Danny Barnes

Q

Music causes its effect first on the ear, then on the parts of the brain that derive meaning from notes and tone and rhythm. At some point it derives meaning from the social context of the music in a broad cultural or historical way in the mind of the listener. is the context of the music an essential element in the communication of ideas to the listener/audience? Is the awareness of the player as belonging or not belonging to a context necessary as an intent to present the music as coming from a specific viewpoint? To what degree is individual identity separable or inseparable from broader cultural or class identity for the artist? Is all music political some kind of way?

Danny Barnes responded on 10/25/2016
A

you raise some great post-structuralist questions here i suppose. Q1: i think it's the job of a self-aware listener to be able to take the music at its own value, so to speak. the packaging can sell the product. and i think the bulk of humanity, if you put them in an arena with 40,000 screaming fans, a big light show, and a huge ass PA, would not be able to deduce the value of the music very much, and could likewise have witnessed john coltrane playing in a vacant lot and would not have realized it's value. a music fan isn't fooled by this, unless he/she wants to be of course.Q2: i don't think the player needs to know anything. an actor doesn't need to know the whole script to make a scene work i don't think. Q3: i think once he's cast, it's tough to recast. and sometimes this is a big X factor that neither he nor his handlers know. ditto the public. Q4: i think if you reduce far enough there invariably is a political component. it may not be simple, but nonetheless extant.