Has anyone noticed how much increase in violent TV, Movies and everyday culture
has become? What one constantly occupies in the mind becomes the norm. I hear more sports on the radio, see more on TV, I am at a point that it becomes difficult to find any entertainment sans violence on some level.
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l listen to classical music and jazz and old rock'n'roll (Yeah that makes me a real square--music with structure.)
I refuse to go to horror movies or violent movies. I have no interest in sports. I'm not going to watch violent media because I don't want the trauma of nightmares.
The arts are being dismissed as frivolous or extra. A society that doesn't want to pay for art, music, visual and performing arts is a brutal society.
Several symphony orchestras have failed in the last few years. The New York City Opera closed down recently.
I can't relate to kids who spend all their time playing video games or texting on their cell phones.
I am trying to wrap my mind around the all-encompassing media propaganda--celebrity worship of people who have done nothing creative or interesting. Sucking us into worrying about sports teams, or fictional peoples' problems in soap operas and other TV shows. I'm sure Noam Chomsky has said a lot about it. I admire famous people who have actually done something creative or interesting. Example: My avatar, rock star and Ph.D. astrophysicist.
The P.R. and advertising industry was invented by Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays. He applied the subconscious desires and motivations his uncle discovered to use in advertising to make people buy stuff.
I took piano and violin lessons for many years, and was in school and community orchestras for many years. I was lucky enough to grow up in a major city and my family had season tickets to the symphony and opera for a while. I got to see great musicians of previous generations perform. I think they were truly putting out positive vibes, whether you think it's religious or not. I was always performing in orchestras because I loved playing the violin. I sang in a lot of church choirs, directed a few church choirs, and played the piano in a couple of Unitarian fellowships.
I've been told that I was "full of ego", or "Just trying to get attention" like putting out positive vibes through music. That was like a knife through my heart.
It seems to be a redneck complaint that "wanting to get attention" is bad. This also applies to "acting sick to get attention" without regard to the reality of illness.
I don't understand why people listen to hyper, thumpy rap or heavy metal or country or anything that has an angry, dissonant sound to it. To me it's very unsettling and I don't know how anybody could get any artistic value or meaning out of that kind of noise. To me scratching vinyl records is destructive, and using samples of other peoples' songs is not creative or composing. You better be able to put it down in a lead sheet with structure.
Suppose you get Guitar Player software. Why not get a guitar or piano, a book and a teacher, and learn to play a real instrument and get good at it??? People don't often learn to do things with their hands and brains in synchrony. Every generation thinks their kids' music is noise, but I think we finally got there.
This is why I don't have anybody to share my knowledge with that is young, or anything to talk to a lot of them about. Because I'm square. And I read real books. They or their parents are anti-intellectual. My boring bachelor's & doctorate degrees didn't get me any jobs, so I should have majored in what I wanted to. Art. It's not too late to start painting.
Believe me I could rant more but you get the idea. A very few people out there like classical or jazz, and few understand anything about opera. They put the words up in English now so you know what's happening. I can only stand Wagner in small doses, and the only opera I have seen that I really hated was Elektra by Richard Strauss. A bunch of crazy screaming Greek women.
