What if Mozart Listened To BLACKPINK?
Renee Kuo (ISB 11)
Like many other people, Renee considers music an essential part of her life. As both a musician and a listener, sheʼs heard many common stereotypes and opinions within the music community. In this article, Renee explores the categorisation of music and offers her view on how we can approach musical genres differently.
“Boy bands and Kpop are for shallow teen girls that are too dumb to comprehend REAL music.”
“Wait, you listen to classical music? It’s so boring; it’s for old and rich people.”
“Jazz is just wrong notes.”
Controversial (and conventional) opinions about musical genres are everywhere. We judge people based on their music tastes and come to quick conclusions based on our personal preferences. Like many other things in life, music can be categorised into different genres, and different musical genres are associated with different situations. Take classical music, for example. What comes to mind when you think of classical music? Is it glimmering royal halls, golden fountains, and a bunch of rich people having tea? What about jazz? Can you see the bartender mixing a drink at the dimly lit bar? Does Lo-Fi bring up cosy study vibes and a desk overfilled with assignments way past the deadline?
When we listen to or think of music in different genres, our minds immediately conjure up some image that we associate with the music. Just like how hearing the familiar bus announcement will remind you of ISB, hearing a particular type of music will bring a certain scene to mind. In this way, music is often used to complement and enhance daily life. These connections make sense - classical music is associated with rich golden concert halls because, historically, music was a luxury only wealthy families could afford. Bars and fancy restaurants often have a jazz band playing in the venue. Lo-fi playlists are named “24-hour Relaxing Music for Studying”, so it’s no wonder that studying is what we associate it with. Like a scene in a movie, ordinary life is accompanied by a unique soundtrack that amplifies what we feel.
In other words, music only creates certain vibes because we believe that they do. Sure, the music itself can sound happy or sad, upbeat or melancholic, smooth or grungy, but the situations that we identify them with is entirely up to us. The music itself does not have an identity - it doesn’t decide to be played in bars or at weddings. Rather, we decide what type of music is appropriate in each situation. Over time, these decisions solidify into generalisations that subconsciously influence our perceptions. They make it easier for us to correlate a type of music to a certain feeling rather than exploring the nuances and variation within each genre.
We perceive things the way we are conditioned to, and stereotypes group music superficially with a target audience. For example, some people don’t listen to pop because they don’t want to be considered basic. On the flip side, people who listen to pop can feel intimidated by classical music because it’s perceived as being boring. This not only excludes certain groups from experiencing new music, but it also pushes other groups towards music they’re supposed to like. While there’s nothing wrong with discovering more of the type of music you enjoy, it becomes problematic “[w]hen stereotypes prevent people from listening to different types of music and bringing their own perspectives to the messages of the artist[.] [T]he conversations surrounding the genre become diluted to include only the voices of those with similar views and experiences” (Kong). This leads to a lack of diversity in the audience and hampers music from doing what it does best - reaching a wide audience and connecting people through a shared message or emotion.
Categorisation places invisible boundaries that impede us from experiencing the music as authentically as we can. Whether we created these rules for ourselves, or they were created by those before us, they prevent us from taking the first step into a new experience. It’s important to note that none of these genres truly exist - it’s all, to an extent, a made-up system for the sake of organisation. Nevertheless, they still limit our experience of music. So, listen to music that you enjoy, regardless of what it’s been labelled. Explore different music that you don’t normally listen to, and stop trying to classify and categorise music and artists into boxes that didn’t even exist in the first place. Then we can start to experience all that music has to offer.