I say that a piece of music "in and of itself" has no intrinisic value, that a song cannot be "good" in and of itself - since we know that once a song is overplayed it becomes banal, hackneyed...basically, no longer any good. Therefore, it can't have been truly any good in the first place. It never had any actual positive quality, besides novelty. It had no intrinsic artistic worth of its own. Our jaded ears were merely fooled by its newness, fooled temporarily into thinking it was art of quality. But in actual fact, we always find out that it wasn't. This is true of all art, really - but especially true of music.
The only (or chief) virtue of music is in its freshness, its newness, its trendiness - but only just before the trend catches on! Its worth consists in whether you are among the first people to become "hip" to it. If you were, then you can ride that satisfaction for some time, milk it for the benefit and edification of each successive wave of devotees. But only for so long as the music remains terra cognoscenti - cherished by an effete elite of select initiates, and mostly unknown to the great unwashed. For once the general public has caught on, the music is no longer good. It's "played out." That's what I say.
No wait!
I say the opposite of that! Holy cow, what am I saying. People with that attitude are dipheads! Shallow, shriveled souls with no taste at all, except a sweet tooth for the unfamiliar - with no feel at all for how art turns fleeting truths and beauties eternal. Music for such individuals is not a keen lance with which to pierce the self, transfixing one's soul with the universal, uniting us each in shared rapture, shared pain, shared recognition. No, these philistine neophiliacs, these would-be connaisseurs of the unknown use music as a dull shield of self-congratulatory separation, with which to wall others off. They are deaf to music, blind to art, dumb in general. I can't believe I slipped up and presented that sad view as my own! I don't say that! I say that art can never be played out! I pity the fools whose ears and eyes can tire of beauty and truth!
Sorry about the little mix-up, there.
2 comments:
I was about to say "a thing of beauty is a joy forever", but that's kind of a bit on the cliché side, honestly. That's not how I like to present my views, all trite and hackneyed!
Well, I was about to praise you for the combination of words "effete elite" but upon completion, the whole thing has changed entirely.
Well, I can still avoid the macro level by appreciating the combination of words "philistine neophiliacs." Mmm...poetic. I shouldn't expect anything less.
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