What is Music?

What is Music?

17th October 2010




Scott Jessup



What is music? When asked what sorts of music do you like, and your reply includes heavy metal, which is met with "that's not music it's rubbish", well then tell me what classifies it as rubbish? I'm no big fan of country and some other styles but I don't classify those forms of music as rubbish, or view someone differently because they happen to enjoy them.

The fact that the person may very well not have a clue what they are talking about, or have even heard what they identify to be rubbish doesn't help at all. Not helped by those negative perceptions about Metal and that fans are 'no good tattoo covered, head banging, devil worshipers', and how that very music fuels their satanic beliefs.

Those views show a very limited understanding of the music and its fans, Metal is a diverse genre that continues to cross paths with many other styles like rock, jazz, classical, blues etc. , so how can someone be so detracting without understanding what's on offer? I have known many that had a negative view then played them samples of a few styles, and to no surprise most times they actually did find something enjoyable.

How many songs do you hear on the radio that are just rehashes of older hits with a repetitive dance beat and distorted vocals, topped off with a guest appearance by some other dude or female how is that real talent? When in contrast you have the talented muso playing metal and actually releasing original material never receives the same interest. How many other genres push someone's abilities so far, and keep moving the boundaries of what's possible further out? It's exactly that which has attracted musicians to make the switch and perform in metal bands, where they can really push the envelope so to speak.

So what is music? Artist expressing themselves by way of their creative abilities, with multiple genres available to satisfy different tastes, could be one way to describe it. But to me music is just something that I put on to make me feel good; listening to music is one of the best ways to forgot all of life's problems, even if only for a short period. Rubbish on the other hand is the garbage which I pay to have removed each week.





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