Anxiety of Influence

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1. 

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   ivylander says I was totally with you until the last sentence, and here I have to cast a dissenting vote. I don't think a desire for evolution, innovation and novelty necessarily denote an aversion to pre-existing forms and structures (sorry to get all professorial-sounding on your ass). A respect for something and a desire to build upon it don't cancel each other out. In fact, you could argue that truly respecting a structure necessarily involves seeing possibilities in it that have not yet been explored. I have had little time for Oasis because the songs I've heard of theirs, while sometimes clever and engaging, don't build upon anything. Nothing is being explored. The music is entirely mired in the past. Plus their lyrics stink.

   Permalink posted 11/30/2006
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   morgannels says At the risk of being still more professorial-sounding... I don't mean to say that there's a clear, bright line between innovation and rules (and I could prbably have finished that entry a little better), but there is a tension there. The workability of that tension depends on the rules. If the rule is that pop songs can only have three chords, someone using a fourth chord is breaking that rule and innovating (though if whoever defines these rules is comfortable with the result, the rule may subsequently be changed), while someone using three strange chords of exotic origin is exploring the possibilities within that rule (though perhaps breaking another rule). Maybe not the best example, but... Great artists productively exploit that tension, and lesser artists fail to consider it. I guess people's view of Oasis depends on which side of that line they put Oasis.

   Permalink posted 11/30/2006
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   ivylander says I think that what you say about the tension between innovation and rules is absolutely right. But here's another angle on it. A respect for the rules and an understanding of why they are in place is a necessity if you are going either to play with the rules or to break them. And doing those things are. I'd argue, necessary to any kind of good art because without them there is no surprise, nothing to wake up the person experiencing the art. Knowing and respecting the structure helps you understand where you're being limited in your expression, and might even give you some ideas about how to break through those limitations. That knowledge also tells you which rules are useful and ought to be left alone. (That's pretty much what you're saying, too, seems to me.) So what does all this have to do with Oasis? By your defintion I'd have to consider them lesser artists because, to my ears, they do nothing significant with the rules. They don't even play with them all that much, let alone break them. To me they're not so much artists as curators.

   Permalink posted 11/30/2006

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