JM blogger stick grows...
Everyone in the j-blogosphere is getting on the Jewish music topic lately. Jewsweek's feature story last week was a virtual love letter to the Hayyim Danziger of the John Mayer-esque Blue Fringe Band, and not undeservedly so. Jewschool got into the act taking a swipe at Jewish music as whole with some intersting points. As always, Velvel, MOChassid and BloginDminor have intersting things to say, specifically about Jewish rock and the newly dubbed "Shiny Shoe Music."
Now The folks at House of Hock say their piece. And I respond:
Hock is correct that there are many forms of Jewish music, but by and large, the goal of Jewish music, regardless of whether its rock, rap, klez, downtown avant-jazz, carlebach, taubman-esque reform stuff, sephardic or shiny shoe music, is to somehow elevate the soul or spirit in a quintessentially Jewish fashion. Use of Hebrew texts, neo-phrygian modalities, ancient melodies, and other techniques are all acceptable methodoligies of reaching das pintele yid, the Jewish essence in everyone. The musical forms themselves are myriad, because as people we have personal tastes and we have lived in a Diaspora for about 2000 years.
Its clear that some communities have standards against some forms or biases towards others. That such music, any such music, can be a positive an powerful means of reinforcing identity is undeniable.
Where my fellow JM blogges and I also tend to agree is that just like secular music, while all of these genres (however loosely defined) have their winners, there is always more garbage than gold. Some of these genres are more successful in genuinely energizing their audiences, while some succeed only through what can best be described as questionable promotional media/artist inbreeding. It runs rampant in Shiny shoe Music, the overproduced shlock whose albums are churned out of Borough Park studios, the covers of which feature non-descript backgrounds, some Hebrew text and perhaps a picture of a black -italian suit and shiny shoe clad, black velvet kippahed performer.
I can't get into details here, but BloginDM and Velvel do in depth. This would never pass in the secular world. The hyperbolic nature of the copy used to sell their albums and concert tickets seems irresponsible, unethical and uneccessary, cheapening the product. That said, in most cases of this same genre, that product is already cheap. Most artists are indistinguishable from one another, as is their music.
But the real issue that we have with this particular type of music is that it has no soul. It fails to meet its own standard of wanting to elevate the lyrics, often sacred text. Instead, it lowers the text, and its listeners as well, because of the questionable advertising techniques and blatant use of the text for purely commercial purposes. That seems to be the heart of the issue with Shiny Shoe Music on which we comment so frequntly.
Other genres are more simply summed up: Carlebach: done wrong too often and too long but done well to infrequently by too few. Klezmer: overdone by too many doing it well enough to make the glut of klez bands a bit boring. Rock: No comment. I like to rock.
Hcok thinks Jewish Music is only the soundtrack to the movie, but soundtracks are big business. People love soundtracks. How many people bought the Titanic soundtrack, or Dirty Dancing, or those any of the summer blockbuster films. Music is a big part of any culture, and it should be an important part of Jewish culture as well. Not everyone runs out and buys the movie soundtrack, but fairly frequently, people walk out of the cinema humming that song from the credits. If we could do the same with Jewish music, think of the impact...