We Are What We Listen To
Published in Juventud Rebelde
(Cuba) on 27 July 2020
by Gulle Vilar (link to original)
Rarely have we been witness to such a commotion against the recognition of a musician like the Composer of the Year award given the Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny for Latin music in a U.S. competition.
There is so much commotion that our first impression, the kind we have when we are so upset that our objectivity is clouded because of the theme in question, is that many were given to understand that the prize was awarded to the best composer of 2020. But truth be told, this was not the case. It was a decision by the leadership of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers to promote the number of records that this music has sold, nothing more.
The results are contradictory and reflect the purest expression of the vagaries of the market, typical of the case with the ASCAP prizes, in that the requirements of the competition have nothing to do with appraisals of the winner’s artistic range.
Even though Bad Bunny appears to have many followers, we prefer to pay attention to those who have felt offended by such news. And it is not necessarily a question of dwelling on the mediocracy inherent in his poor creative imagination, not only in musical conception but also in the low quality of the lyrics. Nor is it a matter of our blushing over the themes of his songs, because nothing human is out of bounds, just as we enjoy reading the Kama Sutra. But it’s one thing to sing the poetry of eroticism, and another thing to generate musical pornography by recording songs with explicitly vulgar language that infringes on the ethics of those of us who abhor publicly exalting it.
Nor is it superficial criticism of the use of certain salty words, but criticism of the fact it is a serious indication that alienating social patterns of conduct are being promoted. The development of any society functions coherently when one preserves an invisible line of respectability that affords balance to collective coexistence.
However, for some time now, in the so-called entertainment industry in the United States, there are those who try to clone what we would consider violent individual attitudes from any perspective, in video games as well as in movies, and, of course, in music, not to mention in so many other aspects of our lives where we now see this tendency. The aggressiveness that Bad Bunny’s music promotes is another attempt by so many to dismantle the ethics and morals of Western civilization, to conform to a modus vivendi in which anything goes.
By the same token, one can become popular with songs that denigrate women while others are trying to encourage us to ignore the urgent necessity to reverse climate change, or not to worry about the fact that millions of human beings in the world continue to live in extreme poverty.
To support such a context is to approve of the presence of a savage capitalism in which such indolence, egotism and cruelty will naturally lead to another end, the end of life on the planet.
Therefore, we have every right to be indignant over this award by ASCAP to Bad Bunny, and it is not as simple as a complaint about different musical preferences.
By encouraging the composition of songs like Bad Bunny writes, one attacks the high spiritual values of art over the course of human history; it shows how people who get rich from it are motivated by limitless avarice. But we still have time. If you are one of those who likes to share the splendid delight that can only be stimulated by enjoying a good film, reading a good book or contemplating an excellent painting with your family and friends, you will find yourself disposed to enriching the facts of life. For example, if you like to listen to quality music, it doesn’t matter the genre, or when it was composed.
If you are conscious of the emotional connection you make when having an authentic musical experience which you can sense growing within you, then you can be sure that you are what you are hearing. But unfortunately, those who feel drawn to the message of Bad Bunny’s songs are what they are listening to.
There is so much commotion that our first impression, the kind we have when we are so upset that our objectivity is clouded because of the theme in question, is that many were given to understand that the prize was awarded to the best composer of 2020. But truth be told, this was not the case. It was a decision by the leadership of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers to promote the number of records that this music has sold, nothing more.
The results are contradictory and reflect the purest expression of the vagaries of the market, typical of the case with the ASCAP prizes, in that the requirements of the competition have nothing to do with appraisals of the winner’s artistic range.
Even though Bad Bunny appears to have many followers, we prefer to pay attention to those who have felt offended by such news. And it is not necessarily a question of dwelling on the mediocracy inherent in his poor creative imagination, not only in musical conception but also in the low quality of the lyrics. Nor is it a matter of our blushing over the themes of his songs, because nothing human is out of bounds, just as we enjoy reading the Kama Sutra. But it’s one thing to sing the poetry of eroticism, and another thing to generate musical pornography by recording songs with explicitly vulgar language that infringes on the ethics of those of us who abhor publicly exalting it.
Nor is it superficial criticism of the use of certain salty words, but criticism of the fact it is a serious indication that alienating social patterns of conduct are being promoted. The development of any society functions coherently when one preserves an invisible line of respectability that affords balance to collective coexistence.
However, for some time now, in the so-called entertainment industry in the United States, there are those who try to clone what we would consider violent individual attitudes from any perspective, in video games as well as in movies, and, of course, in music, not to mention in so many other aspects of our lives where we now see this tendency. The aggressiveness that Bad Bunny’s music promotes is another attempt by so many to dismantle the ethics and morals of Western civilization, to conform to a modus vivendi in which anything goes.
By the same token, one can become popular with songs that denigrate women while others are trying to encourage us to ignore the urgent necessity to reverse climate change, or not to worry about the fact that millions of human beings in the world continue to live in extreme poverty.
To support such a context is to approve of the presence of a savage capitalism in which such indolence, egotism and cruelty will naturally lead to another end, the end of life on the planet.
Therefore, we have every right to be indignant over this award by ASCAP to Bad Bunny, and it is not as simple as a complaint about different musical preferences.
By encouraging the composition of songs like Bad Bunny writes, one attacks the high spiritual values of art over the course of human history; it shows how people who get rich from it are motivated by limitless avarice. But we still have time. If you are one of those who likes to share the splendid delight that can only be stimulated by enjoying a good film, reading a good book or contemplating an excellent painting with your family and friends, you will find yourself disposed to enriching the facts of life. For example, if you like to listen to quality music, it doesn’t matter the genre, or when it was composed.
If you are conscious of the emotional connection you make when having an authentic musical experience which you can sense growing within you, then you can be sure that you are what you are hearing. But unfortunately, those who feel drawn to the message of Bad Bunny’s songs are what they are listening to.
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