Your premise here hits close to home as a performing artist. Specifically as a tap dancer, the only dancing that survived the 20th century was whatever was filmed, photographed, or remembered in stories. Too many amazing dancers never made it into film and so their craftwork, body of work, and personalities are lost to history. Those who witnessed them kept memories alive, but often didn't have a place to put them, either. Some of the stories made it to print (as documented oral histories), but reading about dancing isn't the same as bearing witness to the dancing in real life. For years I've worked on trying to solve for this challenge: how do you support an oral tradition in a culture that isn't organized around oral traditions? Still working...in the meantime, thanks for the reminder that the good stuff lasts, precisely because people care about it, and to be an encourager of what is good, not just an identifier of what is bad. That's something I can do right now.
@Andrew Nemr you are so correct about tap. My youngest son became enamored with the dance after watching “Tap,” “Cats,” the “Nutcracker,” and a host of lesser-known tap, hoover ( his favorite) and ballet performances on WHYY, our local PBS.
Insisted that was his “sport.” As the last of three, and being eight years younger than the first, I was thrilled (I'm a jazz musician). I enrolled him in a reputable dance school, and he took to it! Gregory Hines and Savion Glover had area shows when he was about 6. He took his shoes, and surprisingly got on stage with both during an open call.
As the only child (and as a boy) both men took special interest in him. He told Glover he wants to be a “black hoover!” And with Glover, he lifted my son on stage at the Academy of Music and did an improv routine.
But the most poignant moment was when Mr. Hines sent word for that little boy to be brought to him after the show. We waited, and Hines seemed tired, dressed in a sweater. We held back, and let them do the talk.
The last thing Mr. Hines said to our son was,, “Good job. Keep the dance alive.”
Soon after that—Within a year—Mr. Hines died from liver cancer,
He was a brave, passionate artist who truly gave it all to his craft.
What a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing. Gregory was a very special person. Not sure if your son is still dancing...regardless you both might enjoy this unique resource (memories of Gregory recounted by his bandmates): https://taplegacy.org/gregoryhines/band/
Thank you; sorry I'm late getting back. Life of a writer on deadline. Nah, Joe isn't dancing anymore, but he is still a huge fan and I'll catch him doing steps in the kitchen. As a jazz sax player, I was often in the band and will dive into your reference now!
Edit: That's yours! And a treasure trove! Saving for those evenings when I can fully concentrate and enjoy. Sharing w my bandmates. Thank you again.
That 100,000 songs are uploaded daily could be seen as a cause for celebration. That so many people are partaking in music-making is potentially a good thing. However, I've always wanted to know how those numbers break down: how many are bands, what are the genres, and where are they being uploaded from? etc.
Most music doesn't last, but that doesn't mean it has no musical or societal value. Every music venue in the world would go out of business if they only hosted bands and artists that would be listened to in 100 years.
What concerns me, is the sifting process with this mass of music. A lot of music criticism focuses on the identity of the artist and the vibe of the music, but not technical aspects of the music. Institutions that help develop audiences, such as BBC Radio 3 (which I would argue is the world's best music radio station) have been accused recently of dumbing down. Marina Hyde commented recently on her podcast that screenwriters are being asked by streaming platforms to make their work more 'second screen' (i.e., for people who are simultaneously looking at another screen). Then you have slashes to music education worldwide, which damages audience development.
So if the music cannot be located in the time is created because of cultural noise and a diminishing audience with an appetite for challenging themselves, then we are in trouble. This hit home to me last year when American composer Andy Akiho released the exemplary album Sculptures, which was bought only by a handful of people, has very few streams, and was overlooked by music critics. Without funding, there is no way to continue creating such music. So it won't just be forgotten, it won't be written — and there's the chill for me.
Ted, you champion new challenging music and keep people engaged and interested in the art form. Thank you! However, I see a lot of people complaining that culture is stagnant and always wonder if they are doing the challenging work to bring about a vibrant culture. Somewhat — ask not what my culture can do for me, but what I can do for the culture.
Dom Aversano says, "What concerns me, is the sifting process with this mass of music."
I agree completely. Ted's Steiner quote is true, but that doesn't help new music or literature get noticed. In fact, quite the opposite. Artists are flooding the airwaves and digital or paper distribution venues, while listeners and readers are fewer and fewer. And those listeners' and readers' attention spans are becoming shorter. Even attention itself is being subverted and fractured.
