I was watching An American in Paris on TCM Sunday afternoon, and while I was listening to that classic George Gershwin music, it reminded me of something universal about all types of music. What is that thing which is universal to all types of music? Well, it’s simply the fact that every form of music, when it is new, excites young people, and irritates old people. That’s just the way it is.
George Gershwin’s music is classic music now, but when it was new, while many people found it to be groundbreaking and wonderful, older people generally found it to be cacophonous. Such is the case with any music you can think of: when it was new, younger people found it groundbreaking and exciting, and older people thought it was just noise. Schmaltz, big band music, jazz, rock n’ roll, country, blues, bluegrass, heavy metal, techno, hip hop: they all have one thing in common, and it’s that they were worshipped by young people while older people cried: “Turn down that infernal racket!” I think this is just human nature.
Even classical music most kids think is boring and mundane was considered scandalous and revolutionary, and yes, even “noise” when it was new. Some ballet music considered absolutely classic music today caused riots and seething hatred when new. The ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev used to get this type of reception from time to time for ballets, and for their music, as difficult as it may be for people to understand today. (People rioted at the première of The Rite of Spring. I wonder how these same people would have reacted to thrash metal or gangsta rap?) Some might think ballet and hip hop have nothing much in common, but that’s not true: they both have this in common, which is that they were considered scandalous by many older people when they were new, and 100 years from now, kids will think both musical styles are equally dull and wonder why anyone would have thought twice about them. And those kids’ parents will feel the same way, while yelling at their kids about their new music to “turn down that noise!” (Noise which 20 years later will be considered “classic” music, like every other style created over the past few hundred years.)
Yep, even the edgiest aural assault imaginable will someday be considered a classic, and even a “golden oldie”. Punk rock is technically golden oldies music now, but when it was new, it was considered excrement and worse than noise by many, perhaps even most, people. It’s amazing, really. I think people push the envelope all the time in music, and for a little while it sounds edgy and groundbreaking; but then it just seems familiar, and then ho-hum after that. So people continue to push the limits of sound and music, and they always will. And the only thing that’s certain about what is to come in music is that old people will think it’s just noise, and young people will think it’s neato. And then, when they get old, they’ll hate the next waves of new music their kids think is the cat’s pyjamas, and their kids will think their parents’ old extreme music is blasé. And that’s just the way it is…
Here’s the Wikipedia page for The Rite of Spring (read the section on the première!):
