We look at artists like Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorias; people who changed the way we look at music by combining styles of music in their own unique ways and called it music. They changed the way we looked at music by finding another way to push the music world to a new place that it has never been to before. This idea of mixing styles together created endless ways for new music to be made and appreciated.
In today’s music world, fusion is still very popular, even if you don’t realize it. With artists like Daft Punk, Trombone Shorty, Santana, Beck, Mumford and Sons, and many more who are modernizing and still changing the way we listen to music. Since music seems to be finding the next strangest thing we can do to it, we should put more focus on fusion because I believe it is the key to the future of music.
I don't think fusion has ever been unpopular. I don't think it's a new concept now or a dying one. Gershwin was "fusion"- he combined the worlds of jazz and classical music. Debussy was inspired by Eastern pentatonic harmonies and images. Popular songs have borrowed tunes from classical melodies... and so on. I personally think that if a person feels equally at home with two traditionally unassociated genres and combining them, they should by all means pursue that. On the other hand, if someone is inclined to stick within one musical tradition, that is equally as viable. True, the classical-training mentality typically screams "CLASSICAL, AND CLASSICAL ONLY!" but I don't think there should be more of a focus on fusion-- maybe just more openness to it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily, mixing and integrating music into different forms of music seems to come naturally at times in the evolution of music. The future of music relies on constantly reaching out and thoughtfully combining the best of both worlds (how would I ever sat through episode of episode of Hannah Montana without the integration of rock into country music?). I do, however, believe in the context of top 40 songs and "whatsz hip on the charts", there's an almost mechanical component to the epidemic of club beats and uninspired chords. This formulaic appeal to our senses is a risky one that undermines the need to be more open minded to all forms of music, whether that's listening to a funky alternative song, or a more contemporary atonal piece of classical music.
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