The above reality means that bad literature and music will disappear, yes, but so will much of the exemplary material since it's buried in mountains of dreck. Every once in a while it's good (as reviewer or critic) to take a swat at the air thick with flies, and take down one or two, just to keep one's sanity, even though it has very little effect on the larger problem.
There's another problem with being sanguine about bad art not surviving. The same fate awaits almost every artist since evaluative approaches are increasingly belittled, the stance now more about participation trophies and the leveling and complete subjectivity of assessment.
And sure, greatness can be, and has been, noted after an artist's death, but what good does that do the artist? Everyone has an ego, and understandably wants to feel like he or she has made a difference in this life. It's a feeble (and mostly incorrect) hope that writers and composers on their death beds hold out for the supposition that they'll be discovered and lauded 80 years down the road. Recognition matters in this lifetime.
I completely agree. Furthermore, art doesn't get created in a parallel world. It's not like Beethoven would have sounded the same had he not been recognised. To return to my example of Andy Akiho - how long can he produce music for large ensembles without a serious audience? And what music would he be composing if he was recognised beyond a few devoted music listeners? It's amazing that people can keep going for so long without support, but far from ideal.
Dom, you mention trying to find the breakdown of those 100k songs/day. Not sure if you’re familiar with Chris Dalla Riva, but his Substack “Can’t Get Much Higher” is very heavy on data as it relates to the world of music. If anyone could create a breakdown like you mentioned, it would be Chris!
But listen to the majority of those 100,000 "songs" ... the 100,000 "Newsletters" , the 100,000 "works of art" - on & on & on & so forth. Every day. An absolute flood of mediocrity , now that it all has been "democratized". What percentage of that 100,000 would even be considered Quality or Memorable ? As you say , the dreck just seems to disappear ,usually very quickly
What might be an interesting encore to this post is - how was it that Bach, or the others, were rediscovered a generation or more later? What was that process? And is that process still possible today?
The understanding in my music history courses is that there were a few reasons. First, Bach remained a "composer's composer" even during the time that he fell away from the public eye. To learn counterpoint, you studied Bach. Second, the simplicity of the Galant fell out of fashion, and the public became receptive to hearing complexity once again. This revived interest in the Baroque.
And a third reason, as Ted mentioned, is that during the Galant, his sons were famous. So he was never forgotten by the public in that sense. He was still remembered as CPE and JC's dad.
Composer Felix Mendelssohn re-introduced J.S. Bach in March 1829 when he revived Bach's St. Matthew Passion in Berlin for three concerts. At least he started the ball rolling. I remember a story in music school about Papa Bach confronted by his composer sons to write less complicated music, i.e. pop music. He told them to find something else to do. And to this day, we listen to J.S. Bach, and hardly at all to his sons' music.
Fantastic column. I'm a professor of music - an ethnomusicologist - and what you say flies in the face of much of what ethnomuscologists tend to say, which emphasizes the social constructedness of 'genius' and how institutions tend to create it. And yet, I must admit I'm changing my tune and am starting to support your argument. Here's one point to support it.
Since 2016, the rapper Aesop Rock (not Asap Rocky, that's someone else) has made a string of albums that people are calling some of the best hip-hop records of all time. He's made them in his 40s, which is virtually unheard of in popular music. They skirt recent trends in hip-hop. A study showed that earlier in his career, he used more unique words in his first 40,000 words than Shakespeare or Melville - but his music was very hard to listen to. His later work has kept the deep lyrical content but smoothed out the music and flow. His most accessible record is 2016's The Impossible Kid. The other albums are Spirit World Field Guide, Garbology, and the recent Integrated Tech Solutions. Try his song "Pizza Alley" about traveling in Peru (while reading the lyrics - just google the YouTube lyric video) or "Jazz Hands", which is about protests in Portland (he's got hundreds of songs with lyrics as good as this). He's done this with essentially no promotion, and he now has a career stretching back almost thirty years. His success has been all word of mouth, and he might just win the long game with no hit songs. Genius survives. Maybe.
But I think such artists need people from their generation who are fans to spread the word to other generations. Aesop Rock plays indie hip-hop, and he is part of my micro-generation (late Gen-X, early millennial) - we have the smallest birth rate. The good stuff survives even if the genre is esoteric and dies out, at least, that's what Gioia seems to be telling us. I think this perspective romanticizes the role of the critic and musicians, but it's not wrong.
Wow, this is the first time I’ve ever seen Aesop Rock mentioned anywhere in the wild!
