Girl from The Sun

It started with "Summertime Sadness." I didn't know it was a remix but I didn't care. Those lyrics and that voice; I was hooked. Lana del Rey is bringing originality to mainstream music. I love my repetitive, dirty, stupid pop music. But that stuff is like the process food of mainstream music.

Born to Die, del Rey's latest album, is good from beginning to end. Her words are like well-balanced IPA beer. It's got a hoppy bite;  raw, fresh, and a taste you can't easily get out of your mouth - nor would you want to. It is description, storytelling, and straight up wordsmithing the hell out of the English language:

My old man is a tough man. 
But he got a soul as sweet as blood red jam
And he shows me he knows me, every inch of my tar black soul 

Sweet lord, yes.

Her lyrics also remind me of some of rap's better artists. The expletives and seedy situations that feel essential rather than glib and authentic rather than contrived. Musically, she has a mix of classic rap too. Think dirty trash can drum sounds like Beastie Boys and Run DMC. And then there is an unmistakeable sound of The Western Frontier. The music of Aaron Copland would have you imagining Montana and the Dakotas... Expansive skies, rolling plains, mountains. Born to Die is deserted and reverberant. It emotes loneliness, deep, rusty colors, and long shadows of shanty towns at dusk. It's beautiful.

Lana del Rey's voice is my favorite aspect of her music. And, even though it is unique, it is reminiscent of one of my favorite singers of all time: Karen Carpenter. Lana has a chest voice that, when I close my eyes, sounds just like Carpenter. The way they slide to different notes, the way they pronounce words, the timbre too. The semblance is at times chilling. Just listen to the first five words of the album's first song also called "Born to Die." If you can't hear it, you might be crazy. Also listen to "Off to the Races" and "Video Games."

Besides her ghostly offerings, she invokes many other vocal styles: Gwen Stefani, wiry-voiced cabaret singers. And there's even something secretive and devious in a voice del Rey uses often on the album that reminds me of Marilyn Monroe singing "I Wanna Be Loved By You."

The girl has pipes and she's got the style to know how to use them.

Listen. Now.

Miley Cyrus... I Don't Understand

Summer is basically over. I've been working a lot to get ready for school; teaching, practicing, reading... Then I hear from all these people I see everyday about Miley Cyrus. I had no idea what was so bad but I knew to be expecting something bad when I got to seeing it. So I watched it this morning...

Warning: This is a soapbox.



So I don't get it. That is, what is all this shock for? The video for her song is pretty scandalous to begin with. Then Robin Thicke (who I think is great) performs a song largely famous because it features topless women running around a video set for 5 minutes. Then to top it all off, the surprise appearance from 2 Chainz has about 20 girls on stage "twerking" (we called it popping in my day) in booty tight red jeans.

So why all the hate on Miley?

Is it because she used to be sweet? Is it only cool in the music video you watch but when it's live it's suddenly not? Is it because she's a white girl and her "disgusting actions" are something to only be expected and accepted from young black girls in rap videos and MTV VMA performances?  I'm not really sure what the answer to any of that is. But I have to wonder. I think everyone crying shock and disappointment ought to wonder. It is awfully disingenuous to be in shock about Miley Cyrus' performance if you've ever watched 5 minutes of MTV. The last Real World season I saw had a cast member offering a guy cast mate sexual favors on the 2nd episode. Besides this woman's or man's lack of tact or respect, MTV did little to make a viewers imagination work very hard. And that's because on some level, MTV has always been about what's new, what's edgy, what's salacious. MTV isn't PBS. Do you remember the show MTV show Undressed? How about Master P's Back That Thing Up? Come on, people! Nick Cannon has stuff to say, yet he's married to one of pop music's sex symbols... And she decided to get all sexed up long after her 20s. Just sayin. Brooklyn Decker is "too old for this sh*t" but she made her living posing seminude in magazines and on the covers of them.

I'm not saying that Cyrus' performance was some amazing piece of art. It wasn't. I'm not even saying it sounded good. Frankly, she's never been that great of a performer. But for Saturday Football tailgates and college parties, sure, she can bump through my speakers any day. For entertainment, she'll do. That's all it is. I just don't understand where this sudden and hard moral line has come from, both from celebrities and regular people alike. I mean, have you heard the words to Miley's song? It's about partying. What the hell else was a 20s something pop singer talking about when she said "we can love who we want to"?

Don't act brand new. You're not too old. You're not shocked. You're not even that confused. You're playing dumb.

The rules have to be the same for everyone. If it's really that bad, then good for you. Stop watching MTV. Otherwise, take your wishy washy morals somewhere else. Watch a music video at 4 in the morning. You'll wish that Miley Cyrus was the most "shocking" thing you saw.

