Did you come across any examples of people who tried to subvert sound in a rebellious way, like punk, metal or rock ‘n roll, and turn it into something beautiful?
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TRANSCRIPT: Well, I think within musical culture, musicians and composers of some very different stripes are really responding constructively and creatively to the sounds of the modern city. On the one hand, there is a collection of really kind of Avant-garde concert-hall composers in America and also in Europe who are really creating what was called “noise music” at the time. Edgard Varese….George Antheil….and lots of others are writing very innovative avant-garde music and really abandoning the traditional harmonies and melodies of the western classical tradition and composing works that often when they were performed in concert halls were simply dismissed as nothing but noise.
At the other end of the spectrum, a lot of popular music—and here I think the connection between this new urban sonic environment and the development of jazz is particularly interesting, when you consider that many African Americans were migrating from the rural south to these northern noisy cities at this time. I think the way that the music fit their constituents’ social context, their sonic context, is a really interesting aspect. I can’t really prove connections here. I’d love for a musicologist to dig in further and find out more about the connection between the urban environment and actual musical composition.
