Sincerity, "Sincerity", Irony, Earnestness, Coolness, Pop

[GlennPageMusic]

Liam,

Sorry for the late response, I just saw your post.

In actuality, my point was NOT that music that is delivered from a "less sincere" place is not as valuable. If anything, I find such abstractions arbitrary and by-and-large my point is more in line with what YOU just said. That is, that sincerity, as we understand the concept, is largely irrelevant in most of taxi's listings. No one can "prove" the sincerity of their intent, and, conversely, taxi (and no one else) can DISprove my sincerity.

It is wrong to be held to an unquantifiable standard of "sincerity" as though it were a tangible facet of a song, because, when held up to close scutiny, such notions crumble into dust. When people ask for "sincerity" what they REALLY want are the signifiers of sincerity -that is, the musical and lyrical symbols that resonate as being PERCEIVED as more or less "sincere" within a specific demographic. It is misleading when people say they are looking for sincerity - they want what they think their intended audience will "buy" (so to speak).

Sincerity can express itself a million ways. If you don't want to "believe" my song, that's one thing, but don't tell me I'm not sincere just because I'm not grumbling over a piano with a raspy voice in a lo-fi recording. Someone can ape that "sincerity" just as easily as they can ape pop artifice. They can all be faked, and they can all be sincere, or at least have sincere artistic intent.

And again, the point is not that only the "sincere" ones have value - the point is that our songs, ultimately CAN'T be judged on the basis of (real) sincerity and, in my opinion, it's a bogus standard to hold a writer to.

I could probably go around in circles trying to explain this all night, but clearly I have not done a good job explaining my view so I'll just leave it alone for now.

Glenn.

[ottlukk]

I really wish I could remember the song, because it was posted on YouTube. It had hundreds of thousands of hits, maybe even over a million. The video had the artist singing in a darkened space, with hundreds of candles in the scene. There were close-ups of him, his band-mates, of the instruments. But candle after candle after candle. Another "signifier" of "sincerity", I suspect. The song sucked, frankly. But all those listens? I couldn't believe it. It was as if the atmosphere of the video would add credence to the banal lyrics being sung. Obviously, a lot of people bought into it. If you look sad, and whine into your mic, you can fool a lot of people. Ott

[mojobone]

Some thoughts:

@ Glen, I'm thinking you're always gonna be suspicious of sincerity, since you know all the shortcuts.

@ All

The great JR Ewing, a noted liar and himself a fictitious character, said that once you learn to fake sincerity and ditch your integrity, you can be a financial success at nearly anything.

Being Bob Dylan is a full time job; even Dylan probably has days when he's an enormous pain in his own tuches. (loved the Springsteen analogy, btw) I believe the same is true of Bono or Madonna. I will almost never be required to be Dylan for a Taxi listing, but I might need to sound like the Band from Big Pink sometimes.

The optimal artifice/sincerity blend is as different for different genres and eras of music as it can be for different artists. Professional musicians are whores, and faking it is our job; if I'm onstage singing Sex Machine or Let's Get It On, you're not supposed to notice I'm fifty, balding and have a bad back, or that my shoes are pinching. (and you won't, even when I'm noticing the heck out of it) In my country, in terms of respectability, a musician is maybe a notch above a prostitute, if that; I can tell you that in Nevada, where it's legal, a bad prostitute makes more money than a good musician...but now I'm just rambling.

The way we learn a new genre is to fake it 'til it becomes second nature; like with acting, we have to learn the moves, get the physical out of the way before we can bring to bear the intention which provides what's needed in order to get away with it. At some point, a line is crossed, and we actually become sincere, however it's helpful to remember that these personas that we take on are often extremes, and some are not fit to be lived full-time; that's what happened to Janis Joplin.

[mojobone]

I really wish I could remember the song, because it was posted on YouTube. It had hundreds of thousands of hits, maybe even over a million. The video had the artist singing in a darkened space, with hundreds of candles in the scene. There were close-ups of him, his band-mates, of the instruments. But candle after candle after candle. Another "signifier" of "sincerity", I suspect. The song sucked, frankly. But all those listens? I couldn't believe it. It was as if the atmosphere of the video would add credence to the banal lyrics being sung. Obviously, a lot of people bought into it. If you look sad, and whine into your mic, you can fool a lot of people. Ott

Was it this one, Ott? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svWINSRhQU0