Being the type of person to obsess over music and it's impact on society as a whole, well at least American, there is a certain type of music that does invade my life from time to time. I do not hate all pop music, at best it's tolerable and at worst it is a vapid shallow wasteland. In a way it is both, but music itself is a very subjective thing, prone more than anything else to arguments on the validity of one artist versus another, and what qualifies as an artist and what does not.
This brings me to the reason I am writing this. I don't know if anyone has heard of Ke$ha, but I assume most people have. She has had several hit songs and is one of the biggest artists in my nation. I find her music empty but tolerable. People had been talking about her music today, so out of curiosity I decided to watch one of her live videos.
It started off with her wearing a deadmau5 style helmet. I don't know why. All of her backup dancers were sporting colorful mullets. Last time I checked, mullets are not stylish. They are not even remotely attractive. Setting this nonsense aside, that is not really the issue I had. It came at the end.
Out of nowhere she had a guitar. She held it up. On the backside of the guitar, was the word Hate. I hoped beyond all else she would not destroy this instrument. Lo and behold, indeed she did. At this moment I was shocked, but not for the proper reasons.
The Who is the first band I can think of that would actively destroy their instruments. This was never meant to be a niche. It's not cute. It used to be a representation of aggression, of an inner turmoil that could not properly be expressed in the most personal and deep songs, and it was shocking because when Kurt Cobain (Nirvana for those not aware, which more than likely is no one,) was a deeply disturbed man. He was a manic depressive junkie. He smashed his instruments because he had anger inside him. He wanted to lash out, and he did that with his music. He smashed his guitars because he didn't care. He was misanthropic and disgusted not only with himself but the people that would take his music and commericalise it to make it something false. What he considered art turned into cheap plastic nothing, and that in itself killed him.
When Ke$ha smashed that pink guitar, I saw a staple of raw passion desecrated. I saw honesty vanish behind a wall of pink glitter and auto tune. Pure music is dying quickly, this act of false...musicians in the past did not simply hold a guitar for the sake of smashing it. They poured their souls into every note and smashed it when they had nothing left to say, and all that could never be properly said had to come out somehow. Now it's just a gimmick.
How nice.
This brings me to the reason I am writing this. I don't know if anyone has heard of Ke$ha, but I assume most people have. She has had several hit songs and is one of the biggest artists in my nation. I find her music empty but tolerable. People had been talking about her music today, so out of curiosity I decided to watch one of her live videos.
It started off with her wearing a deadmau5 style helmet. I don't know why. All of her backup dancers were sporting colorful mullets. Last time I checked, mullets are not stylish. They are not even remotely attractive. Setting this nonsense aside, that is not really the issue I had. It came at the end.
Out of nowhere she had a guitar. She held it up. On the backside of the guitar, was the word Hate. I hoped beyond all else she would not destroy this instrument. Lo and behold, indeed she did. At this moment I was shocked, but not for the proper reasons.
The Who is the first band I can think of that would actively destroy their instruments. This was never meant to be a niche. It's not cute. It used to be a representation of aggression, of an inner turmoil that could not properly be expressed in the most personal and deep songs, and it was shocking because when Kurt Cobain (Nirvana for those not aware, which more than likely is no one,) was a deeply disturbed man. He was a manic depressive junkie. He smashed his instruments because he had anger inside him. He wanted to lash out, and he did that with his music. He smashed his guitars because he didn't care. He was misanthropic and disgusted not only with himself but the people that would take his music and commericalise it to make it something false. What he considered art turned into cheap plastic nothing, and that in itself killed him.
When Ke$ha smashed that pink guitar, I saw a staple of raw passion desecrated. I saw honesty vanish behind a wall of pink glitter and auto tune. Pure music is dying quickly, this act of false...musicians in the past did not simply hold a guitar for the sake of smashing it. They poured their souls into every note and smashed it when they had nothing left to say, and all that could never be properly said had to come out somehow. Now it's just a gimmick.
How nice.
