Home /In depth /Show /
The Weekly DiScussion: 'No Music Day exists because music has run its course'
“This mix is a work of art in itself. I have to say I think it’s the most wonderful mosaic of sound I’ve ever heard in my whole life, it doesn’t even sound like it was made on this Earth, it could be a transmission from a star in a galaxy far, far away...”
Fair to say, I think, that it wasn’t this element that most people picked up on when they heard the new Burial record. From the start, dubstep’s been seen as a soundtrack to the mundane – a warped mundane, admittedly, but one that lies at the very centre of what’s considered most real, most modern, city life. Whatever your opinion on its merits as entertainment, it's skilfully crafted to blend into the background, diffusing into the air, the architecture, the 'mood' of London. Drab pavements decorated with fried chicken bones and red cabbage, domestic fright and violence clattering through estate stairwell echo chambers, the temporary insanity of fishbowl party districts and, of course, the ubiquitous night bus travelling through that mess like a perilous bubble.
Bill Drummond, the man whose concept of ‘No Music Day’ is the real subject of today’s DiScussion, would probably see that bubble as a destination in itself; urging us on this day in 2007 to retreat from the blown speaker thrust to our ear by living in order to think with a clear head about what we want from music, how we can make it our own and, by proxy, how I can keep the gormless nodding dawg with the speakerphone behind me from breathing.
Drummond’s campaign – outlined here – really resonates with me, personally. This is because I tend to hate much more music than I am able to admire, like or even just tolerate. The reasons? As far as I can make out it’s a basic lack of intelligence, foresight, personality and (more than or) imagination that leaves me heckling every innocent, abused speaker I encounter. By whatever decay or standard it’s widespread – at least 90 per cent of all music is, to my ears, utter tripe and when you double the risk to quality by employing a DJ with limited taste to mediate a playlist put together by marketing men all those songs singing the praises of radio frequencies start to look like little miracles.
Who would, for instance, stand neck hair to attention at the prospect of “Toby Anstis, playing the soundtrack to your life!” [Heart FM] or the same songs played back to back, every single day save for a few ‘choice’ selections from the modern raft of safety-rock acts [Virgin Radio]? Easier to dismiss that first single jingle if it wasn’t a pre-cursor to a daily routine filled with noise pollution as well as a fleeting window into the inner ring of Dante’s Seventh Circle.
- - -
Radio subdued, it’s out of the car and onto the train. The 9.23am from Maidenhead to Paddington is mostly headphone buzz, noises that now sound as quaint as Irish drinking songs against the school holiday death rattle of hip-hop or grime dying a fucking horrible, tin-can, bassless death. (And it is invariably hip-hop or grime. Never Verdi).
When you’ve sat through enough of this, it’s time for turfing out into the melee of the station and an all-too-brief respite from idiot radio before the dull hum of the sandwich section in the supermarket. Whatever break there may’ve been, it’s immediately punctured by the monitors dotting the queue, as I and the bleary-eyed around me are subjected to close-ups of a distraught Sinead O’Connor in the video for ‘Nothing Compares To You’. Who inflicts these playlists upon bored shoppers? I don’t want these two minutes to become an intimate, profoundly-moving emotional experience. I just want my prawn sandwich.
Extending that theme of consumption, things take an ever so slightly more sinister turn when you realise that Sainsbury’s has no real respect for those ears Sinead’s just grabbed as they hand them over to an interjection from some unfeasibly annoying berk who takes every announcement about half price Muller corners as some bizarre, Pavlovian cue for self-romance; frantically tugging away at his genitals as he demands to know if I’m “old enough to buy alcohol?” Are you?! ARE YOU?!" Yes. Please hide your quivering man teet.
Dire times for ambient noise. Moving back to the bus, or the bedroom, or the office – there is literally nothing I can say about MySpace, iTunes/Pod and the general proliferation of music that hasn’t already been stated in some corner of the internet, or at least thought out; paced around. While an invaluable tool for scoping out new acts, there is too much out there - how often do you hear new music to match quotes like Mary Ann Hobbs's above? - and a Drummond-led cull would get my full backing. Less professionalism, safety, TV-karaoke, easy empathy, retro-rehash; more necessity, urgency, dare, communication, new, neu, "no" to pleasant but essentially pointless acts.
