as we know, many artists, not just musicians, have been railed about how inappropriate or sucky their music is at any given point in history. this is obviously found throughout history, but I'm kind of surprised that there's still a degree of ignorance when it comes to unique works. Even quentin tarantino and the cohen brothers have specifically unique styles that have meaning, but many people don't see through their use of violence as a channel for getting their message across. heart of darkness was an insanely deep book, but people still watch the movie and all they get out of it is dancing playboy girls and some action scenes. it's admittedly slow, but really? try to look past it. okay, we'd just like to watch a movie without thinking about deeper meaning. its basically half the point of sitting in front of a tv- just vegging out. but when you're reviewing the movie that you watched probably while you were blazed and THEN assess the merits of its plot elements, you fall into this category of ignorance thats hard to escape.
zappa is probably an even further example of this misunderstanding of deeper meaning. while the movies mentioned use metaphors to get the point across, artists like frank zappa, eminem, even elvis presley, used their own accountability to make a point. they set themselves up as a figure to be criticized, but in the process they mocked and satirized the "system" that we know of as censorship. critics derided them for their lyrics and the way they present them. elvis was attacked for his apparantly sexual dancing styles on hound dog, frank was attacked for basically everything he did from his lyrics to the videos he made, and eminem had parents covering their kids ears because of what he was saying. eminem is a slightly different example in this case since some of his lyrics did reveal his intentions to elicit unwarranted anger from critics, but the premise of rattling the cages of the critics stays the same across the board.
there's always an ignorance in someone's mind about how things should be. in the 30's, jazz was associated with the Charleston, which was looked down upon by pompous conservatives. in more recent years, such a trend still continues- a dissonance between the freedom of expression and society's EVER CHANGING definition of propriety. the gap has obviously lessened over the past 75 years, but the ignorance is still there for different reasons. it's now not as much of an issue of propriety but more of an issue of people just caring. this may be the effect of frustration resulting from so much back and forth between the two sides, but there's nonetheless an imbalance between the appreciation of art that stems from freedom of expression and simple act of "watching a movie" to totally veg out. all im saying is people should stop caring about getting the last word about how much a movie sucked or an artist didn't understand the times and care more about putting themselves in the person's shoes. I'm not much of a metaphor guy myself- i like things to get straight to the point in any given situation. I was always somewhat frustrated by the premise of poetry taking 20 lines to say it's cold outside, but when you get over your innate tendencies to voice an opinion, stop and think about why it takes 20 lines to say one thing, you draw different conclusions as to what the poet was saying. it usually doesn't even matter that it's cold outside. likewise, zappa didn't necessarily want to half rape 2 sisters on drugs in dynamo hum. yes, he was appealing to the audience's need for entertainment, but he was also using the material of the song to pierce the cloud of hesitancy that not many people ventured into with their lyrics. we should realize these things more readily and be able to appreciate--not necessarily agree with, but recognize--what people spend careers and lives trying to say.
now if i apply this reasoning to these people in college that I've met, there's a vicious cycle that i just set up for myself. but theyre wrong and im right.
that was quite a rant
ReplyDeletebut i agree, you should be able to respect someone without personally liking their work
especially zappa and eminem