The Changing Face of Our Country

Dude, Where's My Country? I have not had the opportunity to read this book, nor many lately. There, in the last months, have been many books written and promoted on television shows. Charlie Rose, Larry King, Tavis Smiley, and others do well at promoting books, many about changes in America. Why has there been no attention paid to American music? Jazz is the only truly American art form, so the academics say. I grew up trying to play jazz on the piano with no formal training. Something about the music appealed to me having taken classical-oriented piano lessons for each of my years in public school. Twelve years of piano lessons gives you a firm foundation of technique, the physical process of playing the piano. It also exposes you to a vocabulary, one of the most highly evolved vocabularies in the history of man. The sciences, medicine. and law all have vast vocabularies, but the written art of music claims the most evolved notation systems ever invented. Non such exists for the art of dance or painting. Miraculously you can efficiently notate an aesthetic that translates into the most pure expression of human feeling, music. Russia and Germany both thought at one time music was an enemy because it could subvert the philosophy of the governing body. There emerged a school of Russian composers, the Russian Five, that did not embrace Nationalism as the purpose for their music. Whereas Tchaikovsky emerged as the imminent voice of Russian Nationalism, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Boradin, Balakarev, and Cui all rebelled against a common current of national expression. Likewise Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Rachmaninoff all did as they pleased in terms of musical expression. Stravinsky spent time in France absorbing elements of Debussy and Ravel, while Rachmaninoff defined a type of expression that I feel bridges the gap between Western-bred orchestra music and early American film music. While Korngold is probably the most well known of the school European orchestral composers, the sentiment in Rachmaninoff music is very similar to the Golden Days of Hollywood. A historical perspective aside, the power of music is immense. The history of the United States is steeped in popular music, more so than the essence of jazz. Jazz is more important though because it brought into music expression probably the most defining element in the history of the United States, slavery. Although slavery was not just isolated to the United States, that experience over years of oppression and human suffering, created a soul that was inescapable. Not to say the soul of American Appalachia, clearly heard in the Bluegrass roots of Dolly Parton, are not equally as strong. It has always been interesting to me American Bluegrass and Indian Raga music both swing like jazz music. Swing could be defined as the rhythmic feel that jazz music is based upon. While many argue American Rock 'n' Roll was a reaction to the swing years of the war era, most successful Rock 'n' Roll artists actually absorbed elements of swing feel and combined it with the emerging R&B. Elvis, Michael Jackson, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones all swing. There is an ebullient, energetic, positive feel in their music that transcended time and made them stars of popular music. Who would know the very element that defines our American art form was the tool pop music used to make millions and influence the country on a grand scale? That in itself proves the power of music. Although Arnold Schoenberg stated music alone could not elicit a human emotion, it can come extremely close. Maybe without a receptor on the other end to realize the composer's feeling, the music would not become art. Could art exist in a vacuum? Could an unknown composer with a valid, personal, but private history create an artistic output without the feedback of the public? The answer is yes. In fact that seems to be the way our America is headed, away from a plural and common society where America's population functions as a whole, a society that has a common goal. Youngsters type away on PC's, iPods plugged into their ears, viewing images singularly for their own gratification. You see computing is a personal activity. You control your own fate, with the small exceptions of the computer virus or pop-up window. You download your own music and personally interact with state-of-the-art interactive video games, in my view undermining the previous social process of the American citizen. Baseball, disco's, Putt Putt golf. These were the past times of American youth not more than a decade ago. We, as a people, have changed dramatically and quickly just like our country as a result of one incident. It, in the scope of history, will probably be recognized as THE most significant event of our history, that is if we manage to avoid Armageddon. Fifty percent of polled Americans believe this event will occur in the next fifty years, a view that is having marked consequences on our lives in the United States. Do we really as a people want to wake up everyday with the future of our entire world hanging in the balance? I think the answer is no. Is there a One World Order that is utilizing a scare campaign? If so for what reason? Why would they want the people on earth to be afraid in their daily lives. It is difficult to put the extraneous concepts of the second coming of Jesus Christ (the end of the world) with greed. If the world will no longer exist and all men will be judged for heaven or hell, what good will money do? Also if we as a world have carelessly abandoned responsibility for the health and maintenance of our planet, what good will money do? When the polar ice caps melt and flood our countries, when the hole in the Ozone expands allowing harmful electromagnetic waves literally to fry our bodies, and when our supply of oxygen runs out because we cut down all the earths trees and foliage, what good will money be to anyone? These are complex questions, so it stands to reason many of the things Americans used to do in our culture don't stand up anymore. They seem irrelevant and shallow. Finding a common ground is something we need to do. It is fortunate our lives have escaped the brutality evidenced in many early cultures including Christianity. We haven't experienced anything again like the Bubonic Plague, but someone is trying to scare us into believing Bird Flu will be it. Who would benefit from such a prediction? Although we would have the confidence our modern day medical establishment could handle the crisis, there is no indication from the example of FEMA's response to hurricane Katrina they will. Anderson Cooper did visit the facility meant to deal with bird flu is it does become a problem, so someone is being conscientious. It is sad our federal government allocated a billion dollars to drug companies that are reaping record profits like Big Oil. What is going on in our country, and do we as a people like and agree with it? If not it is time to get out from behind the television and support and vote for a candidate that shows potential to lead our country in the direction we see fit. It is the only way this country will ever improve, and survive.