Perhaps I’m being too cynical, or perhaps I’m being too optimistic. How much of a role should chance play in our exposure to new music? I can remember a few, great moments of juxtaposition to argue the case; most recently at the end of an episode of Hollyoaks when a fairly heavy situation culminated with mother and anorexic daughter collapsing in a distressed, cathartic heap on a bedroom floor. Cue the jaunty, Topshop-indie guitar kicking in as the end credits roll. For something as dire as Hollyoaks, this was a moment of unintentional hilarity. Enough...
DiScuss: Are you with or against Bill Drummond and ‘No Music Day’? Is music forced at us too frequently in everyday life? Are there too many bands in the world? Should you be in control of the music that’s played within your own personal earshot? Generalising more, should there be more thought behind music, or should it rely on instinct and sounds from the past? What bad noise surrounds your daily routine and what priceless moments of chance have collided to make your day?
Drummond's Guardian 'blog, written today, can be found here.
Particularly liking BBC Radio Scotland's approach:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/music/events/no_music_day/index.shtml
i'm all for No Music Day though, although obviosuly not enough to know when it was, otherwise i might have tried to take part. i do worry that music is becoming even miore of a commodity the rapidly advancing technological age and i do worry that it gets taken for granted. i'm not of the Traynor-esque belief that music can only be 'listened' to if the rest of life is eradicated but i think the world would seem a strange and unnerving place if all music was stopped. i hope by 2009 No Music Day gains a lot more momentum and interest.
i really love the concept of this day
I love the idea. I really wish it could happen, just for one day it could be bliss and everyone could step back and question whether all this crap filling the airwaves and our screens is worthwhile.
I kinda wanna go one step further as I love the idea of stopping anyone from recording or releasing anything for a whole year. Let everything simmer and give some time to look back on things which didn’t get the attention they deserve. It’d probably be a good thing for the music industry too to abstain for a while whilst things sort themselves out in the digital landscape.
I can see pros and cons to this
Firstly i can see the benefit of taking time to think about what i want from music, as i can definitely identify with the cynicism many feel towards contemporary music (I could easily repeat the sentiments expressed when declaring 90% of music is crap). On the other hand, i also can see a need for music to be open and even 90% of it crap. To me setting up rules for music would be possibly too close minded, as i cannot tell what song, at what time, i might feel a connection to (for instance i was recently awoken to the sounds of Leona Lewis, an act, had i set up rules as to what i wanted from music, i would dismiss immediately, but to my benefit i listened to and have grown to love as a guilty pleasure). However, i do agree that music often seems 'on tap', for example, i remember buying sonic youth-daydream nation, an album not available in the limited space of Doncaster, i had to travel out of town to but the album. For me, this search made it all worth while, as it broadened my horizons, made me realise there was a musical world outside of HMV and Music Zone.
Despite this, i cannot agree that all music today sounds like rehash of the past, mostly because at only 17 my music knowledge is limited, but also because i believe there are contemporary bands that are striving to create something innovative and bold. Plus, without myspace, would said bands really receive the exposure they have? or would i have heard of them? (its all very well to give away albums at any price if you're radiohead, but bands on the boundaries of the mainstream may be able to rely on loyal fans).
i meant
may not be able to rely...
I'm saying no
Yes it is annoying when some trackie-bottom wearing, future teenage mum of six, oxygen thief is listening to Rihanna or whatever behind you on the bus. But I'm all for the saturation of music in society. Hearing At The Drive-In tinnily coming out of someone's crappy headphones and remembering what a great song Invalid Litter Dept. is and going home and absorbing yourself in it, that great feeling of pleasant surprise you get when Somerfields stick on Be Your Own Pet (it has happened honest!). I don't feel somehow that occasionally being unexpectedly forced to listen to some music that's somehow outside your personal spectrum for five minutes is going to ruin my love of music alltogether. In this age where everything is atomised and everyone wants to listen to stuff in their own bubble, isn't it nice to listen to stuff you occasionally wouldn't, to find some strange beauty in the thud-thud-thud of a drum and bass track, or to find some delicious melody hidden in the backing track to an advert for a product you actually don't care about?
yes
the amount i am annoyed by overhearing someone else's music increases in direct proportion to the chances i estimate they will become a teenage mother
thud thud thud
who gives a shit, really
this is just romanticizing irrelevance just to give oneself the feeling of being a romantic. so supermarkets plays songs while you shop. oh, heavens above. the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, indeed. get a grip. music, and indeed sound, and indeed your whole environment across all five senses, is what you make of it.