I’m right on the border of Millenial/Gen-Z, and I discovered him in about 2013, and have been obsessed with everything he’s made ever since. No one at all around me has heard of him, and everyone thinks that I’m obsessed with some obscure unimportant rapper.
I sometimes feel like I’m shouting into the void about the truest example of genius I’ve seen alive in my own lifetime.
What is very important in this realization is that culture is not about holding on. Not to be kept in vaults for keepsake. Culture is kept alive through loving action alone. By listening, studying, reading, living it, practicing the damn thing. Love is a practice. Art must be renewed again and again. Invented anew by each generation. I must not just take your word for it but judge for myself. Become a better and more reluctant and loving judge over a lifetime of loving and doing... If I do not love and do, I have no right to judge. If I do love and do there is no need.... Thanks Ted, great piece.
Freddie de Boer thinks there's too much "poptimism": lots of positive music reviews and not enough negative ones. That's exactly what Gioia recommends, but de Boer's complaint is that the music being praised isn't actually good.
Are they both right? Is music criticism too positive when it comes from the entertainment press and not positive enough when it comes from amateurs online?
The music press's "optimism" is really just functioning as an extended PR firm for the music. The issue de Boer is making is that it's not criticism. Gioia is saying critics should focus on emphasizing the reasons why good work is truly good, and otherwise ignore / decline to write about other work entirely. In other words, both of them are aligned that music journalism should stop writing positive reviews of bad music, the difference is whether it's worth the time to write negative reviews of bad music.
Good point. I think the problem is what the press is praising and why - chart stuff that's already very popular and doesn't need their help, in order to boost their reputations. Whereas what critics need to do is unearth stuff no-one knows about and praise that, in order to boost the *music's* reputation. Ted is great at using his platform for that, and showing the rest of us that it's possible to hold onto a reading audience that way.
I wouldn't waste time reading music reviews. Anyway you cut it, they're slanted: either by the press who have an agenda and/or get paid by the record companies to shill, or by fans who all have very subjective tastes (including me)...and also have agendas (me as well). But that's OK...because it's America and we all have the right to listen to whatever music we want.
"Although bad music will disappear, not all good music survives."
This point cannot be overemphasized. Beyond the (correct) point that much of the great art that comes down to us largely originated in an extremely narrow social strata that wasn't experienced by 99.5% of the population, there's a simply mind-boggling amount of chance involved in works surviving in the long term. The only reason we have Beowulf is sheer luck - the sole manuscript was nearly incinerated in the 18th century. We have the plays that we do of Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides because the Byzantines thought they were excellent examples of dignified Attic Greek (this is also why we have barely any of the burlesque Satyr Plays that we know all three also wrote).
The question of a work physically surviving is less pressing in the era of mass media, but now the issue is, as you note, being noticed amidst the flood of other works. I suppose the real duty of the consumer is to develop a discerning ear (or eye) and try to distinguish not just between the good and the bad, but between the great and the good. Both by reading critics and learning the criterion that critics use.
This is an excellent point – history is littered with horrific losses of art and culture. But I would disagree that "the question of a work physically surviving is less pressing in the era of mass media." Less pressing, perhaps, but we shouldn't think that it isn't still a very real issue. Look at the Bamiyan buddhas or the Universal warehouse fire. And digital media isn't necessarily better. I think there's a popular misperception that digital media is indestructible, but this is far from true: storage formats change, hard drives are destroyed, passwords are lost after a death... And even if some things are archived, there are discoverability issues that are perhaps even more challenging than they are for physical media.
Which is why the first sift is still really important. Great works need to be copied and kept to survive, and artists need to be supported to reach their potential, and that all happens in the early going.
The sheet music reads "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life" and I can see why that one is forgotten, even our esteemed author changed the title to "The Spaniard Who Blighted My Life" - no one should have to endure ungrammatical song titles, even for a minute.
As for the tunes from '52, I have heard the names of the artists involved. but clearly, those were not their big hits. "Jambalaya" was written by Hank Williams, and his version still gets played, and "High Noon" is a nice tune associated with a popular movie, but most of the rest of them are rightfully forgotten.
The Durham Bulls, a triple A baseball team in Durham, NC, are doing their part to keep the sterling musical legacy of Sam the Sham alive - they play "Wooly Bully" at every game. You can't buy that kind of publicity!
"Survival of the fittest" doesn't mean that the strongest or best survive; it refers to the survival of the organisms best fitted to their environment. So it's not so much about intrinsic qualities of the organism (or music), it's about the organism's (or music's) relation to its context, or environment.
