music, dionysus, and american idol

The other night I happened to see some of the TV program American Idol; I was really shocked by what I saw. I am not sure what kind of person they are looking for on the show, but they sure are pretentious in their critiques of what they don’t like. It’s difficult for me to exactly understand why I got so frustrated with how they treated the people on the show.

I think that my frustration is a result of how I view musical talent and how they are misconstruing it on the show. For me, music is something special, something transcendental and mystical. What I would consider true music needs to be raw, emotional, with a looseness and freedom of improvisation. If a piece is performed rigidly and formalized into a set of rules to be followed strictly it loses what allows music to be special.

What I saw of the judges on American Idol was sadly lacking an understanding of this idea or understanding. It seemed to me that this program has taken people’s expression of the Dionysian intoxication and frenzy and made it the object of public humiliation. I don’t care if those judges think that some person can’t exactly hit some pitch; they had a certain amount of soul and where just attempting to express that to the public. We should revel in that expression no matter of pitch instead of stifling that in the name of mockery. I am truly horrified that such people can degrade another person and we will watch it and laugh along with them. It is definitely a sad day indeed.

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