“Music today is all noise”. Argue either for or against the proposition.
The proposition implies an outright rejection of modern music. It naturally calls for a defensive approach and the proposition needs to be contradicted.
Music is as essential to the human soul as victuals (human food etc.) to the body. It is a truism. Naturally the ubiquitous (everywhere present) appeal of music today could never thrive if it were ‘all noise’. But the paradox is that the proposed comment, also, is too common to be ignored. Then, where is the rub (= the difficulty)?
The present generation is the seed-time of a new kind of growth. Strange and newfangled experiments in dress, food and thinking are gaining ground with us. Naturally, music is no exception.
In India, Bollywood scores with its melodic experiments. Michael Jackson swept the floor recently with a musical chore unique of its kind. So an ear conditioned by the melody and soft flowing lilt of an earlier age such serenades (open-air night music) world sounds too noisy. In fact, such loud appeals to human taste are becoming a mark of the day. The generation gap that largely characterizes almost every house today creates problems of adjustment in taste. Here a small anecdote may be useful. Once the great maestro S.D. Burman, who was in his life’s decline, was strolling along Juhu Beach in Mumbai. A group of youngsters chanced to pass across. The rest never bothered about who the old man was; but one of them who knew him said, “Look, there goes the father of R.D. Burman.” Alas! The irony is how succeeding generations cast off heroes of the past like the purling stream that rejects a straw.
But this is the go of the world. Traditionalism should not put a blinker (= a cover) on our senses. Modern musicians have evolved new and ever-new tunes and compositions. The sneer (=temper of hating) that the comment hides is betrayed in the general attitude of the past lovers. They strain at everything that smacks of modernity. This, however, is a provincial outlook. Ever the great stalwarts of classical music like Pandit Ravi Shankar try to assimilate the good trends of modern music in their compositions.
Life is not an unmixed blessing. Modern songs and modern music often jar (=sound harsh or unpalatable) on even the most modern liberal music lovers among the older generation. But so did many songs and musical compositions in the past as nothing can b wholly good or bad. But we must judge. We must not throw away the pulp for the husk.
But the proposition hides a fallacy, I feel that modern music is condemned as ‘all noise’ due to one potent factor in our modern culture. We may term it ‘microphone culture’. Its blare and unchecked use make even good music a bore when we are not prepared for it. It is an obstreperous (noisy) element of modern anti-civilization that racks your mind or senses in season and out of season. So much so that even the High Court has to restrict its decibel degree. It is fast losing its ‘functional’ (=purposive) value. The condemning phrase is a mark of this truth. In the past music, good, bad, or indifferent, never earned this tag all noise’.