A singer told me, when I was very young, that the right notes go on forever, any slips or mistakes disappear. I'm not sure if she was talking of the music of the spheres, or just encouraging me, but your post makes a lot more sense! And, of course, Bach (JS) wasn't composing for fame or fortune - it was daily work for him. The fact that he was a genius wouldn't have occurred to him, or anyone around him.
I've played Jambalya dozens of times and it's still being played everywhere country music is listened to. The others have disappeared. If your in Louisiana that jambalaya and crawfish pie is still going strong.
I'm sure that if I was out there giggin' I'd be required to still sing & play it somewhere, sometime. It could be mildly fun, depending on how much energy I was putting in to it at any given time. And also depending big time on who you were playing with at the time.
That and how much you could change it to make it new. It could use a whole different rhythmic concept. Sort of a New Orleans 1/2 time funk feel would work.
First, this entire discussion presumes that music has some objective criteria against which varying degrees of “quality” exist. Says who? Complete nonsense.
Second, this discussion presumes that legacy is important and is something that should be pursued or nurtured. Legacy is a ridiculous concept. I recently heard a sports commentator suggest that LeBron James stop playing now because he’s ruining his legacy. WTF? To pursue or be concerned about what future generations think of anything makes as much sense as pursuing or being concerned about what your contemporaries think. Artists hone their craft to express whatever it is inside them that is longing to get out. And, whether or not “it” resonates with an audience (now or in the future) is of no concern to anyone other than that audience - the audience that is presently interacting with the work.
This is just tired old relativism. Obviously no one person “says” but history’s judgment is final. And yet, contra Fukuyama, we have not reached the end of history. Granting contingency of judgment doesn’t mean accepting your nonsense (after all, who you made YOU an authority?) that, well, quality just doesn’t exist.
Good music is out there. Bad music sucks. And we—past, present and future humans—do the best we can, in the time we are in, and with varying degrees of sensitivity, to distinguish one from the other. I count myself one of the lesser lights here, and look for critics who can illuminate the path. And avoid those who claim there is neither light nor path.
I understand and, despite my post, I am sympathetic to the sentiment—there is sometimes an unfortunate overlap between recognizing and appreciating quality, and being a cranky old stick-in-the-mud who thinks he has seen and knows it all. I try to find, and be, the former!
Thanks, Ted, wonderful column. I'm a bigger fan all the time. I'm 71, lifelong songwriter who is still putting out music of various genres. Portland has a reasonable number of good studio guys to play things I don't, and I call friends in Nashville for tracks sometimes. Like many, the algorithm has led me to concentrate on synch licensing, another difficult needle to thread. But I'm getting closer, and am still creating, and still in the game. We're just finishing a record that took a few years (covid), and we're actually going to put some vinyl out for the first time. I stay positive, and enjoy what I'm doing. I appreciate your work very much, and find solace in it to boot.
That's true. I am mystified about how Mr. Gioia could say that this record has been forgotten. It's been played superstars and beginners of all genres all around the world, from Springsteen to garage bands to Sesame Street characters.
So much of what music is considered "good" and what music is considered "bad" is reliant on an respected industry person deciding and declaring it so. Very "emperor's new clothes."
Additionally, the irony here is that most of the the heralded, timeless artists detailed didn't even see much success until after their times, which makes me wonder if the playlists characterized here as "bad" could actually be more "Bach" in 100 years.
But again, they just need a Mendelsson to decide and declare it so...
The more I listen to popular music the more I realize that anything can be couched as artistry.
tone deaf-- artistic choice
predictable chord progression-- 'statement on the vapidity of the masses'
“There’s no such thing as ‘bad.’” AMEN sister Caroline.
“Anything can be couched as artistry.” AMEN again. Put a frame around “it” and declare it so. John Cage 4’33” - here’s where it starts and here is where it ends - genius.
Your premise here hits close to home as a performing artist. Specifically as a tap dancer, the only dancing that survived the 20th century was whatever was filmed, photographed, or remembered in stories. Too many amazing dancers never made it into film and so their craftwork, body of work, and personalities are lost to history. Those who witnessed them kept memories alive, but often didn't have a place to put them, either. Some of the stories made it to print (as documented oral histories), but reading about dancing isn't the same as bearing witness to the dancing in real life. For years I've worked on trying to solve for this challenge: how do you support an oral tradition in a culture that isn't organized around oral traditions? Still working...in the meantime, thanks for the reminder that the good stuff lasts, precisely because people care about it, and to be an encourager of what is good, not just an identifier of what is bad. That's something I can do right now.
