Production and concept are seeming to creep back into TV. All that is left to bring television back to its former state of artistry is to resurrect LIVE MUSIC. All of the great TV shows from the past had “live” music. The computer has replaced live music. A simple computer single-handedly wiped out multiple sound stages on prominent television and motion picture studios. It also wiped out lots of jobs for working musicians. As the needs became less, so did the demand for a high quality of live performing instrumentalist. MIDI came in in a wave and wiped out the recording orchestra. At first MIDI soundtracks were primitive. It takes a connoisseur to develop and store an arsenal of expressive, musical, listenable sounds. This was the thing that drove the professional keyboard market during the l980’s. Advertisements like “For sounds that move the soul, use Kurzweil.” Moving air is more the concern. If you don’t move air with big sounds, you can’t stir the human soul. If you don’t understand rhythm, a crucial element in the fundamental definition of music, then you won’t move the soul either. Pop music does not move the soul. It does not have the sonic product to be able to accomplish this. Moving the soul requires passion and emotional energy. When a real artist sings, whether it be “Old School” or not, they should have a sostinuto sound. That means a sound produced by the controlling of air by the diaphragm. Vowel sounds are key to producing a rich resonating sound. Pop singing is the antithesis. It on the other hand abandons rhythmic feel and substitutes a steady stream of 8th notes generated by the words in a sentence. (Is that really how fine melodies are crafted?) There is no real phrasing in the melodic line. The “line” is merely a continuum of words spoken to the rhythm of the sentence. In certain ways this is similar to a device Arnold Schoenberg pioneered in the 2nd Viennese School. While pop singing is much easier than the traditional method of opera singing, it has shortcomings. Pop music will never “move” anyone, because the musical components are not in place to do so. One cannot move a listener when they are singing in an arena with a limited pallet. This somehow by consensus has become the default style of modern commercial music. My guess is because it is easy to produce. There are no styles to learn. No cultures to study. No history to understand. It is by definition devoid of all of this. It is after all “pop.” Candy. Bubble gum. Pop corn. Not meant to do anything other than paint a coating of sugar on our otherwise realistic world. That means if there was a consensus in deciding pop music would be the new genre in vogue for America, it is merely propaganda. If anyone took the time to read a newspaper or read the webpage of the BBC or Reuters, they would realize the feeing in pop music has nothing to do with the current state of reality in the world. Used as pure escapism? Well I struggled through that once. Not again. I prefer reality. I prefer my pain in full dosage altered by only my own perception and brain. I don’t want to be numbed, dulled to reality. When you are numb, it is easy to be @#$%^ed up the arse. Sneakin’ in and having their way with you. I would rather be wary. I would rather be aggressive. I would like to think life is a challenge, a struggle for existence. When you have too much someone will always come and take it away.