Wednesday, November 27, 2013

The Dragon Line: Music, Sentiment, and The Compositional Response

Question:Does the sentiment initiate the music or does the music initiate the sentiment...Or perhaps, the passion sets off the composition, and the harmony instigates the opinion, for if the outlook concluded in the sensation does justice to the refrain, then it qualifies that the synchronization of feeling creates the song, after all the artist of the master work leaves to the observer the decision to conclude the reaction, and the attitude produced by the opus is the symphony that activates the outlook, In the end, the opinions set in motion by the compositional work of art stimulate the result while the sentiment and the music remain...Welcome Angels and Gentle Beasts to this edition of:The Dragon Line Music, Sentiment, & The Compositional ResponseI remember it, clear as day, it was late fall...1990...I thought of myself as one of those kids who were too cool to attend the high school dances, so instead I would sit behind the light board or in the coke booth watching my peers dance aimlessly in their bright colors across the floor expending their youthful energy. I would sit as if I were an observer of humanity rather than a participant. Then, one night when the Sadie Hawkins Dance, or whatever the hell it was, was over, a friend of mine with whom I had shared an interest in stage crew status, slid a CD into the player. It was a song that I had heard on the radio a few times, and it was one that I was sort of familiar with, although as it played on, I realized as I listened to it that the lyrics of it fit my mood at the time, not just at that moment, which to me seemed to be the first time that I had ever really listened to what was being said in the song...but it fit my mood at that point in my life as well, it resonated with an assured understanding that in a way described the mind set of my entire generation...it didn't dull the senses and post its hypnotic suggestions on you like the party pop, Bubble Gum crap that only seemed to succeed in giving me and a lot of my generation a bad case of social indigestion throughout the nineteen eighties.It was a new sound, and yet not brand new, it was as if someone had decided to take the mid to late sixties style of sentiment and combine it with the music of the harder driven mid to late seventies rock style. It was a sound that seemed to incur more depth. To some this depth was focused on with intent and purpose, a driving ambition to find an anthem that inspires you to create your own...and to others it was poured out as disappointments and deep seeded frustrations...moments of pain that were sprouted forth as they were happening, with very little, if any, regard to self control. Those who chose to jam-out with friends on the dance floors of avant-garde music clubs such as the Metropol in the heart of Pittsburgh to a song called "Smells like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana were the types of people who intended to be heard over all the others in attendance, and with Mosh-pit-able melodies and lyrics this {old} new sound cut to the core of the very form of their existence and for those who liked to expend their energies through anger and rage, it became a battle cry that brought about the forgoing of intelligence. I myself had gotten into guitar playing because I wanted to play leads like Alex Lifeson or Jimmy Page... {Who by the way is probably in seclusion somewhere now after the Kashmir butchering Fiasco of Pea-puff ditty datty}, but in this new mix of sound I found a desire and an interest in pursuing the writing aspects of the music and the lyrics. In simpler words...I found a sentiment for the application of Originality in the personal creation of music...Now as anyone who was teenager at that time can attest to, the nineties were, for lack of a better generalization, a foreground for the swampy-ness of indecision that we find ourselves submerged in today. They were in other words, a lyrically heavy decade flaunting and touting grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam that utilized minor progressions and introspective scenarios to weave together a tapestry made to impress the mood of a being who feels trapped in an internal conflict. This as it was, is not what created the great Generational Divide, but no one can deny that it was most assuredly a fragment of the perfect storm.Parents began asking their children what was wrong, while not really wanting to hear the true answer, and the dear grandparents, living novels of wisdom and history, who were filled with a desire to share their mistakes of the past with this new younger generation, found few who were willing to listen, let alone learn from them, and in the end they said to a generation doomed to fail. "What the hell is wrong with that child...but these two alone, parents and grandparents of that generation of "Teen Spirit" cannot be given the sole blame as to being the cause or the reason for the generational divide either. They grew up simply because they had to, it was a harder world for them, Hell they were the ones who helped to shape it, and yes, they to had experienced similar moments in their lives and heard the same questions from their parents and grandparents, the difference is when the proverbial shit hit the fan they didn't just let it stick, they slung it back and dared the fan to do it again...they stood in the face of trial and error and they stared it down in their countenance, due to their respect of responsibility, honor, and self discipline. That is the reason why the question "What the Hell is wrong with that child?" has been asked by every previous generation in the past and may not continue to be asked by today's older generations of the younger, because today, in this Politically Correct, and dare I say plasticized socialistic environment, the only question that most of the people I know over the age of 35 are asking is... "How do you even begin to speak to a generation that knows nothing of the generation that came before it?" Other than the fact that it is the generation that has made it harder for their generation to achieve anything let alone try.To a high number of people under the age of 