@Andrew Nemr you are so correct about tap. My youngest son became enamored with the dance after watching “Tap,” “Cats,” the “Nutcracker,” and a host of lesser-known tap, hoover ( his favorite) and ballet performances on WHYY, our local PBS.
Insisted that was his “sport.” As the last of three, and being eight years younger than the first, I was thrilled (I'm a jazz musician). I enrolled him in a reputable dance school, and he took to it! Gregory Hines and Savion Glover had area shows when he was about 6. He took his shoes, and surprisingly got on stage with both during an open call.
As the only child (and as a boy) both men took special interest in him. He told Glover he wants to be a “black hoover!” And with Glover, he lifted my son on stage at the Academy of Music and did an improv routine.
But the most poignant moment was when Mr. Hines sent word for that little boy to be brought to him after the show. We waited, and Hines seemed tired, dressed in a sweater. We held back, and let them do the talk.
The last thing Mr. Hines said to our son was,, “Good job. Keep the dance alive.”
Soon after that—Within a year—Mr. Hines died from liver cancer,
He was a brave, passionate artist who truly gave it all to his craft.
Hoofer, not hoover. Didn't catch damn autocorrect
I was tracking with you!
What a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing. Gregory was a very special person. Not sure if your son is still dancing...regardless you both might enjoy this unique resource (memories of Gregory recounted by his bandmates): https://taplegacy.org/gregoryhines/band/
Thank you; sorry I'm late getting back. Life of a writer on deadline. Nah, Joe isn't dancing anymore, but he is still a huge fan and I'll catch him doing steps in the kitchen. As a jazz sax player, I was often in the band and will dive into your reference now!
Edit: That's yours! And a treasure trove! Saving for those evenings when I can fully concentrate and enjoy. Sharing w my bandmates. Thank you again.
WHYY Philadelphia! ✅💙
Ah, Channel 12 ❤️
That 100,000 songs are uploaded daily could be seen as a cause for celebration. That so many people are partaking in music-making is potentially a good thing. However, I've always wanted to know how those numbers break down: how many are bands, what are the genres, and where are they being uploaded from? etc.
Most music doesn't last, but that doesn't mean it has no musical or societal value. Every music venue in the world would go out of business if they only hosted bands and artists that would be listened to in 100 years.
What concerns me, is the sifting process with this mass of music. A lot of music criticism focuses on the identity of the artist and the vibe of the music, but not technical aspects of the music. Institutions that help develop audiences, such as BBC Radio 3 (which I would argue is the world's best music radio station) have been accused recently of dumbing down. Marina Hyde commented recently on her podcast that screenwriters are being asked by streaming platforms to make their work more 'second screen' (i.e., for people who are simultaneously looking at another screen). Then you have slashes to music education worldwide, which damages audience development.
So if the music cannot be located in the time is created because of cultural noise and a diminishing audience with an appetite for challenging themselves, then we are in trouble. This hit home to me last year when American composer Andy Akiho released the exemplary album Sculptures, which was bought only by a handful of people, has very few streams, and was overlooked by music critics. Without funding, there is no way to continue creating such music. So it won't just be forgotten, it won't be written — and there's the chill for me.
Ted, you champion new challenging music and keep people engaged and interested in the art form. Thank you! However, I see a lot of people complaining that culture is stagnant and always wonder if they are doing the challenging work to bring about a vibrant culture. Somewhat — ask not what my culture can do for me, but what I can do for the culture.
Dom Aversano says, "What concerns me, is the sifting process with this mass of music."
I agree completely. Ted's Steiner quote is true, but that doesn't help new music or literature get noticed. In fact, quite the opposite. Artists are flooding the airwaves and digital or paper distribution venues, while listeners and readers are fewer and fewer. And those listeners' and readers' attention spans are becoming shorter. Even attention itself is being subverted and fractured.
The above reality means that bad literature and music will disappear, yes, but so will much of the exemplary material since it's buried in mountains of dreck. Every once in a while it's good (as reviewer or critic) to take a swat at the air thick with flies, and take down one or two, just to keep one's sanity, even though it has very little effect on the larger problem.
There's another problem with being sanguine about bad art not surviving. The same fate awaits almost every artist since evaluative approaches are increasingly belittled, the stance now more about participation trophies and the leveling and complete subjectivity of assessment.
