“…the risk, and the irony, of embracing an overly elitist stance is that it actually narrows the horizons of anyone seeking to portray themselves as cultivated.”
e-newsletter Editorial * 15 November 2012
“Good music” is not genre-specific.
Everyone is entitled to create different types of music. Everyone is entitled to enjoy, or to dislike, different types of music. Ultimately, what’s “good” comes down to a listener’s taste; not hype, not popularity, not demographics. Your own favourites can and usually will change over time. That doesn’t mean what you liked previously is “no longer good,” right?
A comment came up earlier this week about what is ‘relevant’ in music. Before one can discuss this, the question needs to be answered: relevant to whom? Some genres may indeed be more popular than others, others thrive on being unconventional. Percentages of public interest may vary, validity does not. Every style has fans.
That’s the beauty of any art – to each his/her own. Yet the risk, and the irony, of embracing an overly elitist stance is that it actually narrows the horizons of anyone seeking to portray themselves as cultivated. They may in fact be missing out on what makes music an enduring part of every culture in the world: its diversity.
Of course I’m not saying “everyone has to like everything”; people will naturally gravitate toward the filters that satisfy their main interests. I believe one of Music SA’s roles is to keep an open door to all contemporary genres in original music; to put people on a path where they can first discover, then find an outlet to go out and dig deeper into, what becomes their passion. Hopefully along the way they’ll be exposed to artists they may not have come across otherwise, and in due course realise that SA has talent in many, many different styles of music.
Shouldn’t we (as artists, industry, punters) celebrate and respect all that is music in SA?
music sa 