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Home::Music
Let the Music Take you there
Author : Dennis Walsh
Even when you don't know where you're going and what you plan to
do with your music when you get there, you have to start
somewhere. Trading places with a superstar isn't going to
happen. Getting a "hit" record is about as likely as winning the
lottery.
In the work-a-day world, no one starts at the top. Why would
music be any different? More often than not, we begin at the
bottom. The music industry has always had an unspoken
development hierarchy. There has always been a night club
circuit. High schools and colleges have always been a stepping
stone to larger venues for emerging artist. Major concert
producers control entire geographic territories and high profile
venues. If you're lucky enough to get a hit record, the door
will open to bigger and better audiences and fatter paychecks.
Creativity, like history, is a work in progress. It is a never
ending journey in search of a perfect form of expression. Even
great artists can produce mediocre work. In a few short years,
The Beatles produced more than a dozen record albums with good
songs on each one. But, for all their prolific genius, they are
remembered for only a handful of those songs. Most of those had
some connection to cultural changes that were taking place at
the time.
Suddenly, the sixties were over. The artist, friendly musical
environment was gone. Disco took the stage and leisure suits
came into style. Some say it was the Nixon administration that
put an end to all the cultural commotion. There were rumors of
conspiracy. The hippies grew up, graduated and got establishment
jobs. The music industry had simply had enough and decided it
was time to recoup their losses. Whatever it was, the Disneyland
adventure that was the sixties ended shortly after Woodstock.
Icons were overthrown. Music lost it's bearings and for a while
even country took a swing. The night fell. Darkness came
together with hackneyed claims of new music that wasn't really
new.
Long before the sixties, the roots of rhythm and blues could be
traced back to ragtime. Ragtime was a forerunner of jazz; a
synthesis of African-American syncopation and European classical
music. Early classical composers such as Aaron Copeland and Igor
Stravinsky became fascinated with jazz. They didn't know where
jazz was headed but they decided it was going somewhere and they
were going to do something with it; even if they made themselves
look a little foolish doing so. Obviously, there was a big
difference between classical and jazz music: jazz performers
improvised, classical performers didn't.
Still, the influence of classical music on jazz was
unmistakable. Who would have ever imagined that European harmony
would lead to the development of the blues scale? Rhythm and
blues was born. By all means, take a few ricks but if you want
to go somewhere, start at the beginning and let your music take
you there. You never know what might happen.
Dennis Walsh progressofmusic@hotmail.com
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