contemporary music colleges breeding mediocrity? a
just kidding i dont blindly hate music students
just to define this i dont talk about classically trained musicians i mean modern music colleges, performing arts institutes and other places that teach non-classical music courses (i.e not conservatories or other places of this like)
But i do feel very uneasy recently about music college systems in the UK and i dont know if this is ignorant or misinformed or just stupidity. Having had experience with music college or performing arts college students (for example the ACM in guildford surrey) i have found them to be extremely likely to listen to highly derivative indie music and to be in highly derivative bands that just arent that good and even worse are often based mainly around appearances. I put forward busted and mcfly as candidates as well as a whole bunch of highly derivative screamo bands.
Music theory is not lacking (duh they have all the time in the world to study music and are taught by professionals) however its like its not wanted to challenge themselves and seem to indulge in a sort of groupthink that to be succesful at music they should copy the current fads going on (i.e indie with sloane hair or fringe-metal i.e a return to the principles of hair rock that ruined the 80s). Note the whole glut of amy winehouse and lily allen copiers coming out of music academies (though not exclusively) recently.
Certainly a couple of guitarists and music students i talk too are very clued up on their theory (as an aside i have classical piano training from childhood so i do know my fair share of theory) but this theory often goes into creating lovely three chord "indie" music without understanding what indie is. Singers will often be the very boring pop type without having a personality in their voice or anything over the average range or textures. For example a lot of the singers and solo artists that clog us all up with acoustic love ballads as opposed to truly challenging but still appealing music are music college graduates (amy winehouse, mcfly etcetc). Why? I blame groupthink and the overstudy of how other people did music.
All of this caused me to ask myself a question, name some REALLY big graduates of music academies who have been critically AND popularly accepted largely to a fairly informed audience (not quite the shred crowd). To me I can only name two large truly influential musicians who attended modern music schools
Jeff Buckley (who only attributed his musical theory to music college) Kelly of Bloc Party
this compared to the infinite names of "unschooled" people who have truly made world changing music without being schooled at a contemporary music college (i make this distinction)
hendrix clapton kurt cobain matt bellamy queen (all went to university) Johnny greenwood (classically trained musician)
Why is this? Would these names and others have ended up in mediocrity if they had attended college? or do talented people not go to colleges? or does groupthink push otherwise creative people into mediocrity? Certainly dealing with my friend a truly talented musician he has been writing more and more derivative music for himself recently while i feel i have pushed boundaries slightly in texture and dynamics for my audiences.
so i ask you Do music colleges breed mediocrity? Why? Name some remarkable modern music college educated musicians who people might have heard of?
Ive been banned for another 45 days after being unbanned because of the thread i started with another person 30 days ago. All this over a rickrolling?
The moderators have too much power and too little maturity to take mild criticism. I used to be with the masses in hating the annoying kids with different opinions, and i still do, but the people with a valid opinion, agreed with or not shouldn't be silenced just to help someones ego and so that everybody wants to make friends with moderators or be a girl.
Had an argument with a lot of people who started an argument over a question. Rick-rolled (very mature i know)
-Go to the banned forum
-Start a thread being positive about the threat "That was totally worth it" about how humorous i found it
- "Dreadnought" comes in and says "you shouldnt be arguing with people"
- "No your right the forum is not for opinions. 2+2 = 5 right?"
and i start a thread "so what does the banned forum think of robert mugabe? with some ironic statements of "no lol wut pears no rickrolls etc"
Am now banned from the Banned forum. So ive gone from a knowledgeable helpful member of UG to a phariah in 4 hours i feel like a rebel.
My conclusion
UG is a playground for a conformist majority to air their views in comfort and the Moderators to protect them from different opinions. Maybe this account will get shut down for this controversial viewpoint as well.
UG should have a set of rules for moderators that they must have three to intervene in a user and ban them. Im not annoyed about my account im annoyed about the way it has been shut because i challenged a majority.
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RedFez64's blogs, last updated : December 26, 2008
