That's Music?

Five months ago I bit the bullet and bought a pair of hearing aids. It was time. I was tired of doing the leaning-closer-and-asking-what-did-you-say routine. Or having young female checkout clerks and waitresses sound like excited chipmunks and not understanding a word they said. Or having to turn up the television volume to a level Maribel couldn't handle. I won't bother with going into the detail of audiograms, audiologists, and the astronomic price of these things. If you've got hearing aids you know what I'm talking about. If they're in your near future...stand by for a shock. 

The afternoon I got my hearing aids I put them on and went out on the front porch. And I heard birds. Before the hearing aids I was able to hear the sounds of the more raucous birds like crows, hawks, owls and blue jays, but not the birds I was hearing now. In the past when we were out on the porch together Maribel would sometimes ask if I heard the birds singing. I never heard anything except for planes overhead or car traffic on the distant highway. The birds I was hearing now I had never heard here or in  Wisconsin, and their songs were beautiful. I don't know if bird songs can be classified as music, but some of what I was hearing sure sounded like music to me. 

I wonder if it was birds that first inspired humans to attempt music? Music has been a part of the human experience since the recording of history, and probably long before that. Why do we like music? Why is it so much a part of our lives? Music is nothing more than a combination of notes, composition and instruments, so what about that appeals to us? 

Not all music appeals to everyone. There are supposedly over 1,200 genres of music; genre being defined according to Wikipedia as, "...a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions." Of those over 1200 genres I like about 10. Among those are easy listening, light jazz, some new age, some popular, and some classical. I used to like the close harmony groups like the Andrew and McGuire Sisters, and latter the Lettermen, Crew Cuts, and Four Lads but I don't think close harmony groups exist anymore, except for a few that reformed to cash in on the nostalgia craze. There was a lot of good music that doesn't exist anymore thanks to the advent of rock, and the other 'noise' genres that spawned from it. There are still some talented vocalists around but they've been relegated to the back of the bus by the shouters and screamers.

I remember some time ago on television when a young female contestant on American Idol was being tutored by Tony Bennett.  When she reached the final note of her song she started with the rapid screaming up an down thing. Tony stopped her, telling her to, "Hold on to that note...it's a good note." She looked at him in shocked disbelief. Hold on to a note? You don't do that these days. For one thing, it takes talent to sustain a note, and secondly the style now is to see how many notes can be screamed into a single musical bar. A good example is the constant butchering of the National Anthem by so-called vocal artists. You know what I'm talking about, "....the land of the freeeeeeeEeeeeeeEEeeeeeEEEEeeeeeEeEe", at which point we like idiots cheer and applaud, "....and the home of the braveeeeeeeeEeEeeeeeeeeEeeevvv." concluding with us doing more applauding and cheering.

I just don't get it. Why are we humans so quick to jump all over the latest fad in fashion, speech and mannerisms? I think it was about 30 years ago that the "Oh MY God" thing started up. And then the race was on to see how many different ways it could be said. OH.....my.....GOD was a favorite. So was OhMyGod. Then the shorthand version, OMG came out. Two weeks ago a middle-aged woman standing next to me in a grocery store picked up a can of something, looked at the price, muttered "omg" and put the can back. I really believe that there isn't a young to middle age person who can string three sentences together without slipping in some version of OMG. Or write something without lol. Or describe something without saying Great, Amazing, Astounding, Incredible, Awesome and on and on. What are they going to do when they really need a superlative to describe something? There won't be any left. They've all been used up...they've lost their impact. Okay, that's off my chest. Back to music.

Actually, I think I've said all I want to about music, except for this...it is my fervent wish that some day I will be watching television when suddenly the program is interrupted by a reporter excitedly exclaiming, "This just in! Rock, rap, heavy metal and all other related genres are dead! It is believed that all electrical instruments will soon follow!" I know it's not going to happen, but I can dream.