Music and my Parkinson's Journey

One of the most difficult things to learn when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's was the non-motor symptoms that it can cause, and was causing.  One of these is depression.  Although I was checked for depression and did not meet the medical criteria based on a list of questions from my doctor, Parkinson's greatly affected my mood.  It caused a blah gray mood that affected my ability to enjoy music.  For me, this was a horrible realization since I love music and it has always been part of my life and identity.  Thank goodness that my medication has improved this situation.

About a week after being diagnosed and starting meds, I noticed things starting to change.  The most difficult to understand was how music sounded.  The blah sound that I was used to hearing started melting away, being replaced by the beautiful music that I remembered from my younger days.  I listened to Haydn's string quartet in G major OPUS #76.  All the way through.  The second movement moved me to tears.  This is still one of my favorite pieces of music.  I had not truly enjoyed listening to it in years.  It was like a long lost friend returning after years of being away, having left abruptly with no explanation.

I had known that music had sounded blah to me for quite a while and I had been searching for a solution.  I had been challenging younger people to find out what they were listening to.  I was disappointed that I could not find something new and fresh to reinvigorate my love of music.  My re found ability to enjoy music now that my PD is being treated has put the desire back in me to find new music.  So, most of the rest of this blog was written about 6 years ago to some younger coworkers after a lunchroom discussion.  I have updated it a bit.  Please Millenials, do not take offense.  Consider this a sincere plea from a man who loves music.........

“The current young generation will be the first in 150 years of United States History to not contribute a new musical genre to the popular culture landscape of America.”

Let’s define the current young generation versus “my generation”.  My generation - Generation X - is typically defined as people born in the 1960s and 1970s, sometimes being defined to end in the early 1980s, (Wikipedia).  I was born in 1970 – right in the heart of generation X.  If you are currently mid 30s or under you are part of the “young generation”, “generation Y”, “millennials”, etc..

My music background – I played trumpet through high school and my freshman year of college.  I have played it on and off since.  I sang one year in high school pop choir and have sang bass in my church choirs since 1998.  I have a pretty good ear for music.  I know what a key signature is and understand the basics of rhythm.  I do not claim to be an expert on music composition; I have never played piano or guitar.  Although I learned chords years ago when first picking up the trumpet, I have long since forgotten them other than the most commonly used ones.  I would classify me as a bit better than average on music knowledge and music experience.  I also have a wide range of musical taste.  I listen most often to Jazz and Classical, although I have pop, rock, country, dance, electonica, religious and almost everything in between on my cloud account, about 600 CDs (yes actually purchased and burned CDs) worth – 40 gigs or so.  In short, I love music.

Next let’s discuss what a genre is.  A genre is defined by Merriam Webster as “a category of artistic, musical or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form or content.”  By Genre I am talking broadly – not sub genres or progression within a genre.  I am talking about a standalone new group of music that defines itself as a new category.  Taking a genre in a different direction with new chord progressions, although admirable artistically and musically, does not meet my classification as creating a new genre.

Next, we need to look at history.  Americans started making uniquely American music in the middle of the 1800s.  The first settlers held onto their European roots and listened to the romantic genres popular in Europe as they were leaving and settling in the new world.  The first new uniquely American genres were early folk and ragtime.  These have influenced the music that we listen to today.  Americans have continued to progress by creating new genres that are influenced by previous ones, but stand on their own as a new category.  This progression has come to a screeching halt with the current young generation.

See this Wikipedia diagram of Musical genres….

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Genealogy_cuban_music.png

Although this is intended to show Cuban music, it includes the United States and its major genres.  I selected it for its relative simplicity.  Notice that there is nothing beyond the 1990s.  Admittedly it is difficult to classify music.  I am not sure that Swing really is deserving of its own genre in the early 1990s.  That was all the rage for a while, along with the accompanying swing dancing.  It was incredibly short lived.  I may also point out that one of the popular groups during that time was the Brian Setzer Orchestra.  Brian was lead singer and songwriter for the Stray Cats – a group that was popular in the early 1980’s.  He was doing swing long before it became popular in the early 1990s.  I am not sure that this is real relevant to the discussion though since the early 1990s are still within the generation X influence of music creation.  Also absent, that I believe is more important than swing during this period is the Grunge genre, although this is much more of a sub genre of rock and roll, and a direct move away from the showy hair metal of the late 1980s. 

For the purposes of this post, I am going to claim that the 1980s/1990s - generation X - created 2 new genres, Rap/Hip Hop and Electronic music.  The previous Wikipedia chart shows the rap / hip hop genre created by my generation.  I am going to include those in one broad genre since they are so closely related.  The other electronic music genre is not shown in the chart probably mainly because it has not influenced Cuban Music, the purpose of the chart.  There are many other time lines and charts online, some much more involved although all of them tend to show my main point. Everything the current generation is listening to and experimenting with has its roots in the 1980s or earlier.  Whether Alternative, Punk, SKA, or whatever else you may call it, I will quote Billy Joel - “Hot funk, cool punk, even if its old junk it’s still rock n roll to me.”

Now, let’s discuss what this statement does not mean.  It in no way means that I believe the current young generation does not have musical talent.  There are talented young musicians.   I admit that my ability and desire to follow music has waned incredibly in the last 12 years or so, coinciding directly with the age of my oldest daughter.  But turning on the radio I can appreciate talented musicians when I hear them, and there are many.  It also does not mean that there has not been any progression within the rock and roll genre.  If I expanded the discussion to that, then I could also bring up many other sub genres that were created by generation x.

