J. Bottums The Soundtracking
The article The Soundtrack written by J. Bottum is a very controversial piece of work. In the beginning of the article Bottum comes right out and says, "But the truth is that we are all terrorized by music nowadays" (page 56). Bottum believes that its not the loud music played by high school kids or college kids. Rather he believes that it is the "background" music. For instance the "merciless stream of 1960's golden oldies drenching suburban malls..." (page 56) and so on. Throughout this article, Bottum seems to carry out this same thought. In certain ways throughout this article, Bottum makes some very understandable believable points to support his argument. When Bottum talks about how society feels your emotions at a certain time should be like the music playing, I thinks he looks a little to far into the interpretation. Yes, I think that playing certain music is purposely played at certain situations to try to make someone feel a certain way. But in a way its just something to "break the silence" or have something to do in my eyes. Bottum is definitely right when
The saying "sex sells" is very common is music. Music today does have a purpose beyond entertainment. The end of the article brings out a very controversial point in that the music ". It is a way for people to get out their emotions. Bottum talks about the failure of musical poetry. These songs have much more meaning than what Bottum says, "What does a genuinely tragic folk song tell us, except that we no longer know what to make of tragedy?" (page 69). didn't stupefy us intellectually, it stunted us emotionally" (page 70). Bottum, I feel, made a good point when he said, "no matter how serious and elaborate, a musical composition cannot create its own metaphysical frame entirely from within the music" (page 64). music stands very low on the traditional list of devices by which we try to understand human experience" (page 59). Just because some musical poetry is meaningless, it doesn't make it all a failure. Music is very different from other art forms. Music is a way for people to express what they feel instead of doing something wrong or hurtful. One point that Bottum makes that cannot be argued with is, "we have the widest and most widely shared knowledge of the range of music the world has ever known" (page 68). Yes, many song lyrics are meaningless and just made up to be a catchy tune, but if you look at it there are just as many lyrics that have a meaning or convey something. Yet the ideas in the music do have a purpose, unlike Bottums' point of view.
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