90% (at the very least) of all music ever has been bad. mainstream commercial-driven radio has always been bad and has never had much respect for the stuff it played. cities have always been filled with "noise pollution"; hearing someone else's music on their headphones should feel no more intrusive than, and is hardly that different to, hearing someone else's conversation. we live in a culture in which we are bombarded with consumable STUFF; it's not any more difficult to shut out music than it is to shut out anything else. would it be reasonable after seeing a advert for a shitty £1.99 meatball sandwich in the window of a subway to drop to one's knees in the street and scream "OH FOR A FINE HOME-MADE RISOTTO". would it be reasonable to break down in tears for the lack of reverence Skoda taxi drivers have for the fine Czech engineering and craftsmanship put into their machines? again, get a grip, and worry about something worth worrying about.
i'd also like to know what the hell myspace and the ipod have to do with the general point of no music day or even the general point of this article. myspace is a means of music distribution and promotion. the ipod is a portable music player. music was distributed and promoted before myspace, and people listened to music on portable units before the ipod. myspace means listening to new music is a lot easier, sure; but noone's forcing you to listen to it all. is their some kind of law that, in order to seem cutting edge, any article on popular music written these days has to mention the ipod and/or myspace in some way, even if they have jack shit to do with the article itself?
put quite simply, i have heard lots of great new albums this year. my enjoyment of these albums is not lessened one bit by me overhearing someone bumping akon on the train, or by however many times i've been subjected the fratellis. end. of.
no music day is meaningless, pointless, self-indulgent, and generally i agree entirely with simon at no rock n roll fun who described it as "LOOK AT BILL DRUMMOND DAY"
^ this - "all about Bill"
also ...
No Music Day/No Musical Knowledge Day, every weekday: BBC 6 Music, 10am-1pm, The George Lamb show.
^ excellent post
also, in reference to this part: "I tend to hate much more music than I am able to admire, like or even just tolerate" - that just seems stupid to me. i honestly can't think of very much music at all off the top of my head that i actually HATE. there is lots and lots of music i am indifferent to, but that's quite a different thing. this stuff about "lack of intelligence, foresight, personality and imagination"; is that really a reason to hate something? when you meet a boring, slightly dim, unimaginative person, does that merit hatred? i'm guessing not. people put too much energy into hating things when they could be putting it into finding more things to love.
spot on spookyelectric
I suspect this article is more about city living than music. Take a trip to the countryside/get some earplugs ferchristsake!
oops
didn't know about this...it's not a terrible idea...maybe it would've prevented me from having that Umbrella song in my head all day simply cos someone said umbrella to me earlier...
why not stop fucking wingeing
and don't listen to shit music on the fucking radio.
It's not that difficult. I didn't hear Umbrella till it had been no.1 for a couple of months..it can be done!
Ambient Noise Pollution Can Be Frustating
Generally I agree with this statement there is too much low quality shite soundwaves destroying our ears, but this is why the Walkman/iPod have both been so successful because everyone can have their own personal soundtrack to avoid the forced audio pollution.
but also occassionally if you are say in a shop and a song comes on which is good but you may not have heard it you have to track it down as the staff will not know what it is.
they harping on about
this stupid thing again? Silly idea last year and a silly idea now.
