Hey folks. Laura here. If you're reading this blog, there's a chance you know me in real life, but in case this blog gets passed along (and I do hope it does), let me introduce myself.
I have been playing the piano since I was seven. I was raised by a father who sings and plays guitar and a mother who sang the alto line to every hymn in church. Once, when I was five, my mom missed church, and my kindergarten brain thought it wasn't okay for that harmony to be missing. So I did it.
High school was voice lessons, dance classes, choirs and musicals. I earned a Bachelor of Music in college as a musical theatre major. Testing out of a couple years of music theory, I used my extra credits to study more piano. I picked up the guitar from a girl who lived down my hall and fell in love with it. I wrote songs when I was supposed to be writing papers. I wrote melodies when I was supposed to be practicing my scales. If I learned about a chord progression rule in class, I'd rush to a piano and write two songs; one that followed it, and one that broke it.
Currently I'm a music teacher by day, teaching piano, guitar, jazz band, choir, and theatre. By night, I'm in a band that's been gigging and recording like crazy in hopes you'll hear of us one day soon.
I live and breathe music. I think about it all day. I love the intentionally crafted melodies of theatre composers. I love the rock harmonies of the 80's bands. I geek out over harmonizing guitar solos. I'm melted by bluesy, gritty voices. I'm blown away by the technical expertise of metal drummers. Concert pianists. Opera singers. I tear up over vulnerable and honest songwriting. Secondary dominance and other borrowed chords? Stick a fork in me. I'm done.
I'm a musician, and a lover of soul-stirring music. I've sung Verdi. Danced Bob Fosse. Played Chopin. Analyzed Beethoven.
However, I can't turn off the top 40 station on my radio.
On my way to work, I'm rocking out to Gaga. As I warm up for opera night, I'm harmonizing to Katy Perry. On my way to band practice, I've figured out the chord progression to a top 40 hit, a teeny-bopper flash in the pan, and a rap song, knowing for certain that the guys will smile and roll their eyes at me when I get there.
So much for being a music snob.
Am I shooting holes in my credibility? Am I risking being taken less seriously as an independent musician? Am I hiding my classical roots? Am I coming across as unintelligent? Vapid? A sheep that is easily swayed by the ebb and flow of mass trends and media? Sometimes I'm afraid so.
But by the definition of what constitutes a top 40 hit, people have to be flocking to these songs. People are requesting them. Purchasing them. Demanding them. People can't get enough.
I found a CD of the Top Billboard Hits of 1969 when I was a teenager and put it in my stereo. My mom came into my room, singing. She knew all the lyrics, verbatim, despite the fact that she hadn't heard these songs in decades. She regaled me with tales of the summer she first heard "Crystal Blue Persuasion".
As a kid, I saw the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, and they had "Joy to the World" on the program for the Christmas Pops concert. The audience was delighted when instead of playing the traditional hymn, they started playing the hit by Three Dog Night.
Break out a pop song in a guitar, piano, or music theory class, and suddenly students that are having trouble with an abstract musical concept "get" what a I chord is. They've heard it a million times.
Michael Jackson was pop. The Beatles were pop. Hell, Lizst was pop.
In the year 2032, we're going to look back on the hits of 2010, and be instantly transported by the Far East Movement's "G6", regardless of the fact that the melody sits on the minor third the entire. effing. time.
I'm not going to turn it off.
These songs are time capsules. They're what's going on in our musical history right now. Someday, the very college kids that are using this as their new going-out anthem are going to be putting their children on the school bus.
These songs are conversation starters. Love Gaga or hate her, for damn sure you've talked about her. Whether or not she remains in the public eye for a good 20 years from now, we will all carry a distinct memory of when she first came on the scene. We'll remember where we were, what job we had, who we were dating.
Daniel Levitin wrote a book called "The World in 6 Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature." He argues that humans evolved alongside music for the sake of six societal needs: friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion, and love.
Did you pick up on what all of these six themes have in common? Of course you did, because you're smart.
Other people.
When I'm playing a show for people who've never met me before, I give them a break from all the stories I've written, and I play something for them that it's likely they know. I've seen contemplative, even apathetic audiences become transformed by recognizing the opening guitar riff of a song they love.
As long as there is dancing, there will be pop music. As long as there are parties, there will be pop music. As long as humans enjoy hearing something familiar, as long as people want to sing along with a tune they know, as long as we are unified by what we love, there will be pop music.
So the next time you tell someone you're into music they probably "haven't heard of", consider why you're doing it. To prove you're cooler than they are? Congrats. You also just ended the conversation, and severed a potential connection with another human being whose story looks different than yours.
By no means should you stop supporting independent and local music. (Read: please, PLEASE, support independent and local music. I'm personally begging you.) ;) By no means should you stop challenging yourself by listening to the complexities of the masterworks, or pushing yourself to change up your composition formula. You should never stop learning, never stop playing more complicated pieces, never stop refining your musical palette by discovering new things.
But don't lie about the fact that you know all the words to Smashmouth's "All Star". We've all heard you singing it.
Love,
Laura
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