Music: Just Putting Random Notes Together?
The thing most people enjoy about music is the emotions that can be heard or mentally felt from them. It’s like scratching all the right parts of your brain, in between the wrinkles of the mind.
But why is it so satisfying? Personally, I don’t know. I don’t have the musical experience to make anything people enjoy listening to. I don’t invest so many of my years into learning music theory or how to play an instrument.
What if the things we make best are by accident, just randomly hitting keys on a keyboard until you hit them in the right order to evoke some deep emotion in your mind?
Beethoven was practically deaf. He almost couldn’t hear what he composed. Yet it’s believed his best compositions came from him without his hearing. To have skill all the way to that matter must mean that Beethoven was very devoted to his work.
The process of turning a mess into a masterpiece is a process a lot of people have to go through. Not everyone has things displayed out for them already, change had to be made using one’s mind to clean up and polish a seemingly hopeless vision.
“But” and “the” have been repeated a lot in this blog, and I’m addressing this self-awareness to bring up the fact of repetition. In music nowadays, everyone repeats everyone’s styles, so they can hop the trend of what’ll get them recognition. Years ago, this wasn’t the issue as people instead searched for their own style of music, and to create something that made them stick out compared to others, ultimately creating their own trend.
I’m leaving a lot of open questions, so I’ll answer them now. Are our best creations made by accident? Yes. by deviating from what you normally do, you can create new ideas and do things more naturally, without sticking to a script or template.
The other question I’ve asked was, “Is everyone copying each other now, and as a result not being very original?” I say yes to that as well. Everyone’s styles are so identical that it’s hard to distinguish who they really are. And if they’re gone, will anyone really notice? Someone will, but not everyone.
I’m not calling everyone unoriginal, I’m just saying that the majority is, because the majority focuses on popularity over style. They refuse to change for themselves, but instead they change because it’s popular.
My message from all of this? Don’t stick to what you normally do. Go out on a limb. Do something different besides agreeing with what everyone else says just because you want to be like everyone else. Do something that’ll make you stick out from the crowd (in a positive way of course, not in a way that’ll get you roasted by the entire school).
Word Count: 468
This gives such an insight about music in what is often an echochamber of “this music sounds like every other song”. I also gained some insight I never really thought about as it makes sense that we are reaching a stage where it’s difficult to make something original. It is true that a lot of music chase popularity now as bands like Imagine Dragons make songs that have no real meaning or substance but rather focus on it’s catchiness to be a trailer song.
ReplyDeleteWriting music and playing it is actually pretty satisfying. For me, I play piano and am in an actual group that makes beats together on Fl Studios. Having the complexity of all the sounds is interesting as a musician can combine those sounds to create something really incredible. The process of making music is always making mistakes and then improving in newer creations. This same process is used in the real world.
ReplyDeleteI liked the broader message you made, not only that people shouldn't be like others in music, but in life in general. It is true: many people nowadays just copy off one another and don't truly express who they are as a person.
ReplyDeleteSeparating this into many different paragraphs is really helpful to organize your thoughts and everything. I especially liked that you asked a bunch of questions that at first you didn't truly answer, but at the end you ended up coming back to them so that you can answer them. As a person who doesn't really listen to music, this gives me a different way to look at music.