And another thing:
its pretty crap when people cite that MAH quote mockingly. God forbid someone should get passionate about a piece of music and wax lyrical over their enthusiasm for it. I loved hearing her get so worked up about the Kode mix. Really refreshing and touching in this day in age when cunts can stand in front of Shellac playing and not even be affected by the music so much as to nod their heads. Maybe this has nothing to do with this Bill Drummond character debate, maybe it does.
typical responses...
i like the way the discussion on no music day invariably falls to one of taste, thus class. people see it as an opportunity for getting rid of music they don't like, sounds they don't chose. it becomes yet another way of taking control of their immediate environment and complaining about our modern world.
this misses the point entirely.
no music day is about bringing back value to music. by showing it's true place in our lives, in our society, through it's conspicious absence.
by making each conscious choice NOT to listen to music you become aware of each time you subconsciouly do. by becoming critically aware of each bit of ambient music you notice how it alters the environment it's heard in.
Bill Drummond is a genius, he may not be an original thinker (pretty much everything he does with music and art has been done already by Cage and the 50/60's New York set) but his ability to popularise and capture the imagination of the public by taking "high" concepts and translating them into an easily digestible form is unparalleled in the modern age.
pah.
Tish tosh.
If you really enjoy listening to music pretty much all the time, have a varity of music you love AND APPRECIATE to death, are good at avoiding the drivel, why on earth would you stop for some high horse?
pah indeed ...
Just because people disagree with the worth of what you regard to be one of Drummond's "high concepts", it doesn't mean that they miss the point. Just because other DiSers opinion on Drummond differs from your own, that doesn't make you right and them wrong. Such is the nature of art and free will. But how anyone could call the man who burned a million pounds in cash (and later admitted to regret doing so) a "genius" is laughable ... but hey, that's just my opinion, right.
Yesterday, BBC Scotland cancelled their usual daytime major-label-playlist-programming, in favour of giving talk-time to Drummond-the-brand. Wouldn't a far more positive musical statement have been to challenge the ears of their regular listeners? To throw away the virtual-payola playlist and programme a day of fresh, independent and challenging music? To attempt to make a difference? Of course it would. But there's less publicity in that. And it would involve more time and more money, which they have, and more creativity and passion, which they would seem to lack. Through their empty actions, they prove themselves to be a part of the 'problem', rather than anything approaching a cure.
BBC Scotland's piggy-backing on the publicity stunt (for that's all it is) was an empty statement, pumping the vacuum of an empty concept. The equivalent of laying down arms on the front line of a battle. Sod Drummond and his "high concepts", the vast majority of people here (that you dismiss with your "typical" statement) are the converted, they already know the value of music and what it means to them. That's why there's such a healthy disregard for No Music Day here. People see the point, see through the point ... and it's pointless.
21st of November 2008: New Music Day
new music day...
or "listen to music I think is good but doesn't normally get played" day.
does music mean any more to the "converted" people on DiS then the average Heart FM listener on a diet of 80's easy listening classics?
do they gain less enjoyment from tne "virtual-payola playlist" known music then you do from "fresh, independent and challenging" music?
No Music Day is (to me) about asking how music soundtracks our lives, how we engage with it, how it affects our moods, outlook and actions. It's set firmly within the religious ascetic tradition of absitinance which brings value to things we'd normally take for granted (he even puts it before a feast day celebrating music for "God's" sake).
It's not about style, taste or distinctions on value but about the how/where/why of listening to music and what our lives would be without it.
ALL about style ...
- no
- yes
- probably
however the day is interpreted by the individual, if you go back a year and read Bill's rambling philosophy, you'll see that it's entirely born from those things (style, taste, distinctions) which you say it isn't ...
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1892833,00.html
"Some years ago I walked into HMV Oxford Street. I wandered around rack upon rack of thousands upon thousands of CDs. There must have been every form of music that ever existed there. I wanted something new. Something that would make me go, 'Yeah, this is it. I've never heard anything like this in my life.' There have been so many times when I have read a review of an album telling me how great it was so I would go out and buy it, only to get it home to find it sounded like something I had already heard. There was nothing in HMV Oxford Street for me.
So I went home and searched every corner of the web for something new, fresh, exciting. Something that would make me hear music in a different way. Something that would open a door to a room in my head which I had never been in before. But even in those furthest corners I could find nothing that did this."
abstinence from Bill now.
Comments
- Post a new comment on this article