I am happily surprised that the video I posted has elicited some discussion of this sort in this forum which, as a veteran member, I thought had long run its course, save for the discussions on technical matters..
Thank you all for contributing such valuable thoughts.
Paul: Young people today are learning to hate western civilization while not giving up one iota of the materialistic benefits of that civilization, instead they exclude themselves from everything lofty that civilization could offer them... This happens purposely and from above of course, but I cannot discuss this further without veering into actual politics, which should be left out of this forum. So I'll let Schoenberg do the talking for me:
"One should never forget that what one learns in school about history is the truth only insofar as it does not interfere with the political, philosophical, moral, or other beliefs of those in whose interest the facts are told, coloured, or arranged."
Macker: Thanks for the Kierkegaard quote, I was not aware of it; how apt and topical in an age of Facebook and Instagram!.. I would like to add to your point regarding 'individuality' something from a book that I dearly recommend to all here - Music and the Mind by Anthony Storr. Yung is quoted in the chapter titled 'A Justification of Existence':
"Personality is the supreme realization of the innate idiosyncrasy of a living being. It is an act of high courage flung in the face of life, the absolute affirmation of all that constitutes the individual, the most successful adaptation to the universal conditions of existence coupled with the greatest possible freedom of self determination."
Also, I have found that when two people disagree in most important things, what they actually happen to agree upon is often of great consequence. I am anti Post-Modernist and what Paul wrote above I subscribe to, hence here is some MIchel Foucault in Perspectives of Musical Aesthetics (edited by John Rand):
"I have the impression that many of the elements that are supposed to provide access to music actually impoverish our relationship with it. There is a quantitative mechanism working here. A certain rarity of relation to music could preserve an ability to choose what one hears, and thus a flexibility in listening. But the more frequent this relation is (radio, records, cassettes [Ed. Internet!]), the more familiarities it creates; habits crystallize; the most frequent becomes the most acceptable, and soon the only thing perceivable. It produces a 'tracing', as neurologists say.
(...) And what the public finds itself actually listening to, because it's offered up, reinforces a certain taste..."
Maybe algorithm-driven taste, to paraphrase Jimmy.
And Bill, about everything being a 'selfie' these days: Music must also be incorporated under the moniker of 'everything', so it must be composed with a lot of 'selfie-pleasure', these days...