35 in this so called Generation-X...the world is simply a place into which they were born, not for any reason or purpose, but by mere chance and coincidence, and they feel as though they themselves are responsible for discovering what it is they will do with their lives and this leads some of them to feel that they are entitled to receive without having to earn. It brings others to the point of no return because they believe they are truly alone, and in the pattern that is arranged when they choose to do so, are the intricate weavings of a quilt, laden with threads of intimidation that result in nothing more than a covering for them to place over their heads in order to shut out the cries and screams of the spirits of previous generations that are pleading with them to wake up and realize that they did not perish for nothing. It is in this one thought where Creation sparks a flicker of its creative nature, and as some choose to choose to create. And as others who choose not to decide fail to realize that they too have still made a choice, others succumb to the theory which is the process by which all truth is discovered. It is inherent to the populace that it become fodder for the masses... Freedom Is Not Free... and as the old adage signifies, wish in one hand...well...you get the picture...in the end all your left with is a handful of Crap. This is a generation so slowed down by man made substances and theories that it does not even realize that its flame is all but extinguished before it ever even had a chance to become a campfire, let alone a Towering Inferno.Let us first take for example, "Lithium", which, I must say, for those who are middle-aged deficient, is not just a song by the band Nirvana, it is also a narcotic that many kids of the late eighties and early nineties were put on because of the governmentally infused misdiagnosis of youthful angst. This and drugs such as Ritalin and Prozac have today become the norm. They were created to dull the senses and slow down the response time in an attempt to stifle creative energies and individual thought, and I for one can see evidence of its success on a regular basis today. Let us now examine the a-fore mentioned Nirvana song: "Lithium", which in my opinion is a song that lyrically defines the effects of taking the substance that is named in its title..."Lithium":I'm so happy 'cause todayI found my friendsThey're in my headI'm so ugly, that's okay'Cause so are youBroke our mirrorsSunday morningIs everyday for all I careAnd I'm not scaredLight my candles, in a daze'Cause I've found God'Was there a real need for this drug, was it, as we have been led to believe, an attempt to justify the pleas for relief from confused parents who could not understand why their kids were so depressed and angry. After all, the reason, or the cause of their child's depression and/or anger could not be blamed on them...It could not be a result of the breakdown of family values and the lack of morals that resulted from the eighties "it's all about me" attitude...{Which, if you think about it, resulted from the overextension of credit, brought on by the individual greed of the Me Generation and the high divorce rate that resulted from selfish materialism}.No...It had to be a clinical problem, something fixable, something that could not be blamed on the misguided and confused parents, these young child-adults, children no less, having children, a generation growing up to fast in a world well beyond its years that doesn't understand itself let alone what it has spawned, and so these Parents...grabbed hold of the lie that stated that their children had an imbalance in their brains and that they were not normal...This instance has come to be known as Attention Deficit Disorder, and has also come to be known as Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder...When I was a child this same imbalance was not an imbalance at all, it was simply called being a child...I mean seriously, what child do you know from the age of five to fifteen who wants to spend more that ten minutes tops, doing what he does not want to do, just because somebody says he has got to do it. This is not due to any Attention Deficit Disorder...or shall we say any, concentration discrepancy chaos...or perhaps, awareness insufficiency confusion. This "illness", because of the drugs instituted to "Cure" it, later became known as Attention Deficit / Hyper activity Disorder... which loosely translated means...thought shortage/ overexcited commotion turmoil, and it spawned from it's inebriated state a generation seeking a voice for introspection, as these kids learned that accumulating stuff did not fill their inner void for purpose, acceptance and love. These points, made here, are reflective of my own personal evaluation as an Observer to the follies and fallings of the decades of generational divide, and trust me folks, I have not always seen it this way. As a matter of fact I can tell you truthfully, that if I were under the age of 25-30, I would probably think that this article is a total piece of that stuff that keeps hitting the fan and stickin' to me.Back when I was twenty-one, when the women took over in the mid nineties, {i.e. Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow and Jewel}, I felt a new sense of urgency in filling this void. It was five years later; I was in my junior year of college, and I began to find myself wondering: what does it all mean, why am I here (both in college and here on this earth), and what is my true purpose? I felt anger more than anything else, having accepted a challenging course of study in computer sciences at a prestigious university, I was accomplishing something, but I wasn't sure that it had any meaning. What would I do when I graduated, get a job or go on to grad school, at the time I did not know.One year later I graduated, and Grad school seemed more appealing, but in effect I was just too tired. I took the "easier road" and tried working, let's just say working didn't work out, at least not working in the field that I had gone to college for, I just simply did not want to do what I had been trained to do, go figure, four years of education and no practical application, and I sure as hell did not want