[wordup] Graeme Downes on National and Music

[Adam Shand]

I like this. The TED talk he references at the bottom is also well  
worth a watch if you haven't seen it yet.

Adam.

Via: Rebecca Downes <rdownes at wetafx…>
Source: http://theverlaines.co.nz/blog/view/id/334

Nats 3R initiative.

This is really too much fun to ignore. When Chris Knox wrote a song  
for the Labour party before the last election I went searching the net  
to hear what it sounded like. It was what it was. But I scrolled down  
and read someone’s blog about it. From memory the sentiment was fairly  
non-committal re Chris’s effort but it went on to say that at least  
he’d done it and had been payed a small fee for doing so, then went on  
to add that National would probably struggle to find a songwriter  
willing to write one for them and that they’d probably make do with  
some old Neil Diamond cassettes. (I’m sorry I never book marked it and  
having gone back to find it I haven’t been able to—but my memory  
serves me well I think).

With humour there is always a victim and it tends to pray on  
stereotypes. Clearly the blogger was playing on the perception of  
right wing politicians existing somewhere between the tasteless and  
the downright philistine when it comes to music at least and  
simultaneously inferred an almost innate left leaning in musicians. In  
the end the blogger’s prediction was pretty close to the mark,  
National’s propaganda DVD was underpinned with a studio hack’s version  
of Coldplay’s “Clocks”. The media got a sniff of it, I was asked to  
give a musicological opinion (as I have done in many copyright  
disputes in the past), concurred, an article was printed condemning  
the piracy, the DVD removed from circulation. Nothing more happened as  
far as I know (though there are plenty of “have they paid Coldplay  
yet” banter on the net still).

Music isn’t worth anything. It is a pervasive view I think (having  
worked the door at gigs there always seemed to be some guy who came  
through from the public bar next door dumbfounded that music had to be  
paid for). It is one that stems, I think, from two things, one, the  
concept of work being inherently unpleasant (real work) and that  
people shouldn’t be paid for doing what they enjoy, and second the  
concept of music as a kind of idiot savant outpouring. Because most  
don’t know how it is made they seem to assume that we open our mouths  
and songs spontaneously come into being—there’s no work in that and  
therefore it is of no value. There’s nothing to show for music once it  
ceases either (the fact that food is of much the same transience seems  
to escape them however).

And now this primary school three Rs campaign launch and the attendant  
axing of funding for the arts. Should anyone be surprised at  
National’s ambivalence to the arts, given their behavour with their  
promotional DVD? I can hear pleas for mitigation already but it really  
is quite simple—there are only three choices when it comes to  
answering charges and this may as well be laid directly at John Key’s  
door. With regard the Coldplay affair there can be no plea of  
innocence and therefore he can be guilty of one of three things. He  
might be so tone deaf as to not be able to tell the difference or  
similarity between one piece of music and another. No great sin, but  
it would at least explain a lot with regard to the aforementioned  
ambivalence (and if so afflicted one would expect such duties to be  
delegated—and therefore a guilty plea to incompetence should be  
entered). If not tone deaf, then he might be guilty of not checking  
his own propaganda before it went into the public domain. Again no  
great sin, though incompetence would again have to be the guilty plea  
here. If not incompetent then he was complicit in “rhyming with” (you  
are welcome to infer a different verb) Coldplay.

Music is maths, mentally calculated and physically projected through  
the medium of time, performed fractions, ratios and proportions (but  
then again Key, Tolley, et al probably wouldn’t know the Fibonacci  
series from a hole in the ground—and if you the reader doesn’t it  
isn’t your fault, but it is something we musicians have been known to  
mess with). I’m no education expert but I have read that they are  
aware of different ways of learning. Universities have vast arrays of  
assessment types to develop different skills but also to allow otherly- 
abled students to excel in areas of strength (see the link below for  
further acknowledgment of this).

Clearly however this administration can only see maths as a pathway to  
a career in accountancy. One could be cynical and assert that they  
have no interest in fostering young musicians who will grow into  
mature ones that (as the above-mentioned blogger inferred) won’t vote  
for them. It won’t work of course. As a primary school pupil in the  
60s the 3Rs were all the rage. I excelled in maths and solved  
everything they put in front of me such that in my first year they had  
me sitting in with the class four years ahead of me to keep me  
challenged. I’m not skiting, merely drawing attention to the fact I  
didn’t go on to be an accountant. I hope the government succeeds in  
raising numeracy and literacy with its new campaign. It will be fun in  
fifteen years time to see the Nats scratching their heads saying,  
“where did all these bloody musicians come from? And why won’t they  
vote for us?”

For an alternative view on education and where it should be heading  
I’m indebted to John Egenes for passing this on to me. Takes about  
twenty minutes to view but is both sobering and pricelessly funny.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html