(The answer's below, but if you want to try and guess, I've given you some clues by defining the terms underlined above).
Best Performances
1. There are little or no mistakes during the performance.
2. You connect with the piece or the performance of the piece in some way.
Fairly Unfamiliar
1. This is, admittedly, a bit ambiguous. So . . . I decided that if I asked 10 random people, "Do you know such-and-such a piece of music?" and the majority of those 10 people wouldn't know, then that qualified as 'fairly unfamiliar.'
21st Century Repertoire
1. It's from this century, obviously.
2. It's experimental.
So now do you want to know the answer to the riddle? Do ya? Do ya?!
drum roll please . . .
ANSWER:
YOUTUBE
Still not convinced? Fine, I'll explain.
Best Performances
1. YouTubers have the chance to re-record every second of their music, so there aren’t very many mistakes.
2. You connect with the piece because it’s personal.
Fairly Unfamiliar
1. If you were to ask random people on the street about a random YouTuber's music, there's a good chance they wouldn't know what the heck you were talking about.
21st Century Repertoire
1. YouTube wasn’t even created until 2005. It’s definitely part of this century.
2. YouTube is ALL ABOUT EXPERIMENTATION.
With that in mind, here are five selections that I thoroughly enjoy:
(I'm curious to know which ones you were already familiar with. Comment!)
1. Tobuscus takes trailers for movies and video games and then creates literal commentary.
2. Nick Pitera sings classic Disney songs with himself x 6.
3. This YouTuber modernized Belle.
4. Charlie composes a song ONLY using items he finds in his house!
5. This YouTuber created a song from a newsreel clip.
Do you agree or disagree that YouTube is a great place to find new music?
Thank you for your posts which are clever and witty. I loved the Disney post which I think can help when teaching, with the teacher developing less wrinkles! Since quite often I end up making faces trying to depict different characters and sentiments, this certainly has it all! Belle in the hood reminded me of the time I got mugged in London, I was too trusting like Belle ten years ago! Unfortunately there was no YouTube to educate me then, only movies and books through which you can understand another culture. Youtube is indeed way more interactive, can be deceptive too considering that the creative possibilities are expanded as never before! All the posts were very entertaining and thank you for introducing us to them.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found my post entertaining. :)
DeleteYikes! This is the future of new music? In many respects, I think you've got it right on. YouTube certainly takes the music of the people and puts it out there. I haven't seen much intentional intellectual music made for YouTube and put there. There is highbrow stuff on there, but it wasn't intentionally made for YouTube. It certainly provides a lot of fodder for the mill. I did like all of the videos you put here. The Disney songs one was hilarious. Unfortunately, the timing has been such that I have missed a lot of the recent movies (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, etc - yeah, I'm old) and I didn't see them with my kids so I don't know everything that they are alluding to, but I get enough to catch the gist of it.
ReplyDeleteWhat I see happening here is two camps in the music production business. There will always be the "serious" composers writing music in the "serious" classical style and there will always be a struggle to get it accepted. And there will always be the "grass roots" composers writing their music in the "YouTube" genre. One of the problems with the YouTube genre is a lot of the music is like the Charlie piece above - it's inventive, it's original, but once he's sung it once or twice, what else is there? Do you really want to listen to that one piece for an extended period of time? On the other hand, what do "serious" composers need to do to make their music more approachable? A longer form with something to say is a good thing.
Of course, none of this is anything new, nor is it exclusively Western in nature. Musical history from the Middle Ages to present has always had a structure within the musical world where some of the better musicians who were at the right place at the right time could get funding (a patron, employment, etc) and everyone else got tossed into the communal pool where the "grass roots" music was flourishing. Sometimes the two areas crossed, sometimes not. And there is often an inventiveness in the "grass roots" that can grab the spotlight for a time. But most of the time, it is not the "grass roots" music we remember, but the "serious" music. If all worked out well, both types would learn from each other and use that knowledge to make a better form of music. But there will always be two camps.
Jane,
DeleteI'm glad you enjoyed the videos I posted, even though they don't quite seem to be your cup of tea. I think you would be surprised to know that Charlie is one of the Top 50 Channels on YouTube, and people do buy his songs on iTunes. I'd also like to suggest that you take the time to watch the Disney movies you've missed. Although the music may not be "serious," it has influenced generations. Speaking of which, what is your definition of "serious"? Would this include composers like John Cage or not? What about Alan Menken, who has won 8 Academy Awards (4 for Best Original Score and 4 for Best Original Song)? Would you consider him a "serious" composer even though he writes for Disney?