Hmmm....

My last post was stupid so I deleted it... here is a better one.

As I was walking around listening to some music I realized I was in the mood to listen to Venetian Snares (great artist, drum and bass, electronic, difficult to classify). As I listened to the blasting melodies and odd time signatures (he makes it a point to only use 7/8 5/4 13/8 9/8 no time signature etc.) I realized that he uses time signatures, drums, electronic loops, orchestral samples, poems, lyrics, in all musical ranges that can be arguably deemed comfortable to all ears (an old reading we read for class claimed that most pop music is derived from drums and vocals) so I had to ask, would it be justifiable to claim that Venetian Snares is Avant Garde? As i crept deeper and deeper into the question, fueled by the schizophrenic melodies and rhythms I eventually came to the question: Is Avant Garde (the classification) a creation of the music or is it a creation of the listener/classifier? In other words, if everyone got up in the morning tomorrow and decided that Lady GaGa Kanye and Adam Lambert was just to strange and foreign for their ears and decided to listen instead to Venetian Snares Lionel Marchetti and John Cage (which was more pleasing to their ears), would the term Avant Garde still apply?

From this argument I am forced to see music in the light of subjectivity, where is the line drawn, when is something Avant Garde when is it Popular? Does it even matter?

Does music have any power?

Being a Romantic I would say that music has vast potential and vast power, but where does that power lie, does its power lie within some sort of Ideological system as it relates to our economic policies? Does it lie within the Listener's intellect and stimulus when reacting to melodies found pleasing invigorating or thought provoking?

John Cage once said music is one of those things that doesn't require any sort of meaning, Sound can just be sounds, it doesn't have to be psychological, sound can be loved just for the sake of being a beautiful sound.

Kant also said that there are 2 things that don't have to mean anything in order to give us immense pleasure, one is sound and the other is laughter.