And sure, greatness can be, and has been, noted after an artist's death, but what good does that do the artist? Everyone has an ego, and understandably wants to feel like he or she has made a difference in this life. It's a feeble (and mostly incorrect) hope that writers and composers on their death beds hold out for the supposition that they'll be discovered and lauded 80 years down the road. Recognition matters in this lifetime.
I completely agree. Furthermore, art doesn't get created in a parallel world. It's not like Beethoven would have sounded the same had he not been recognised. To return to my example of Andy Akiho - how long can he produce music for large ensembles without a serious audience? And what music would he be composing if he was recognised beyond a few devoted music listeners? It's amazing that people can keep going for so long without support, but far from ideal.
Dom, you mention trying to find the breakdown of those 100k songs/day. Not sure if you’re familiar with Chris Dalla Riva, but his Substack “Can’t Get Much Higher” is very heavy on data as it relates to the world of music. If anyone could create a breakdown like you mentioned, it would be Chris!
But listen to the majority of those 100,000 "songs" ... the 100,000 "Newsletters" , the 100,000 "works of art" - on & on & on & so forth. Every day. An absolute flood of mediocrity , now that it all has been "democratized". What percentage of that 100,000 would even be considered Quality or Memorable ? As you say , the dreck just seems to disappear ,usually very quickly
What might be an interesting encore to this post is - how was it that Bach, or the others, were rediscovered a generation or more later? What was that process? And is that process still possible today?
The understanding in my music history courses is that there were a few reasons. First, Bach remained a "composer's composer" even during the time that he fell away from the public eye. To learn counterpoint, you studied Bach. Second, the simplicity of the Galant fell out of fashion, and the public became receptive to hearing complexity once again. This revived interest in the Baroque.
And a third reason, as Ted mentioned, is that during the Galant, his sons were famous. So he was never forgotten by the public in that sense. He was still remembered as CPE and JC's dad.
And so PDQ was like a great great nephew?
A mighty fine nephew!
Composer Felix Mendelssohn re-introduced J.S. Bach in March 1829 when he revived Bach's St. Matthew Passion in Berlin for three concerts. At least he started the ball rolling. I remember a story in music school about Papa Bach confronted by his composer sons to write less complicated music, i.e. pop music. He told them to find something else to do. And to this day, we listen to J.S. Bach, and hardly at all to his sons' music.
I wondered about that also.
Fantastic column. I'm a professor of music - an ethnomusicologist - and what you say flies in the face of much of what ethnomuscologists tend to say, which emphasizes the social constructedness of 'genius' and how institutions tend to create it. And yet, I must admit I'm changing my tune and am starting to support your argument. Here's one point to support it.
Since 2016, the rapper Aesop Rock (not Asap Rocky, that's someone else) has made a string of albums that people are calling some of the best hip-hop records of all time. He's made them in his 40s, which is virtually unheard of in popular music. They skirt recent trends in hip-hop. A study showed that earlier in his career, he used more unique words in his first 40,000 words than Shakespeare or Melville - but his music was very hard to listen to. His later work has kept the deep lyrical content but smoothed out the music and flow. His most accessible record is 2016's The Impossible Kid. The other albums are Spirit World Field Guide, Garbology, and the recent Integrated Tech Solutions. Try his song "Pizza Alley" about traveling in Peru (while reading the lyrics - just google the YouTube lyric video) or "Jazz Hands", which is about protests in Portland (he's got hundreds of songs with lyrics as good as this). He's done this with essentially no promotion, and he now has a career stretching back almost thirty years. His success has been all word of mouth, and he might just win the long game with no hit songs. Genius survives. Maybe.
But I think such artists need people from their generation who are fans to spread the word to other generations. Aesop Rock plays indie hip-hop, and he is part of my micro-generation (late Gen-X, early millennial) - we have the smallest birth rate. The good stuff survives even if the genre is esoteric and dies out, at least, that's what Gioia seems to be telling us. I think this perspective romanticizes the role of the critic and musicians, but it's not wrong.
Thanks for sharing - from a fellow “late-GenXer”
Wow, this is the first time I’ve ever seen Aesop Rock mentioned anywhere in the wild!
I’m right on the border of Millenial/Gen-Z, and I discovered him in about 2013, and have been obsessed with everything he’s made ever since. No one at all around me has heard of him, and everyone thinks that I’m obsessed with some obscure unimportant rapper.
I sometimes feel like I’m shouting into the void about the truest example of genius I’ve seen alive in my own lifetime.
Thank for your comment!
