Are “serious” and “popular” really two different types of music or just empty words without a meaning?
When you hear the word “serious” applied to music, it’s usually a code word for Western classical. My standard joke on this subject is as follows: I’m a big fan of Western classical music, up to and including Bach; then I feel like it goes through a bit of a dry spell until you get to Feldman. The point being that everyone chooses their own tastes, their own aesthetic, their own sense of what is valuable or important, and we shouldn’t get too hung up on pre-existing notions of what does or doesn’t constitute “serious” music. Let’s not forget that Duke Ellington wrote “popular” music, and it’s hard to imagine a more serious composer. Do you feel an artist has a certain duty towards anyone but himself? Or to put it differently: Should art have a political/social or any other aspect apart from a personal sensation? The question here seems to be: can/should/must art be political? I would say that great art can be political, but that there is much great art that isn’t. To draw examples from