Pop Culture and Why I Like It Lately

Lately, I've been more and more interested in pop culture, which is weird because I'm a bit of an old soul when it comes to how I view things. But on second thought it's not weird because pop culture has been gradually moving backwards in time. I don't know which came first, but it's happening in mainstream fashion too. I'm saying all this to say, I LOVE IT.

Take this guy for example:


Nerlens Noelle. He was born in 1994. In 1994, I was 5 years old and I was sporting this exact same haircut, the high-top fade. It wasn't as high and I didn't have tattoos. But the idea was there. When I look at this, I get nostalgic. I don't know if nostalgia is the case for the popularity of this kind of stuff but I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, things are totally upside down in our country. Perhaps the past is a comforting thing to think about and be reminded of. Nerlens isn't the only one nodding to fads that were popular decades ago. Rhianna's last SNL performance was a blast from the past. So is Kesha's latest video for her single Die Young. And sorry University of Arkansas girls, the leggings, side pony tails, and oversized shirts you took from your dads' closets were around long before your parents even thought of having you.

None of this is really my main point. What I've enjoyed most about pop culture's obsession with resurrecting the past is the change of music sounds and practices. Pop artists from about the mid 70s on to today have been decidedly futuristic, pushing the limits of synthesizers, sound engineering, and live performance production. The last 10 years have been shifting back to something my "old soul" really values.

Music.

I think the technological advances for the sake of music hat have been made over the decades are great. But the robotic precision and auto tuning of popular artists supposedly "expressing themselves" left a lot to be desired for me. Today, the fallibility and rawness of human nature is coming back to music. Adele is a wonderful example of this. Her music is beautiful but simplistic. It allows your ears to hone in on the words and appreciate the emotions in her voice. Who cares that it isn't immaculately tuned from beginning to end. I don't. It sounds good. It sounds real. I feel connected.

Another aspect of reviving the past that I love is the sound that is infiltrating popular music. Beyonce's most recent album, 4, is overflowing with aesthetics of Prince, Whitney Houston, and old R&B girl groups. The music on the album reaches beyond simple influence and has turned into a full on reincarnation. Party is one of her more successful singles from the album and it sounds like something right off of an SWV album. And if you've seen the video, it looks like it was filmed about 20 years ago.  It's incredible. What I like most about the song is that the music backs up Beyonce's voice much in the way that Adele's music backs up hers. The beat does not constitute the most important part of the song. The singer does.

On Beyonce's single Schoolin Life,  you can hear the rhythm, guitar, and keyboard of Prince and vocals that sound like it was written for Whitney Houston herself. While I wasn't really around when either of these people were at their heights, the music takes me back to the sounds that my mom enjoyed while riding with her in the car. It sounds good. I feel connected.

One of the last things I really enjoy about this music trend is the instruments. More and more artists are utilizing the talents of real musicians. Less famous, more independent artists have done this for years. But it's been a while for pop artists to have bands with live brass or orchestras with live strings. Beyonce comes to mind because of her all female band Suga Mamas. But rappers are on this wagon. Kanye did a performance with ballerinas and orchestra about a year ago on SNL of his song Runaway. I think highly visible people like this are putting instrumentalists back on the map. They are making it possible for the revival of second line style brass bands to be successful. Opening up the door for kids to ask what that cool thing the dude is blowing on behind Jay Z. It makes kids demand that they be just like the genius sax player (Clarence Clemons) in Lady Gaga's song. Pop music is reaching to the past to transform itself.

Meanwhile, us "art musicians" are starving for work and playing for quarter full concert houses.

Pop artists are opening doors for art music, the music I love, to become relevant again. This is why I really love pop culture today. It is a sort of connecting vehicle between the present and past. It gives a reason for young folks like myself and those even younger to talk about things that would have otherwise been boring, out of date, and uncool. Face it, art music is the ultimate resurrection act. 200 year old music played for audiences who can remember FDR's Fireside Chats.

One of my strongest beliefs in education is meeting students where they are. If we "high art" musicians don't meet potential audiences  where they are, we won't be dying anymore. We'll be dead. No more morbid resurrections. Just gone.

I think people might like what we do musically a lot more if we showed an interest in what they do musically. It doesn't mean that we play "pop classical" music on every concert we program. But it might mean that we perform something with more contemporary influences and sounds, which doesn't mean a-tonal, tone row inspired crap (not that it's all crap). Rather, commission composers that are writing in traditional forms but use hip hop sonorities. Try programmatic music that sounds more like being on a mission in Call of Duty than it does the city sounds of Chicago. Meet the people where they are.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has done recent work with some famous DJs, video game music, and Kid Rock. And while they are not the prime financial planning example, they appear to be an orchestra for the people. After all, what is music without an audience?

Is our music so great and our egos so mammoth that we will resign to kill ourselves slowly rather than"taint" our empty sanctuaries sounding of Bach, Hindemith, and John Cage?