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“Cool” Is Not Enough

 “If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker is widely and highly regarded as a major contributor to the science and art of management.  No one speaks of his knowledge of music.  However, I think his quote has a great deal to do with music.  If you listen only to the music broadcast outlets and recording companies push, you may rationally assume that all music is nothing more than that kind of commercial nail. 

Often, when people are asked why they like a piece of music, the responses are something like:  “It’s cool.”  Maybe it is cool.  But cool is not enough.  An educated person requires more than “cool” from their listening experiences.  Give good music the time it deserves and you’ll get back a lot more than just “cool”.

This lecture is about breaking free of the restrictions imposed by the musical hammer of commercial music.  It is about getting passed “cool”.  The goal is to set your intellect free to be your personal and informed guide to what is worthy of your listening time.

It May Be Hard, But It’s Worth It

An extract from Plato’s book The Republic accompanies these notes.  The passage is known as “The Allegory of the Cave” or sometimes just “Plato’s Cave.”  The story is meant to convey an understanding that knowledge worth having is difficult and sometimes painful to acquire.  Yet, once the knowledge is gained, a person sees the world and him or herself, differently.

So it is with music.  To understand it takes effort.  But the effort pays off in a deeper understanding of humanity and self.  The time spent preparing yourself to listen critically to music is always paid back in personal growth, enjoyment, expression and learning. 

It will be harder if you insist upon being literal about music.  The great American composer Aaron Copland wrote:

As a matter of fact, no one is more tiresome than the person who can understand

only realism in art.  It shows a rather low artistic mentality never to believe

anything you see unless it appears to be real.  One must be willing to allow that

symbolic things also mirror realities and sometimes provide greater esthetic

pleasure than the merely realistic.

It takes a lot of work to be more than “cool.”  Yet, everyone who has done the work reports that the intellectual investment is well worth the emotional and esthetic rewards it brings.  And besides, this work doesn’t prevent you from listening to and enjoying all that “cool” music too.  If you take the time to know the music, its composer and his context, you will reach two conclusions about music.  First, you will understand that good music cannot be as mindless as one of Ducker’s nails.  Second, and this is the important part of the lecture, you’ll never again be comfortable in Plato’s Cave.

On to Elements of Musical Criticism >>>>>>>>>