I could talk about the notes or the voice or the oboe. Q: Why? A: Because the fact is it is sad. (listens for awhile) Q: Why is this part sadder than the other part? A: (glares) I'm getting annoyed. (she stops and gasps as a new part of the piece starts, an oboe solo) Now this part is sad. even if I tried to tell you a miUion reasons, you know, like it reminds me of home or because of the key. (annoyed) Just like you don't know why your music is a particular way. Q: But why is it so great? A: I don't know. (laughs) Like "Here Comes Jesus" in German. And some of them I've listened to so many times that I sing along. The problem, of course, is to explain how it does this, a'nd the other recurring point here, one on which to end this chapter, is that musical talk is both necessary and useless: A: I just think this is great. give you some kind of feeling like either if you're in a depressed mood, you want to be, you know, it helps you to be depressed."?'Ĭommon Sense and the Language of Criticism It just fills up every muscle and vein in my body." "Like it's either, urn, musies gotta, it's gotta like. A kind of fierce feeling." "Without music, [ would die. take a journey on the melody:' On the other hand, "It brings out feelings you didn't even know you had:' "[t gives me the same kind of happiness that being angry gives me.
[ can be transported or get out of myself or my immediate surroundings and. [ feel some sort of relief when I'm listening to music. It enables me to feel better usually, even if it is a small piece or sad piece. [ suppose, a kind of tonic or medication of sorts. Rock music is a cultural [sic) [ don't care for." "[t [country music) doesn't have too much relevance in my life:'?O But what is most striking about the accumulated voices of people talking about music is the sense that music matters not just because it is (like film) a powerful force for taking one out of oneself, but also because it can take one deep inside. Truth to life: "[ like music by people who seem to have a grip on life, and they're not just selling themselves out or being superficiaI:' "People hearing those songs know that they're real things, that really happened, not just someone sitting down and trying to write a hit:' The significance of genre: "Rock is wild, violent, and everything [ don't want to hear. Half a century after Mass-Observation investigated popular film values, the Music in Daily Life Project in Buffalo, New York, set out to ask equally ordinary people, "What is music about for yoU?"69 The replies echo the themes of the moviegoers. Please play something else! Do [ have to listen to this? [t grates, hurts, bores it's ugly, it's painful it's driving me mad! As Howard Becker once wrote, the problem for a sociologist of culture is that "people do not experience their aesthetic beliefs as merely arbitrary and conventional they feel that they are natural, proper and moraI:'68 And the word [ would emphasize here is "feel." Nobody needs to be told what is good or bad music-you know it the moment you hear it. When we label something as "bad music ' then, it is because it is music that upsets or offends us, that we don't want to listen to. The important point here is not that critical judgment is always a process of justification (and not reaUy explanation), but that the feelings it describes are real (and not just discursive). Includes bibliographical references and index. Performing rites : on the value of popular music I Simon Frith, p. 1998 Librtlry of Cot/gress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Frith, Simon. This book is for Gill.Īll rights reserved Printed in the United States of Americaįirst Harvard University Press paperback edition. Performing Rites On the Value of Popular Music
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