When having this discussion with a gen y’er a few years ago, he suggested that I listen to radiohead’s King of limbs, and even shared the CD with me.  The radiohead sound was quite impressive and different.  The difficulty of playing the drums on the first track “Bloom” was evident – and definitely different.  But, difficult and different does not support an entirely new Genre. Also, my statement limits the new generation to the US – radiohead is an English group, and according to Wikipedia was formed in 1985.  Also its first album was released in 1992.  Once again, starting right in the heart of generation X’s influential time period.  To claim them as a band of the young generation would be like generation X claiming the Beatles.  Also, the UK and the United states are closely linked when it comes to their current popular music, so I will yield and open up the discussion to the UK if you think that can support any rebuttal.

Another point of my statement is that the new Genre has to influence the cultural landscape of The United States.  Rap and Hip Hop have had a huge effect on the current culture.  Electronica/Dance has also shown up in popular culture and had its affect.  Time is running out for the millennial generation to come up with music that will influence popular culture.  If they have created anything that constitutes a new Genre, it has to show up in popular culture.  It has not.

Now, let’s discuss the 1980’s.  I did not intend to argue that the 1980’s was without fault.  This is also not a discussion about which generation has produced more “good” music or has the most talented musicians.  Some of the groups that were popular in the heart of the hair metal (sub genre of rock and roll) period had far more hair spray than actual music talent.  You don’t need to search too long for a few that come to mind.  The purpose of the original comment was to place a distinction between the approach to “new music” creation in the 1980s and the current young generation.  The current young generation is still playing around with genres created by previous generations.  They have not created anything new that is a standalone new musical context.  My grandfather’s generation created Big Band and modern jazz.  My father’s generation created Rock and Roll.  My generation created Rap / Hip hop and electronica.  The current young generation – ?  Maybe you can fill in the blank.  Maybe you don’t care even if you can’t.  Maybe it does not bother you.  Maybe it should.

Now, I will share possible explanations why I believe that the current generation may not have created a new genre.  

First, a lot of new music is driven by new instruments being invented.  There have not been many new instruments invented recently that I am aware of.  My father’s generation was given the electric guitar.  My generation was given the electronic sounds to experiment with.  Rap started with inner city youth having access to nothing more than some old records and a turn table.  Interesting that as you listen to records repeatedly, the sound quality degrades.  The first portion of the sound to be lost is the lyrics and rhythm and lead guitars. The last to be lost is the bass guitar and drums.  This is due to the needle carving a deeper groove in the record and wearing away the sound information on it.  Take a bass guitar line with a drum beat, start adding in the missing pieces by talking about the world around you and out comes a new genre that has had a profound influence on music.  It is interesting to note that I think the Rap genre has been embraced more by the young generation than by us older gen Xers who invented it.

Second, I think the entire society has become more connected electronically (social media, smart phones, etc...) and far less connected on a personal or emotional level.  I remember very clearly cruising main street of my hometown after school in my friend’s minivan with several other friends listening to Def Leppard’s Hysteria album – on cassette.  People relating to each other through music has to be part of the creative process.  This was the way we interacted, personally, face to face, no cell phones, no texting, no facebook updates, just hanging out, oftentimes with music.  I don’t see this happening with the younger generation.

Third and lastly, the way music is distributed has changed drastically.  The current generation does not need to wait for what Epic or Atlantic decides to distribute on a CD or cassette.  They can access music, licensed or unlicensed from their favorite groups.  This, I believe may be having the greatest impact.  I actually think that there are far more new potential “genres” out there that have not been realized because it is much more difficult for the music industry to capture and distribute it, and much more difficult for the average teen or twenty something (or me) to find it.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  It may lend the young generation to far greater artistic flexibility and inspiration than any previous generations.  Too bad that it hasn’t seemed to work that way.

My motivations in writing this are 3-fold.

First - Musical ignorance of the young generation - One thing that irritates me is young people saying things like “I hate that crappy 80s music, I listen to rap.”  Or, hearing young people speak disparagingly about 80s music walking out of Abercrombie and Fitch, while a hip-hop cover version of a Madonna song blares in the background.  Both of these cases I have witnessed firsthand, and show an incredible amount of musical ignorance.  If I am able to correct a bit of this my time to write this will have been worth it.

Second - US prosperity - The United States has remained at the top of the list of world powers because of its economic prosperity and strength.  Even throughout the decades when our schools suck, we still generally remain productive and strong.  I believe this to be due to our ingenuity and ideas. I believe that our creativity is our strongest skill and greatest export.  If we can't be creative in our music, a topic that is by its very nature a creative endeavor, we are doomed.  As the Millenial generation ages and takes on a leadership role in society, if they are not creative and able to generate new ideas, I do not like our chances of maintaining our status as a world power.  At that point we would need to fall back and rely on our good public school education system - God help us.  Sorry - this portion was way too deep for a discussion about music.

Third - All this being said, my main motivation for this discussion is that I am getting tired of music.  There are times when I spend ½ hour looking for internet radio stations with something different – to no avail.  I think that there is a current void in music that needs to be filled.  I am ready for something new.  My generation has done their job, as have previous US generations for the last 150 years.  SO, now my challenge to you Millenials is this…

GIVE ME SOMETHING NEW TO WHICH I CAN LISTEN!