This week, Pieces has been mostly pondering…
In most walks of life, and most businesses or areas of interest, there is an interplay between different kinds of people that makes things happen and creates the little moments of inspiration and the small differences that make life worthwhile. A lot of these relationships are very difficult to summarise, and really it’s pointless to try and reduce the oddities of human behaviour to a cute analogy. But I’m going to anyway, because for years I’ve had swirling around my head the idea that actually the music industry, and probably a lot of other industries, creative and otherwise, operate in a very similar way to the national grid.
I’m not necessarily talking here about the actual production of music itself, like the manufacture of CDs or the marketing of new MP3s and everything else that goes into pushing product to make people money. I mean the process of creating ideas, because that’s really what keeps the music industry, and so many others, going, and actually allows people to make a living. Without a supply of inspiration of some kind, whether that’s an album by a band that plays in a completely new way or a ‘loving tribute’ to music that was fashionable 20 years ago but played by someone who wears a slightly shinier hat (thanks, Lady GaGa), there’s no reason for people to get excited and no reason for them to think of music as something that can make a contribution to their lives.
So, to the point – it seems to me that there are three main channels for this inspiration, and they can be roughly attributed to sections of the system that gets electricity to us. At the very beginning, we have the individuals or groups that produce ideas that have never been thought of before – they are the Power Stations. The substance that they produce is often raw and unrefined, and can’t really be used until it has been channelled through a mechanism to make it more easily consumable.
This is where the next group come in – the Transformers. In your home, these are the little boxes that change the high voltage current coming from the plug in the wall to something your toaster can use. In music, these are the people who make popular music that draws on the innovations of others but turn them into something accessible and memorable.
Once the current is transformed into something easily digestible, it gets plugged into the last group – Appliances. These are the toasters, the TVs, the hair straighteners, that everyone uses almost without thinking. They use the power created by the Power Stations and channelled through the Transformers, and give it a shiny face.
The next step is to think about which musicians fit into which categories. When you start to think about it, most of the most famous artists of the last 50 years are Transformers – they are people who have taken on the best ideas from what has come before and assimilated them into very successful songs and albums. Take a look at the ‘List of best-selling music artists’ on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists). Elvis Presley, the guy who gave a white face to Rock ‘n’ Roll and got away with stealing the best black music for 20 years. Madonna, who changes her face and her sound every 3 years to fit in with whatever’s playing at whatever clubs will still let her in. Even The Beatles, who no-one would ever claim didn’t experiment and influence countless other musicians, ripped off more than their fair share of Chuck Berry riffs and Buddy Holly whoops (Little Richard still claims today that he taught Paul McCartney everything he knows). AC/DC? Well, that’s the very definition of a Transformer…
It’s actually pretty difficult to think of artists who fit the Power Station category, because so many come up with their inspiration by taking the best bits of what’s come before and chanelling them in a new way. But there would be no music without the innovators, like the Throbbing Gristles, the Jelly Roll Mortons. Once again, we have band whose name fits its category perfectly: Kraftwerk.
As for Appliances, well, they should be pretty easy to identify for anyone who’s grown up in the western world in the last 50 years. From Alvin and the Chipmunks to The Monkees to Leona Lewis, they’re the people (or characters, a lot of the time) who play music either designed to sell or to tap into whatever trend is hottest.
This is all very tenuous, but at the very least it’s a fun little game to play for 5 minutes – who fits where? And really, isn’t that what music’s all about? Fun little games? No.
This week’s Piecesounds includes more lovingly selected gems from the vaults of Spotify, which if you haven’t signed up for yet you really should. Honestly, it’s the best thing you can do with your computer. Better than Excel. As ever, click the link below to listen to the whole delicious lot.
1. The Dixie Cups – Iko Iko
2. Jurassic 5 – Quality Control
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Man
4. Bootsy Collins – Psychoticbumpschool
5. Cliff Richard – Wired For Sound
6. Yo La Tengo – Sugarcube
7. Fairuz – Ana Indi Haneen
8. Love – Seven & Seven Is
9. Panteón Rococó – La carencia
10. Billie Holiday – God Bless The Child
11. Dead Can Dance – In The Kingdom Of Blind The One-Eyed Are Kings
12. Fats Domino – Walking To New Orleans
13. The Notwist – One Step Inside Doesn’t Mean You Understand
14. TV On The Radio – A Method
15. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Breathless
16. Sheb Wooley – The Purple People Eater
http://open.spotify.com/user/blownawish/playlist/5LwGKNmVpgRpPhKGT0GXbS
Enjoy. More next week.
Pieces x
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