War and Peace Through Music

Finally I am starting to get it.  We exhausted our supply of hi jinx from our aging Hollywood celebrities.  With no generation left to fill its void, we have resorted to the exploitation and debasing of young pop music stars.  I could never really figure it out.  Justin Bieber is a talented musician.  He plays a variety of musical instruments well and he is an expressive singer.  I'm not so sure about Ms. Cyrus.  It could be she is riding on her daddy's coat tails. The generation of singers who were capable musical performers has disappeared.  Where is Shania Twain?  Where is Christina Aguilera?  Somebody has to write those songs.  I'm not sure why bad behavior and sexuality are required to qualify as entertainment.  It is because the original crew that fulfilled this demand have moved on.  Has number one Paris Hilton disappeared from the public eye or from the lens of the Paparazzi?  Was she deemed no longer interesting?  Was her history of incarcerations enough to curb her energetic outings?  Did she grow up.  Did her family threaten to  eliminate her trust fund?  Why did the ephemeral Mr. Downy disappear?  Where is Mr. Sheen and his entourage of highly paid Hollywood prostitutes?  It seems these high profile celebrities no longer possess the goods for great media gossip.  In their vacuous absence someone must take their places.  How would tabloid  television shows survive?  They have invented the most low brow reality styled shows which thrive on low level humiliation.  Why pay stars top dollar when we can get some poor Joe Schmows to do it for cheap?  Thus were born this horrible contingency of grass roots reality television shows.  We just don't have it anymore.  Glamor died in the 32A cup of a waif model's brassiere.   It has to be because glamor like music only can exist in a sophisticated and wise population.  First we must understand what sophistication and wisdom are.  We must acknowledge that drudging through our daily money-earning routines is not enough to qualify.  We as human beings must understand that we are capable of more advanced concepts.  We successfully can live in grace, serenity, and empathy rather than in fear, intimidation, and war.  There are those who want either.  Like military contractors there are those who desire war.  Their livelihood is derived from brutal murder in the name of national security.  Are there those who want the former, a state of peace and security? I would like to suggest a metaphorical paradigm.  Early in my career I studied and performed jazz music.  Later in my career I studied and composed classical music.  It could be considered jazz music is war, and classical music is peace.  Jazz music is visceral, active, and directly related to the social condition of the human being.  It is integral to our history.  When one engages in jazz they are enveloped in their own personal identity and its expression.  Jazz is a tenant of Romanticism.  Romanticism only is one stylistic period in the evolution of European chamber and orchestral music.  Preceding it were Medieval music, Renaissance music, Baroque music, and Classical music.  (The term classical erroneously has become known to describe all of these style periods.)  In American jazz also there are style periods.  Ragtime, Swing, Bebop, Funky Bop, Modal, and Fusion represent these.  What I am suggesting is, because under the umbrella of each art form, European-based chamber and orchestral music and American jazz there are individual and specific styles, possibly jazz music can represent war and classical music can represent peace.  War is raged in the trenches hashing out the brutalities of combat.  Peace is actualized in both serenity and sanctuary.  The expression in classical music has sustained the test of time, because the feelings it actualizes are sophisticated.  They are not war-like.  Instead they encompass less physical, less visceral, and less contentious expression.  The emotions often are as intense, but they are realized possibly in a more hypothetical manner.  It could be said the expression, although candid and accurate, is not visceral.  In its glory it could be considered patronizing.  This platform is not a personal and extemporaneous vehicle.  That vehicle became jazz music and it contemporaries, rock, punk, soul, and R&B.  Adolph Hitler acutely was aware of the power of jazz, and forbade its performance.  Both classical music and jazz embody far-reaching human philosophies.  Because American jazz has seen a steady decline during the war years of the twenty first century, it is possible America is and should be waiting for a more sophisticated, consoling, and wise art music that attempts to lead a society out of war rather than into it.  To me also it is interesting that the mostly American sport of skateboarding shares  tendencies.  History has proven it has failed to proliferate during war torn years.  It would be difficult to justify such a "fluffy" past time when soldiers are sacrificing their lives for their country.  That irony does not in any way lessen the artistic merit of skating.  While like music different style periods have emerged through the years, skating originated from the sport of surfing.  It is well known that surfers are spiritual beings simply who are attempting to bond with mother nature.  The sea is a metaphor for God, and surfers are trying their best with their skill to both partake and be respectful to God's offerings.  Likewise the presence of God should be discerned in jazz and classical music.  Classical music from its inception has incorporated religious practices.  Jazz has not.  Jazz is about the human condition.  Possibly the reason why jazz currently is not thriving is because a larger issue is at play.  We in America unnecessarily are having to fight to maintain our Judeo-Christian ancestry.   The social condition of man necessarily takes a back seat to the dispute of the existence of the Creator.  We subliminally are engaged in a spiritual war, although jihadis are fighting this war in the wrong theater, on the jazz platform.  We cannot be sure they are aware their intentions are about the human condition, not about God.  Jazz is not working today, because metaphorically it is being misrepresented by acts of psychotic terrorism.  Without spiritual foundation nothing can survive.