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 end of the article brings out a very controversial point in that the music ". Nowadays, you look at most singers, they all must fit the right "mold". Yet the ideas in the music do have a purpose, unlike Bottums’ point of view. 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). Many cultures tell stories and many important events through their music. Bottum believes music just includes techniques and structure. 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. Just because some musical poetry is meaningless, it doesn’t make it all a failure. So I think Bottum is wrong when he says music today is purposeless. I think Bottum is extremely wrong when he says, "…music stands very low on the traditional list of devices by which we try to understand human experience" (page 59). The saying "sex sells" is very common is music. As the article ends Bottum says how music cannot build a culture. The last line, "from within the music" makes this statement completely true in my eyes.
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