CHURCH MUSIC AND ROCK MUSIC-part 5

 

CHURCH MUSIC AND ROCK MUSIC-part 5

One of the significant elements of rock music performance is that it is often meant to be listened to at extreme decibel levels.  I believe that noise pollution in rock performance is a well-established fact.  Rock concerts and earphone listening to rock music is often experienced at extremely dangerous decibel levels.  One of the important elements of rock music performance is its controlling power over the mind at extreme decibel levels.  This level of performance and listening is part of the rock culture.  As a matter of fact, it is a good sign that the listener is deeply involved in the rock culture when he or she plays rock music at a near deafening level or when the earphones are turned up so loudly that the entire household gets to share what was intended to be a private listening experience.

Along with extreme volume levels comes distortion. One of the advantages of stereo hi fidelity listening used to be reproducing a performance with the aid of amplification without the annoyance of distortion.  A most disconcerting element of rock music performance is the continuous use of “on purpose” distortion of instruments and vocals.  I know that to a point beauty in music is found in the mind of the auditor (listener).  It is amazing to me that young people who can’t stand to listen to an L.P. record or a cassette recording because it has “too much noise” can listen to continuous distortion on a rock CD for hours at a time.  I don’t think it is too farfetched to recognize such behavior as the result of reprobate thinking.

A standard part of Western music for centuries has been that good music always flows with a forward directionality from relaxation to tension to relaxation.  Every good phrase has beginning, middle and end or beginning, climax and then closing or relaxation.  Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero” was a 20^th century example of the breaking down of this time-honored principal of compositional technique.  Rock music picked up the baton with “Inna – gonna – davita” in the late 1960’s.  This selection went on for approximately twenty minutes of tension with little or no release or relaxation.  Now in the early 21^st century it is the rock norm to produce a song that continues for a lengthy period of time without or nearly without resolution or relaxation.  The result has to have an unhealthy effect on the human psyche.