L'art pour l'art- “Art for art’s sake-” is a much-criticized creed. It conjures up images of urinals presented as art pieces in museums, or of canvases incoherently splattered with paint. It has been criticized by African intellectuals-
“Contemporary postcolonial African writers such as Leopold Senghor and Chinua Achebe have criticised the slogan as being a limited and Eurocentric view on art and creation. In "Black African Aesthetics", Senghor argues that "art is functional" and that "in black Africa, 'art for art's sake' does not exist."”
Extrapolating from those arguments, it might be argued that “Art for art’s sake” is practiced by the privileged who can afford to not address social issues. In economic terms, perhaps a "luxury good."
These arguments easily translate from the visual arts to the auditory arts. Avant-garde music is often vehemently labeled as pretentious, and is considered an exercise in composing “music for music’s sake.” It can lack the functions of our traditional conceptions of music: dancing, storytelling, expressing emotion, etc.
I believe that experimental music does in fact have a function beyond “L'art pour l'art.” To explain, I’ll use an analogy with the field of basic science research. Wikipedia defines this type of research as:
Basic research, also called pure research or fundamental research, is scientific research aimed to improve scientific theories for improved understanding or prediction of natural or other phenomena.
The primary goal of basic research is not to cure diseases or save lives. Rather, it is driven by a drive to learn about the world. The utility of this endeavour is difficult to explain, especially to those funding the research (donors, tax-payers, grants, etc.). They’re more inclined to fund a project that will directly lead to tangible gains for people’s lives. The reality, however, is that basic science research oftentimes leads to innovations that aren’t immediately clear, but ultimately lead to incredible returns on investment. The discovery of Green Fluorescent Protein is an elegant example of such research.
There is a remarkable species of jellyfish- Aequorea victoria- that has evolved the capability to glow. Basic science research conducted in the 1960s elucidated that the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) is responsible for this effect. The GFP gene was isolated in 1992, and scientists subsequently succeeded in introducing the gene into bacteria. If you think of the cell as a factory whose output is proteins, the gene is the blueprint used to make proteins. Introducing that blueprint into another cell gives that cell the capability of making that protein. In this way, GFP can be piggy-backed onto other proteins, which allows for the visualization of their position in the cell or organism. Below you’ll find a visualization of this use for GFP.
Pictured below is a Zebrafish nervous system tagged with several different fluorescent proteins (since discovering GFP scientists have discovered ways to create different fluorescent colors).
This tool has allowed for immeasurable gains in scientific knowledge. We can visualize cells that are healthy, and then watch what happens when they become diseased. Are proteins wreaking havoc by moving from one compartment to another? We can visualize growth of cancer cells, and their movement throughout a mouse’s body. These advances originated from the work of curious scientists who did not anticipate the consequences of their work. Here, then, is the crux of the argument for basic science research funding: one cannot possibly know the utility of research prior to the research being conducted.
The argument for the purpose of experimentation in music follows a similar line of reasoning. Experimental music (EM) sets the stage for innovations that ultimately make their way into more accessible and mainstream forms of music. The way these ideas are adopted is unpredictable.
Merriweather Post Pavilion (MPP) is one of the best albums of the 2000s. It is a shining jewel in the modern pantheon of great psychedelic works. No artist works in a vacuum, and Animal Collective certainly stood on the shoulders of giants when creating this album. They’ve cited Can as a major influence on their music, which is evident in their repetition-heavy songs and Avey Tare's spontaneous vocal style. Can, in turn, were influenced by 20th century experimental composers such as Terry Riley and Stockhausen. These musicians made music that is on some levels more inaccessible than Can’s music (Stockhausen more so than Riley).
Many musicians were inspired by the philosophy and works of Stockhausen-
Stockhausen was influential within pop and rock music as well. Frank Zappa acknowledges Stockhausen in the liner notes of Freak Out!, his 1966 debut with The Mothers of Invention. On the back of The Who's second LP released in the US, "Happy Jack", their primary composer and guitaristPete Townshend, is said to have "an interest in Stockhausen". Rick Wright and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd also acknowledge Stockhausen as an influence (Macon 1997, 141; Bayles 1996, 222). San Francisco psychedelic groups Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead are said to have done the same (Prendergast 2000, 54); Stockhausen himself says the former band included students of Luciano Berio, and the Grateful Dead were "well orientated toward new music" (Stockhausen Texte, 4:505). Founding members of Cologne-based experimental band Can, Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay, both studied with Stockhausen at the Cologne Courses for New Music (Stockhausen Texte, 3:196, 198, 200). German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk also say they studied with Stockhausen (Flur 2003, 228), and Icelandic vocalist Björk has acknowledged Stockhausen's influence (Heuger 1998, 15; Björk 1996; Ross 2004, 53 & 55).
Riley and Stockhausen were not thinking of Animal Collective when they were destroying musical barriers with their innovative, challenging ideas.
Another minimalist composer who has had a far-reaching influence on indie music is La Monte Young. He actually spent time studying under Stockhausen, during which he surprised the intimidating German composer by walking into class two hours late. Young is well known for his use of drone in music- sustained or repeated notes and stasis rather than kinetics. The buzz from an electric razor is a drone. Young was specifically influenced by the sound of the wind, and by the “continuous sound made by the telephone poles.” Here is one of his most well-known works- The Well-Tuned Piano- which is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever listened to.
Many artists have cited Young as a formative influence, and have incorporated his ideas into their works. John Cale, member of the Velvet Underground, collaborated with Young in a group known as the “Theatre of Eternal Music” that explored drone music at incredibly high volumes (sounds like My Bloody Valentine to me!). He later integrated these lessons into his work with the Velvets, creating an interesting dichotomy between his academic minimalist influences and the dirty maximalism of rock music. You can hear his droning viola (fun fact: he strung his viola with used mandolin and guitar strings) in many songs on The Velvet Underground & Nico-
Young’s conception of the drone (which was not wholly original- he was heavily influenced by the use of drone in Indian music) has had far-reaching influence beyond the Velvets. Spacemen 3, for example, have extensively used drones in their music. Brian Eno, and the ambient genre as a whole, owes much to Young. These musicians have reached several orders of magnitude more ears than Young’s original works ever did. Young hasn’t exactly been humble about the importance of his work: “People have written that I’m the most influential composer in the last 50 years, and I think that’s true,” he says. “What’s more, when I die, people will say, ‘He was the most important composer since the beginning of music.’ It’s not just a work of genius — I did things no one ever dreamed of and I set up an approach to sound that parallels universal structure.”
The same people that questioned the sanity of these avant-garde musicians have certainly enjoyed at least one of the mainstream artists listed above. And therein lies the utility of experimentation in music. The unexpected direction it takes in spontaneously morphing into something beautiful and timeless. Discouragement of experimentation means killing off the future Pink Floyds, The Velvet Undergrounds, Animal Collectives, and Krautrockers. To do so is to deny millions an experience that is immeasurably valuable to the spirit, and to deny me of a radio show.
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