By Karen Aney (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 23, 2011
Music is an art form that has been prevalent throughout the history of humanity. Some of the earliest known notated music originated in Ancient Greece – the era of Homer et al. Through history, the purpose of music in society has changed. Prevalently, it has held religious purpose. In western European music, all music was sacred – certain chords were known as “devil’s sounds”, and were not permissible. From there, our society has come to embrace many different genres of music – punk, rock and roll, rap, country; the list goes on. Increasingly, though, we find the walls of these genres thinning, and perhaps even breaking down. This permits the listener to enjoy a much broader sound and artistic expression. But why, exactly, is this happening?
The first and biggest influence, perhaps, is technology. Most people are able to customize playlists for themselves with a few clicks of a button, whether it’s on a CD or an electronic device such as an iPod.
A shift that’s more indicative of the breakdown of genres is the technology being used by programs such as iTunes—with their “genius” device—and Pandora radio. iTune’s software is fairly basic, and reflects the user’s library and play habits in comparison with the same factors from other users. Essentially, it works in stereotypes: for example, if you’re listening to a song by Miley Cyrus, you’ll probably like a compilation of Disney songs.
Pandora is much more sophisticated. It used what is referred to as the Music Genome Project. Under this project, each song entered into the Pandora library is rated by employees based on factors such as beats per minute, rhythm, and tempo. More importantly—and more theoretically significant—is that they rate songs based on harmony and syncopation. These factors are proven influences on the human mind and body. For instance, what would have been referred to as a “devil sound” in secular times is now used predominantly in horror movies. Biologically, these harmonies cause our bodies distress. If a user rates a song on Pandora highly that utilizes these tools, they are essentially saying that they wish to maintain a listening track that will cause their body to feel that emotion continuously. Shifts will occur based on the less sophisticated influences (such as lyrics, voice, and the arrangement), but overall your body and mind are being given a consistent message.
The sophistication used by Pandora and the Music Genome Project is important because it allows users to listen to songs they wouldn’t have heard before. The key part of this, though, is that they are subconsciously guaranteed to like the song. This means that if a user approaches the station with an open mind, they could go from a country song to an electronic soundscape to a rap battle and love them all. This shift in technology has allowed users to open their eyes to new artists and sounds that they would have avoided before out of simple ignorance or unwillingness to try something new.
One key method through which genre is being lost is through cross-instrumentation. A prevalent example of this goes back to the Beatles: they started getting existential, and with that introduced new sounds in the form of a sitar. It changed their sound, it changed them, but it didn’t change their audience. They’ve blazed a trail for artists today: a less culturally relevant example is Something Corporate. Their lead singer, Andrew McMahon, is a classically trained pianist. Though their group rests solidly on the “emo” spectrum, the introduction of the classical piano influence lends the group a fresh sound. It draws together two traditional markets: while many listeners would skip past a pure piano track, slapping some lyrics about a drunk girl on top of it make it almost universally appealing. It’s indicative of the destruction of genre, yes – but more importantly, representative of the marketability of the phenomenon.
Honours student and former Arts and Life editor of The Cascade Paul Falardeau cited the cause as being more socially dictated. “We also have to think that socially, humanity has moved towards the declassification of people,” he said. Though he acknowledges that it may seem to be overstating the issue, he believes that sociological advances in the past 50 years have heavily contributed to the loss of genre. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that blues, a traditionally ‘black’ genre was at the centre of all the music being made by the hippie movement,” he explained. “As various minorities began to gain equal rights, their music began to be ‘ok’ to listen to.” Looking at this from a musical theory standpoint, it makes sense: the rhythm in blues can be traced back to African folk songs, and traced forward from blues to jazz to rock, metal and R&B. In a sense, it has grown from its routes and blossomed in many different directions. Today’s music—where “R&B” is sometimes indistinguishable from “rap” or “rock”—could be visually represented as those blossoms opening side-by-side, obscuring outside light and melding to form one perfect wall of beauty.
Another aspect of the loss of genre comes at the hand of cross-genre covers or collaborations. A world where Disturbed can cover Tears for Fears, and Nelly can sing with Tim McGraw is a free world, indeed. Even albums that are entirely covers—such as Chris Isaak’s Beyond the Sun or the multi-artist Rave On Buddy Holly—have a place in today’s musical canon.
Cross instrumentation and cross genre collaborations can be written off as artists capitalizing on a good thing, but the takeaway here is that music is becoming a pure art form rather than a commercial slave. Think of it as the dichotomy between a painting and a company logo: Warhol can make art out of a Campbell’s soup label, but only as a commentary on the prevalence of commercialism in American society. There’s a separation there, a divide; that divide now exists in music as well. There will always be musicians who are just trying to sell albums, but the loss of genre that has occurred in our society has enabled some artists to expand our musical horizons. Radiohead can channel dubstep, Jay-Z can headline Glastonbury, and it’s alright.
“One of the greatest feats of modern music has been the destruction of the genre,” Falardeau added, “where onetime limits now give way to increased artistic possibility and modern listeners of music new and old are no longer pressed to weigh the separation of Mozart or the Allman Brothers, Kanye or Jack White, Deadmau5 or Modest Mouse. Increasingly—and wonderfully—music exists as one body, divided only by good and bad.”
There are many contributors to this phenomenon: technology, social unification and an expanded market in each audience. Whatever the cause, the result is the same. Music, now more than ever, is one: a pure representation of artistic expression, increasingly uninhibited by social restraints.
