Oh, crud; can't find the part of Richard Walter's book I keep thinking of; of course, even if I could/did, the post would prolly be deleted for violation of copyright laws...
Anyway; it basically said, something to the effect of,: successful movies aren't just a bunch of random pieces of events, and even when you tie them together with a theme or series of, the audience should be able to find a sense of purpose in watching x movie. They should not walk out of the theater feeling as they've wasted their time on "mere entertainment".
Well, perhaps my definition(s) of meaning are a bit extreme; I just got done watching BOY A and found it pointless. Maybe I'm just too out of it, I think A CLOCKWORK ORANGE was brilliant and beyond so many times. It took a handful of concepts and painted a picture with them. PERFECT. the only film I can think of that came close to that level of art is ERASERHEAD. STAR WARS episodes IV, V and VI, along with GHOSTBUSTERS I & II & Gregg Araki's nowhere don't have the same sense of "meaning", but they do one heck of a job at painting pictures with the camera.
I think music should have the same goal. The music industry is hungry for anybody with any melodic sense, b/c they know they can snipe a pretty penny out of the demographic that has no melodic sense and no understanding of it. That and people who have no taste.
My online penpal, Chris, listens to a lot of music. He tends to like loud abrasive music. I don't know why. And one feller I was having a similar discussion with on one of Amazon's forums suggested that entire genres should NOT be eliminated for their lack of purpose. What purpose? Atmosphere over melody. Maybe I'm just too thick-hearted (ya know, like a person's head can be "thick"?); I Just don't think music that treats melody second should be distributed. I mean, if people don't want to indulge in their feelings, then they might as well be dead and buried (or cremated, whatever...). I mean, everybody HAS feelings; they don't go away just b/c you disregard them. They manifest in different ways, sometimes unbeknownst to the individual(s) experiencing such things, sometimes in very dangerous ways. So what better way to confront them than get them opened up with music?
Music/movies/art are being abused like everything else in this consumerist "gimme gimme" society. You want sex? TAKE IT; you want beer?; TAKE IT, take all you want, you want food? TAKE IT; you want a thinner body? GO AHEAD: TAKE IT!!! You want your cake AND eat it? BUY ANOTHER CAKE!!!! then buy another liposuction treatment. OH, and don't worry about that fetus that appeared out of nowhere "only" b/c "real men don't wear condoms"; your parents can take care of it. After all, they work hard to support your lazy juvinile delinquient A**.
My friend Chris once said: "that's the great thing about music. there's always more!". So...does that mean there's really no such thing as mediocre/crappy music? I seriously would like to know WHY anyone, with the limited amount of time the avg person has to live on this overall cruddy planet, that a person WOULD HAVE ANY DESIRE to settle for lesser quality ANY thing. But then again I seriously would like to know why people act like a car does NOT have the ability to smash into your head with the speed and precision of a bullet...the way people drive, zooming through parking lots, loaded with booze, not paying attention...
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