One objection to Kendrick Lamar winning the Pulitzer Prize went like this (from Twitter):
Just help me come to grips with the fact that someone can be a good enough musician to win a Pulitzer Prize, but not qualified to gain entry into the undergraduate music ed program at my school.
I’m just shaking my head at that. First, how does this person even know Lamar couldn’t get into that program? Fascinating, maybe racist assumption — that someone who does hiphop couldn’t have conventional musical chops.
But way beyond that breathtaking assumption…
There are many ways to do music, many kinds of musical literacy. Could a great artist in Indian classical music get into that music ed program?
Once I was on a panel at the University of Missouri, and was asked what the future of musical literacy might be.
In reply, I first asked the questioner whether by musical literacy he meant reading and writing music, with western musical notation. He did. He wondered whether those skills were threatened.
So then I turned to a panelist sitting beside me, a musician in one of our most famous new music performing groups. She and I were friendly — and I knew she wasn’t wedded only to classical music — so I guessed she wouldn’t mind being used as an example.
Did she, I asked, know how to use delay software, used in pop music production to generate delayed repeats of musical notes and other sounds in a recording?
This software is endlessly subtle. You can change the sound of what you’re repeating, change its spatial position, change how loud each repeat is, change the number and speed of the repeats. Let them repeat in free rhythm, or tie the repeats to the tempo of the music.
That’s just some of what the software can do, and this is just one of the complex software tools used in album production.
And the cheerful answer was…
No! The terrific musician I turned to said she didn’t know anything about delay software.
And so I said, just as cheerfully, that despite her terrific classical music chops, in another important musical realm this musician wasn’t literate at all.
But in that realm, Kendrick Lamar very likely is superbly literate. He knows how albums are produced. And if you listen to his Pulitzer-winning album DAMN, it’s full of sonic complexities. Meaning that Lamar, on a pretty high level, knows things that graduates of that music ed program — and even people with DMAs in music from that school — most likely don’t know.
You make excellent points. Do you think that Kendrick Lamar’s brilliant and timely lyrics should have gotten him the Pulitzer for literature/poetry instead of music.
Thanks!
You’re asking a good question. Especially since Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for literature. Of course, there isn’t any Nobel Prize for music. And, equally important in understanding how a musician could have won for literature, he’s often been talked about as a poet.
In Lamar’s case, the most basic fact about the album is that it’s music. So the music Pulitzer was certainly appropriate. The Pulitzer poetry jury would have to make its own judgment, and probably wouldn’t have thought to consider work by someone known mainly as a musician. I wonder what could draw their attention to a hiphop album. Or, for that matter, any pop album. Could Lucinda Williams (one of my favorites) win a poetry Pulitzer for her lyrics? I’d love that. And then (fantasizing) she could also win the music Pulitzer for the same album that won the poetry prize…
Hello, Greg. My apologies, but you have misinterpreted my message. My problem is with my school and degree program’s admission policies and practices. I am actually well aware that our current settings serve as a barrier to Hip-Hop musicians (and many others, likely the Indian classical musician as well) and I am working every day to change that. In no way am I saying Kendrick doesn’t have musical chops. His chops far exceed those of most (if not all) of my current students. I am thrilled with Kendrick’s award. Almost all of my professional life has been dedicated to better understanding Hip-Hop musical learning; helping music teachers to meaningfully engage with Hip-Hop culture; and working to improve equity, inclusion, and relevance of school music spaces. I don’t disagree with the premise of your blog post, but I do want to point out that my point was basically the exact opposite of how you have interpreted it. My apologies.
My apologies back to you! And wow — I’m so happy to have been wrong. I tried to write in a way that didn’t absolutely suggest you held views that you’re making clear that you don’t. But I’m sure what I wrote came across as if I thought you didn’t understand the points I went on to make.
Thanks so much for coming here to correct me, and for doing it so gently. Big mistake on my part, and, again — I’m so happy to have been wrong.
I guess it’s a lesson to write with more clarity in social media spaces. I can totally see how one could read my comment in the way you did. Honest mistakes all around. At the end of the day, I’m with you 100%!
So glad we’re together on this! I hope it’s OK with you if I run your first comment and my reply as a blog post. Many people who read the blog won’t see the comments, and I want them to know where you really stand.
Fine by me. Thanks!
Such a good piece…..
Thanks!