We’d certainly be far better off.
What is very important in this realization is that culture is not about holding on. Not to be kept in vaults for keepsake. Culture is kept alive through loving action alone. By listening, studying, reading, living it, practicing the damn thing. Love is a practice. Art must be renewed again and again. Invented anew by each generation. I must not just take your word for it but judge for myself. Become a better and more reluctant and loving judge over a lifetime of loving and doing... If I do not love and do, I have no right to judge. If I do love and do there is no need.... Thanks Ted, great piece.
Freddie de Boer thinks there's too much "poptimism": lots of positive music reviews and not enough negative ones. That's exactly what Gioia recommends, but de Boer's complaint is that the music being praised isn't actually good.
Are they both right? Is music criticism too positive when it comes from the entertainment press and not positive enough when it comes from amateurs online?
The music press's "optimism" is really just functioning as an extended PR firm for the music. The issue de Boer is making is that it's not criticism. Gioia is saying critics should focus on emphasizing the reasons why good work is truly good, and otherwise ignore / decline to write about other work entirely. In other words, both of them are aligned that music journalism should stop writing positive reviews of bad music, the difference is whether it's worth the time to write negative reviews of bad music.
Good point. I think the problem is what the press is praising and why - chart stuff that's already very popular and doesn't need their help, in order to boost their reputations. Whereas what critics need to do is unearth stuff no-one knows about and praise that, in order to boost the *music's* reputation. Ted is great at using his platform for that, and showing the rest of us that it's possible to hold onto a reading audience that way.
I wouldn't waste time reading music reviews. Anyway you cut it, they're slanted: either by the press who have an agenda and/or get paid by the record companies to shill, or by fans who all have very subjective tastes (including me)...and also have agendas (me as well). But that's OK...because it's America and we all have the right to listen to whatever music we want.
"Although bad music will disappear, not all good music survives."
This point cannot be overemphasized. Beyond the (correct) point that much of the great art that comes down to us largely originated in an extremely narrow social strata that wasn't experienced by 99.5% of the population, there's a simply mind-boggling amount of chance involved in works surviving in the long term. The only reason we have Beowulf is sheer luck - the sole manuscript was nearly incinerated in the 18th century. We have the plays that we do of Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides because the Byzantines thought they were excellent examples of dignified Attic Greek (this is also why we have barely any of the burlesque Satyr Plays that we know all three also wrote).
The question of a work physically surviving is less pressing in the era of mass media, but now the issue is, as you note, being noticed amidst the flood of other works. I suppose the real duty of the consumer is to develop a discerning ear (or eye) and try to distinguish not just between the good and the bad, but between the great and the good. Both by reading critics and learning the criterion that critics use.
This is an excellent point – history is littered with horrific losses of art and culture. But I would disagree that "the question of a work physically surviving is less pressing in the era of mass media." Less pressing, perhaps, but we shouldn't think that it isn't still a very real issue. Look at the Bamiyan buddhas or the Universal warehouse fire. And digital media isn't necessarily better. I think there's a popular misperception that digital media is indestructible, but this is far from true: storage formats change, hard drives are destroyed, passwords are lost after a death... And even if some things are archived, there are discoverability issues that are perhaps even more challenging than they are for physical media.
Which is why the first sift is still really important. Great works need to be copied and kept to survive, and artists need to be supported to reach their potential, and that all happens in the early going.
Truth!!
The sheet music reads "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life" and I can see why that one is forgotten, even our esteemed author changed the title to "The Spaniard Who Blighted My Life" - no one should have to endure ungrammatical song titles, even for a minute.
As for the tunes from '52, I have heard the names of the artists involved. but clearly, those were not their big hits. "Jambalaya" was written by Hank Williams, and his version still gets played, and "High Noon" is a nice tune associated with a popular movie, but most of the rest of them are rightfully forgotten.
The Durham Bulls, a triple A baseball team in Durham, NC, are doing their part to keep the sterling musical legacy of Sam the Sham alive - they play "Wooly Bully" at every game. You can't buy that kind of publicity!
My hometown shines as always
Jambalaya was officially written by Hank Williams, but Moon Mullican likely had more to do with it!
Thanks for the article -- one quibble.
"Survival of the fittest" doesn't mean that the strongest or best survive; it refers to the survival of the organisms best fitted to their environment. So it's not so much about intrinsic qualities of the organism (or music), it's about the organism's (or music's) relation to its context, or environment.
Carry on!
