GYEO was amused to read very recently about the “research” conducted by an American student, in California to be a little more precise, who claims that there is a correlation between the intelligence of music fans and their preferred choice of music…
Hmmm…sounds like a load of shit to us!
To be fair to ‘Virgil Griffiths’ (wasn’t he on Thunderbirds!?) the “research” is a bit of fun and this guy is not trying to make claims that he is delivering some serious insight into IQ and BPM ratios.
In fact Virgil states outright that this isn’t too scientific and that his methodology is obviously sketchy…for starters it’s based on Facebook data. Everybody provides true and accurate data to Facebook, yeah right!
Basically this guy has looked at musical tastes published in Facebook and has referenced that with exam scores in college groups – there is no indication of volume, geography or demographical breakdown. Like we said a bit of fun and Virgil isn’t trying to take himself too seriously…however the Wall Street Journal thought it worth covering albeit in a blog post. Perhaps the writer in question had just had enough of financial scandal, corruption, greed and bad news for one day? It’s understandable.
We digress. So what were his findings I hear you ask?
Get this…if you score well on SAT tests you are more likely to enjoy a bit of Beethoven or Vivaldi with bands like Radiohead and The Counting Crows scoring very high too. And if you’re a dumb under achiever your more likely to be getting down to Lil Wayne or Beyonce.
That’s right folks RnB and new school rap is for dummies.
At first we thought that Virgil’s research was just for laughs but hey hang on a minute….he might be onto something!! We’ll digress some more…
Have you heard the lyrical content of this Amercian RnB/New Rap music…Public Enemy’s ‘Chuck D’ et al must be thinking what the hell happened to our music? Street music that had so much to say and provided genuine insight, education even, always with passion.
It got hi-jacked by money, money, money…you don’t believe me then check out one example - MTV and look at the programmes they’re pumping out to youths….its got fuck all to do with music these days…who gives a FUCK about P Diddy’s money! Who gives a FUCK about some rich kids in New York or London or wherever? Viacom do and various other corporate giants that actually “own music” these days - they must think that these messages are OK. Is that really what young people ‘into music’ want to consume? Could that be a reason more kids are spending time online rather than watching TV? Let’s hope so.
Whether it’s some lame rapper talking about his gold plated toilet seat or a Music Television channel pushing messages of consumerism on steroids - we think that popular music is diluted in many areas. Escapism or entertainment, whatever. GYEO just thinks more music and less pre-fabricated programmes about rich beautiful people would be better…there’s plenty of TV stations, magazines etc that cater for that type of shit. It just doesn’t seem to us to be that relevant to music. It’s just another opinion that we’re entitled to voice.
Getting back to the research, GYEO loves hip hop with artists like EPMD, Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy…the list is endless… making great music with intelligent lyrics. It’s NOT music for dummies despite Virgil’s comments and our fun-poking too. Yeah some old school rap had violent undertones but these guys just talked about real life around them…something that seems to have taken a nose dive in recent years. It’s now about the clothes you wear, the car you drive and the ‘crib’ or yacht you own apparently.
FACT: Poor housing, violence, crime and all that other stuff is till prevalent on the streets of most big cities.
I guess the ‘Industry’ just doesn’t feel it needs to be talked about any more. And artists that do are marginalised to some digital download site….and that’s a good thing. Create your own music, distribute your own music, market your own music, and listen to what you want to listen to – yeah there is a definite link between the FACT that more music than ever is being consumed and the Industry claiming falling revenue year on year.
MTV by its own strategy could end up with an audience of dummies consuming music that is “controlled” whilst elsewhere another thing is going on. I know MTV is investing heavily in a monster video portal but I thought we already had that…err You Tube? Recent winner of best website category at the NME Awards.
Thank God for the Internet because the music industry is changing fast and music of all genres can be accessed and enjoyed by all. We know our readers know that too. As Bob Dylan says “the times they are a changing”.
Rant over, deep breath…enjoy the weekend. Rave safely kids.
GYEO