to do it for no other reason than to make someone else rich at my expense. It was at that point that I heard it again, there it was, Music, Reflecting the Sentiment of my internal state. Alanis Morissette, in a song entitled "All I Really Want", putting into words that I could understand the fact that she too was searching the depths of her spirituality. Sheryl Crow with songs like "If It Makes You Happy", which seemed to be about unsuccessful attempts to please a lover while remaining true to herself...and yes, even Jewel's folksy first hit "Who Will Save Your Soul" which exemplifies the struggle for physical survival while remaining faithful to one's spiritual obligations. There was something in these three women that searched far beyond the realms of popular music at the time. I thought if they found it, I can find it also.The denial from "Teen Spirit" that Nirvana ushered in was over, by the mid nineties we were, or so we thought, well into the anger and acceptance phase, but looking back did we as we believed then have plenty to be angry about...No, not really, the economy was in a full technological boom, peace time was fairly rampant on the planet, at least more-so than any decade before, and gas prices were below a dollar a gallon, what could we possibly be angry about? It was in the absence of any outer turmoil, that the internal conflict had finally found its way to the surface. This inner energy had made us look within ourselves while all of the innovative technological advances created a whole new world in which we no longer had to interact face to face courtesy of our new friend the internet.Now sixteen years after the release of Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, we accept the forms of communication via the internet as a way to branch out and share ideas globally and peacefully, but we must ask ourselves, "Was this form of technology a shock to our system?" Maybe that's why, although I am trained in computer programming; my spirit was so resistant to the actual application of its algorithm. Ironically, we see the same sentiment in the early eighties with the advent of the personal computer and songs like "Vital Signs" from Rush and "Mr. Roboto" from Styx. These two songs speak of the fear that technology induces and how it dehumanizes us. I was a little girl at the time, but very familiar with these songs and their implication. I was the proud owner of the Commodore Vic 20 and later the Adam Computer. Fascinated by the application of Basic programming that these computers encompassed, I was able to imitate the programs by copying them from a book, but somehow I was not able to create new ones and therefore pursue the investigation further. My introduction to computers at an early age, I suppose, led me to pursue a "career path" in vain, but in the energy of the moment that I experienced at my first Rush concert in 1987 was the defining characteristic that led me to pursue the vocation that I now call a profession. I experience as a musician, artist, writer and poet, those factors which in essence complete me and bring me into the fold so to speak, where I am directing the course of my life that I was born to follow.In closing let me propose another question to you Dear Reader..."Are we, in this day and age, finding ourselves at yet another crossroads, a technological turning point that will only succeed in stifling the already stagnant creative intellect of youth?" After all, we must face the facts; games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band do spark an interest in a select few who are willing to learn the real applications of music, {my own nephew was inspired to take up electric guitar after playing Van Halen "guitar licks" on a Guitar Hero game controller. At the age of ten, he has learned how to play guitar, formed a power trio called Death Valley and wrote a song called, believe it or not, "Robotic Generation." It is an instrumental that can be viewed on YouTube. Are my nephew and his band mates conscious of the name for their first song, did they feel even at their young age that they were initiating the sentiment of their generation, and do they feel that they are a "Robotic Generation?" Probably not, as the song and video is filled with the youthful energy of three kids exploring their creativity. However, even the kids on South Park had their brush with dehumanizing (robotic) technology when Apple kidnapped Kyle when he inadvertently agreed to be part of Apple's experiment of "sharing your shit." This explicit display of creativity caused Apple to react quickly (within eight hours, I saw the ticker on Fox news the next morning at 6 am) to remove tracking devices from their I-pads and I-phones. That is a powerful example of art initiating sentiment.As we journey further into the 21st century, we must never forget the lessons of the past, and it is important to realize that the music and the creativity will only succeed in keeping us in balance if we can find the balance that lies between the music and the sentiment. Technological innovation is a tool that has enlightened the populace (the printing press in the 1500's did for the people of the 16th century what the internet has done for us in the 21st century), not only by connecting us with one another in a way never before possible, but also by the fact that it has encouraged us to further our creative purposes and share our individual thought processes. And as was the case with all generations before, the music will continue to reflect the times and it will bring to light the pressing needs of our day, and the sentiment that initiates that music will be enveloped by the spiritual spark that bursts into a flame and becomes the campfire that hopefully one day becomes the towering inferno of change that will lead us to correct roads which have been set before us. At its artistic completion the music initiates the sentiment by being a positive influence to all that partake of its nectar, and in the awakening of the public eye it lends itself to the subtleties of the environment that it inhabits.Lori Mortimore and D. Gamble

Originally posted at http://Musicxspot.comLori Mortimore at http://myspace.co

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