Part of the scene(ry)

(Post-drunk contemplation about music.)

When there are a dozen of people who have similar or same taste in music we call such collectives "scene". Local scene, international scenes and continental scenes (or not?). With popular bands or not it still is some kind of scene even if its just 10 people with two bands or something like that. Collective of friends or mainstream machinery oiled by capitalism.

So lets propose that there's a certain city or communion where the dominant music is jazz. For about three generations now this particular music is the dominant genre and you can find gigs, bands and records plenty to go around. Everyone is happy; except for those who don't like jazz. But considering that this certain genre is going around for a while now the new people are immediately exposed to the genre. So you grow up in such a place and you're exposed to jazz ever since you are born. I believe that there's a great deal of chance that this certain person will grow up and enjoy jazz for the rest of his life. His/hers "favorite genre". It's all fine and dandy but isn't this hampering the persons creative ability? The murder of ones will to explore and venture into something new and different. What if that person discovered electronic music like Autechre at a young age and became one of the greatest electronic musicians of our time?

I chose jazz as an example because the older variation of jazz which we now call hot jazz (swing and others included as well) was basically the only music you could find during the first half of the 20th century. The snobs and the rich would listen to opera and classical while the common man would listen to jazz. Or so went the stereotype. Only a handful of people (futurists for example) tried something different. Their work eventually did pay off but years and (musical) revolutions after. Sadly in the period during second world war music, like many other things, was nationalized. Jazz became a symbol of American and British democratic nations while orchestral and "more serious music" was pushed by the axis powers. This choked down any forms of experimentation and exploration with music. It took a decade more after the second world war for music to start evolving. Evolving in the west that is. The communist states started participating in the world scene with greater effect about ten years ago from now. China is still stuck behind. I wonder what's happening in North Korea?

Are things better in this day and age? Is someones creative mind being spent on something he never really liked but was sort of willfully forced into because everyone else was doing that. I think it's just a little tad bit better. There's more free will involved and things are more accessible but people still fall into patterns set out by those who defined the genre. It's just that propaganda ministers from the last century are now replaced with scenes and its "set of rules to follow".

I had the unique opportunity to be born in a remote place (even for my country's standard) that was musically dead. Dead as in sense that nobody really had any interest in music, no one really cared what you listen and nobody forced their tastes. Along with that nobody really (except one person that I can remember) expressed their musical identity through clothing and similar. The local music was basically something everybody would listen at default. Without any knowledge of what was in or out and without someone telling me what I should listen and what I should not I explored music carelessly. When I got something called "internet" only then I started to realize that there are scenes and groups of people that listen to music similar to mine. But it all seemed so distant from me so I filled myself with delusions that such people are just like me and that they would talk about music all day, go to concerts and buy stuff (something that was nearly impossible for me at the time). But they never really affected my way of exploring music without any predefined judgment.

In high school I had my first experience with being stereotyped and connected with a certain group. A group called metalheads. I was thrilled because I thought I would finally fit in somewhere and have people to talk to. I thought I had my "scene". I was torn to pieces when I found out how limited these people were. Everybody was uniformed and had very little knowledge of music they were supposed to represent. All they talked about was how they got drunk and what stupid shit they did. And those rare few who had more extensive knowledge had their head so far up their ass they wouldn't hear anybody else's opinion nor mere different thoughts. Well I could have overlooked all that if the bands were any good. Sadly that went down the shitter as well because they were all simple imitations of mainstream bands in the genre. I'll never forget when I went to some high school concert where I was the only kid around who didn't had an Iron Maiden shirt.

Scenes are like that. They dictate what's good and what's not. What should be worn and what should not be, who should be praised and who should be ridiculed. I am sort of glad to not be part of any scene. I don't think I'll ever fit into any group and I tried several of them. It just doesn't work; they limit people. What is sad is that like in the 40s this chokes down certain people who want to do something different and something that is not dictated by the collective will (so to speak). Only this time you can choose not to be a part of something and you won't be shot for it. Why should black metal be just about evil? Alcest proved that it can just as well be something completely different and it sounds great. So did John Zorn slapped the shit out of jazz. So did Whitehouse prove that you don't need heavy guitar riffs and drums to sound extreme.

Fuck groups and fuck your fake "collective of individuals". The less you are influenced by others the more you are influenced by yourself.