<\/h2>\n

Dear Puzzled,<\/strong><\/p>\n

You raise some really good conversation points here. I think that the whole phenomenon of popular music, with its endless stream of hits, is based on the shallowness of instant gratification in our society. (This business has also had huge amounts of money and media coverage thrown at it.) One could choose to do a university degree in music in order to better understand contemporary classical music, or one can just succumb to a repetitive drum beat in a pop song, with its melodic hook and catchy chorus. It\u2019s just quicker and easier to do that.<\/p>\n

Online we do it all the time \u2013 we can listen to a lecture on www.openculture.com<\/a>, or we can choose mindless clickbait that promises us money, naked people, shocking truths, and weight loss while eating doughnuts. (I\u2019ve even been known to spend my time making completely idiotic Facebook videos for a quick laugh.)<\/p>\n

Contemporary classical music can be very complex in harmonic, structural, and rhythmic ways \u2013 believe me, some of it does more than just puzzle me. Veering away from tonality and melodies has also driven off audiences. These events have placed a lot of modern music out of the mainstream, so that\u2019s partly why we don\u2019t have lots of \u2018hits\u2019 in our field. Sometimes, composers just sound like lunatics:<\/p>\n