Perhaps sparked by the recent closing of CBGBs, I recently became immersed in a conversation regarding the influence of 60s bands on the music of today. Obviously, bands like Suicide, The Kinks, The Beatles, Talking Heads, Springsteen, Cream, and countless others were mentioned. The conversation quickly turned to Classical music and its effect on the music scene today. I realized at this point, that I may in fact be more alone than i thought in believing that music is one cohesive concept. I learned, through this conversation, that others believe that the genres of, for instance, pop and classical, cannot be comparable. Similarly, blues music and indie rock are separate. I raised my voice on this point, as I am in total disagreement with this idea.
To me, music is music, whether you are banging away on bongo drums or a Steinway piano from the nineteenth century. Surely, there are genres and subgenres within the music industry, but in my mind, classical music does not belong in a category by itself, and neither does any of the following: jazz, blues, hip hop, rock, electropop, or any other genre that has been labeled, or not labeled for that matter, in its lifetime.
The question then becomes- what was the first form of music? Clearly, this is a ridiculous question, as the first was surely not recorded, and because music is being made all the time- and has always been, since the very first living species. The broadest definition of music is, simply, ‘organized sound’- which as you can guess, deems this conversation rather futile. Regardless, as for what we know- earliest records of music are to be found in the Sama Veda of India and in 4,000 year old cuneiform from Ur. However, many people would answer the question of the first musical sound as a type of classical music. That is because most of our written records and studies deal with the history of music in Western civilization. This includes musical periods such as medieval, renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, and 20th century era music. Western civilization has always been more capable than other parts of the world (namely, for this conversation, Africa, India, China, and others) of transferring its information, sound, talent, and industrialization throughout the world. This concept carries over today in the aspects of not only music (in fact, today, music is probably one of the most successful industries to make it past these ‘borders’- consider Bollywood, and Ali Farkh Toure).
Most of the artists the public listens to today are influenced by bands that came into existence in the mid-20th century. Bands like The Carpenters are still major influencs for bands today, as they were for bands that existed in the 70s and 80s. And there are bands like Suicide- one of the most talented bands of all time- and certainly one of the most influential. After all, Bruce Springsteen (the boss) stated Suicide as the band that largely influenced his music. However, everyone has heard of Bruce, but hardly anyone I meet has heard of Suicide. It’s fascinating to me. I met someone at the Architecture in Helsinki /Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! concert who had never heard of Talking Heads. Like, are you kidding?
In short, bands listened to today are largely influenced by the pop/rock/soul/hip hop/stax/rap/funk/blues/jazz/motown/etc music of earlier decades. You seldom hear that a band these days is inspired by Bach or Mozart or Mendellsohn or Tchaikovsky. You just don’t. And its a shame, because its music just like the rest, and perhaps for today’s popular culture it may take a bit more patience, but there is inspiration to be had there too. Why don’t more DJs, rappers, or hip hop artists, or bands like the Gorillaz for that matter, ever use classical musicians for loops in their tracks? I think it would be a sure hit, for its uniqueness at least, and for those that have utilized such sound, the results have been impecable.
Every once in a while, though, a classical musician comes around that brings a new type of music that cuts close to other genres, and becomes a major inspiration for other musicians in genres that could not be farther in sound, tempo, construction, or production than that of the classical musician (or composer, I suppose I should say- but they’re musicians too, no? yes). Two of these musicians are John Cage and Steve Reich, not to mention Philip Glass, the Kronos Quartet, and Peter Coffin. Some of these are, in fact, experimental musicians, but their genres certainly are largely if not wholly classical by nature, iand in most cases, by genre.
John Cage was an American experimental music composer. He is most widely known for 4′33″, from 1952, which is notorious for having been performed without playing a single note. Cage was a Buddhist, and described what he wrote as purposeless, rather an affirmation of life, “not an attempt to bring orer out of chaos, nor suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake up the very life we are living…”. Many saw Cage as a performance artist as much as a musician- after all, though, doesn’t that quality make the best musicians? (see: Michael Jackson, David Byrne, Fleetwood Mac). Cage also concieved the first Musicircus in 1967 in which multiple performers and groups in a large space would commence and stop playing at two particular time periods, with instructions on when to play individually or in groups within these two periods. The result was a mass superimposition of many different musics on top of one another as determined by chance distribution, producing an event with a specifically theatrical feel. Of the aformentioned artists, Cage is least likely to fit into the Classical genre, and rather belongs fully in the experimental one- there were pieces that he wrote, however, which were by nature classical.
One of the best concerts of my lifetime happened on Sunday. Steve Reich at Carnegie Hall. It was part of the Making Music: Steve Reich @ 70 series, that has been goign on for a little while. Reich is my favorite classical composer/musician. I began loving his work after learning that his album, Different Trains, was conceived by him after reliving the cross country train trips he took as a child, and comparing and contrasting them to the different trains sending other children in Europe to death camps under Nazi rule. These trains would pass him on the way and he captured the sound of the trains, the conductors, the air, and his sentiment in his mind, and subsequently wrote Different Trains. Listening to that album all the way through is something every music lover should do. The subtle changes within the vast repitition that he is famous for are breathtaking, and his ability to transfer a feeling through a crowd is unbelievable. The concert on Sunday included four of his pieces: Piano Phase (which was played on two mini pads by a man, against a projection of him previously playing it), a piece performed by a Cellist (with 8 projections of her on a screen behind playing 8 different parts of the piece), a piece recently written for Daniel Pearl, and Drumming. Drumming is over an hour long, and is a series of repetitions on drums, xylophones, glockenspiels, in that order, going slowly from low to high until part IV, when all four are played together by about twelve percussionists, including Reich. Reich has been an inspiration for Philip Glass (in fact, these two had a moving company together in the early days) and has worked with the Kronos Quartet as well. This genre of Classical music is certainly revolutionary, and i believe is the beginning of an entirely new genre (what will wikipedia call it?! haha).
Reich’s influence on Classical musicians and musicians of other genres (especially minimalists) is widespead. A list of artists he has influenced includes: Philip Glass, Brian Eno, Michael Gordon, Sufjan Stevens, The Orb, and DJs and other electronic musicians released an album called Reich Remixed on Nonesuch Records. Reich cites JS Bach, Debussy, and Stravinsky as composers that influenced him, and he also states that West African music had a large impact on his sound.
Peter Coffin is a favorite of mine as well. You can find a lot of information on him on the internet. Check out his piece, Music For Plants. I believe you can still listen to it on the PS 1 website. He also has some innovative prank ideas that are worth a look at (see: The Barcode Project).
Well… I must now go and prepare for the Woodies. But yeah. Take a step outside of your indie/pop/rock/hip hop/jazz/blues/electro/house/whatever, and listen to some Steve Reich, John Cage, Philip Glass, Peter Coffin, and Kronos Quartet. And let me know what you think by emailing me at vjkim@mtvu.com.
