feeling listless

Music A passionate discussion broke out in my World Music class last night. It began when Simone, the tutor explained how she had got an archive recording from her collection and played it in comparison with a track from a new cd which was supposed to be identical and it sound ever so slightly, subtly different. There were a few shocked faces in the class. She advised that we had to be care when by World Music because we might not be getting the original music, but a version which has been altered to fit the musical tastes of the west.

I stepped up and brought forward an old argument I've had with a friend, Richard, who for while was a classical music nut. He was grousing about classical music compilations and how they ruined the intent of the original composer. My point of view about that and the World Music was that it doesn't matter if the music was changed to fit a market because it meant that a new audience is being gathered anyway and you're introducing a beginner to something new. That it was OK for someone to pick up a CD of Ladysmith Black Mambaso which has been released to coincide with some baked beans commercials and football tournement becuase there is the slightest chance they might go and seek out other African sounds. And even if they don't, from a business point of view it's feeding the record companies so that they can support the less accessable stuff.

I was shouted down. A lot. The concensous seemed to be that if you change the sound, you are eroding the intent and in the end ruining that thing which made the music unique in the first place.

As always, of course, I see it both ways ...