A singer told me, when I was very young, that the right notes go on forever, any slips or mistakes disappear. I'm not sure if she was talking of the music of the spheres, or just encouraging me, but your post makes a lot more sense! And, of course, Bach (JS) wasn't composing for fame or fortune - it was daily work for him. The fact that he was a genius wouldn't have occurred to him, or anyone around him.
I've played Jambalya dozens of times and it's still being played everywhere country music is listened to. The others have disappeared. If your in Louisiana that jambalaya and crawfish pie is still going strong.
I'm sure that if I was out there giggin' I'd be required to still sing & play it somewhere, sometime. It could be mildly fun, depending on how much energy I was putting in to it at any given time. And also depending big time on who you were playing with at the time.
That and how much you could change it to make it new. It could use a whole different rhythmic concept. Sort of a New Orleans 1/2 time funk feel would work.
Two things.
First, this entire discussion presumes that music has some objective criteria against which varying degrees of “quality” exist. Says who? Complete nonsense.
Second, this discussion presumes that legacy is important and is something that should be pursued or nurtured. Legacy is a ridiculous concept. I recently heard a sports commentator suggest that LeBron James stop playing now because he’s ruining his legacy. WTF? To pursue or be concerned about what future generations think of anything makes as much sense as pursuing or being concerned about what your contemporaries think. Artists hone their craft to express whatever it is inside them that is longing to get out. And, whether or not “it” resonates with an audience (now or in the future) is of no concern to anyone other than that audience - the audience that is presently interacting with the work.
This is just tired old relativism. Obviously no one person “says” but history’s judgment is final. And yet, contra Fukuyama, we have not reached the end of history. Granting contingency of judgment doesn’t mean accepting your nonsense (after all, who you made YOU an authority?) that, well, quality just doesn’t exist.
Good music is out there. Bad music sucks. And we—past, present and future humans—do the best we can, in the time we are in, and with varying degrees of sensitivity, to distinguish one from the other. I count myself one of the lesser lights here, and look for critics who can illuminate the path. And avoid those who claim there is neither light nor path.
Peace JimmyB. Just my opinion.
Not sure why anyone would care about history’s judgement.
As soon as the artist concerns him/her/their self with what others think, the work is no longer genuine.
And also to you.
I understand and, despite my post, I am sympathetic to the sentiment—there is sometimes an unfortunate overlap between recognizing and appreciating quality, and being a cranky old stick-in-the-mud who thinks he has seen and knows it all. I try to find, and be, the former!
Thanks, Ted, wonderful column. I'm a bigger fan all the time. I'm 71, lifelong songwriter who is still putting out music of various genres. Portland has a reasonable number of good studio guys to play things I don't, and I call friends in Nashville for tracks sometimes. Like many, the algorithm has led me to concentrate on synch licensing, another difficult needle to thread. But I'm getting closer, and am still creating, and still in the game. We're just finishing a record that took a few years (covid), and we're actually going to put some vinyl out for the first time. I stay positive, and enjoy what I'm doing. I appreciate your work very much, and find solace in it to boot.
Are Jo Stafford and Vera Lynn really forgotten? I must be living in another world then.
I think he meant those specific songs. Not the musical artists.
But still, You Belong To Me is one of Stafford's most famous songs.
Everybody leave Jo Stafford out of this, I’m in love with her…
I'm sorry, but Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs! "Wooly Bully": It will stand!
That's true. I am mystified about how Mr. Gioia could say that this record has been forgotten. It's been played superstars and beginners of all genres all around the world, from Springsteen to garage bands to Sesame Street characters.
So much of what music is considered "good" and what music is considered "bad" is reliant on an respected industry person deciding and declaring it so. Very "emperor's new clothes."
Additionally, the irony here is that most of the the heralded, timeless artists detailed didn't even see much success until after their times, which makes me wonder if the playlists characterized here as "bad" could actually be more "Bach" in 100 years.
But again, they just need a Mendelsson to decide and declare it so...
The more I listen to popular music the more I realize that anything can be couched as artistry.
tone deaf-- artistic choice
predictable chord progression-- 'statement on the vapidity of the masses'
bad lyrics-- intentional
Hell, even the Beatles rhymed "mad" and "glad."
There's no such thing as "bad."
“There’s no such thing as ‘bad.’” AMEN sister Caroline.
“Anything can be couched as artistry.” AMEN again. Put a frame around “it” and declare it so. John Cage 4’33” - here’s where it starts and here is where it ends - genius.
objectivity and art don’t mix