This was very insightful! Starting from approaching music electronically (in a DAW) and then entering into an academic istitution for music (now majoring in composition and minor in cello performance), I can certainly affirm that there are different realms within music one can excel in. With 7 years of music production, going into my first year of school was tough, and had nothing to show for in terms of THEIR approach to music. I understand why stigmas arise from one school of thought in music to another, but in all they succeed musically in they’re own ways and serve different purposes and intents. Unfortunately for me, I have several years of music theory (finished all the classes they have to offer), and feel like I almost learned too much too quick. Where before I had one tool, let’s say a screwdriver, it wasn’t much but I could be creative in how I used that tool (turning it into a hammer for example). But, now I have a messy garage full of tools, and I find myself struggling to find the one I’m looking for. While this awkward conflict of entirely different realms of music (EDM and Composition through physical instrumentation) have had me struggling immensely to finish anything, it is nice to see others getting recognition through new mediums. I myself was actually curious what it was about that album that deserved the Pulitzer. Having only heard a few, I can’t come to an informed opinion on it, though now I know to listen out for sonic changes and devices. Thanks for your article! I forget where I subscribed, but it has always proven to be thought provoking material.
How that album was chosen for the Pulitzer is a great story. The music jury noticed that some of the classical pieces they listened to — which had been nominated for the prize — had hiphop influences. Being nominated for the Pulitzer, by the way, is no special honor. Anyone can make a nomination, and people can nominate themselves.
Normally the juries pick from the many nominees. But this year something different happened. Someone on the jury said that if they were going to consider pieces with hiphop influences, maybe they could consider hiphop. So then someone brought in the Lamar album. They listened to it. And decided unanimously that it was the best music they’d heard. Nothing fancy, no great debate. They just thought it was the best. So they recommended it for the prize (the Pulitzer board makes the final choice, normally rubberstamping what the juries pick). Which taught me something I didn’t know — that the juries apparently can pick anything they want, whether nominated or not. That really opens the doors!
As for listening to unfamiliar kinds of music, it’s just for me about putting aside expectations, and reacting to what’s there. If you don’t expect a hiphop album to do what classical music does (and wasn’t CT marvelous in her comment above about pointing out that classical composers don’t always do the stuff we think defines classical music!), you can discover what it does do. Which can be many marvelous things involving for a start rhythm and tone of voice. For a detailed look at another element of classic hiphop — sampling — look at the Wikipedia entry on Public Enemy’s song Fight the Power. So much going on in that song!
Perhaps there were many toots along those lines, Greg. But the person I saw who posted almost that same thing went on to elaborate that the issue was just as much the structure of the school’s curriculum as anything else.
Good for that person, David. These curricula need to change. One place where the change has happened is the music school at Lawrence University, where a new music history curriculum teaches music as a world phenomenon. I’ll have more to say about Lawrence down the road a bit.
Yep. Perhaps the comment is more about the narrowness of the curricula at the great music schools than anything else. Though I’m not suggesting (at least I don’t think I am) that students of music must be taught about everything that can be described as music.
I haven’t searched deeply, but I have found very few strong objections from anyone about Kendrick Lamar’s Pullizer. Fewer than I might have expected.
Impossible to learn everything! But a contemporary musician should at least know the geography, so to speak — what’s out there. And should know basic things about the most important varieties. In the US, I’d think that would certainly include jazz and the endless varieties of what so casually gets called pop (though so much is crammed under that heading that the heading becomes almost meaningless). Latin music, too, blues and gospel, and some important world styles. In Australia, Ken, I’d imagine that the kind of musical education I’d like to see would include indigenous music.
I won the prize at my music school, but it took Hypno from the Spooks to school me on delay!
While transitioning from touring MC to professor, Hypno taught music production for inner-city youth in my programs. I ran this “Robin Hood” move for many years… Taking money from rich old white people who thought I was educating, in their words, “those people” (at least their money wasn’t racist) and pumping it into communities full of hip hop dreams.
I used my german counterpoint chops to craft tight little canons with loopable 8 or 16 bar phrases. The kids would orchestrate with their choice of digital instruments, build up beats around the canon, rap over it, etc. They didn’t know or care about the educated structure, they just knew it was dark and dope so they built their own sound world around it. One even advanced WAY past that entry point and studied harmony and counterpoint with me. In short, the kids loved it!
But it didn’t START that way!
It started with me playing my educated little canons for Hypno on a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation for those of you too “educated” to know). I was of course quite proud of them… And couldn’t understand why he looked so puzzled.
He was kind enough to educate me though…
Turns out I was so illiterate in DAW-land that I’d neglected to “put the sound in a space” as Hypno phrased it. He went on to explain that with no pre-delay to tell the ear where the nearest wall might be causing a bounce back, my music sounded artificial, disembodied from any natural space that the human ear could ever accept. Also, I had not specified a master verb to “glue my tracks together”. I went from crestfallen to hopeful in a matter of seconds.
Hypno dialed in some delay and verb settings for me and sure enough, my canon was now BUMPIN!
I’ve had similar experiences with most of the Electronic Dance Music, house, trance, D&B, hip hop, turntable, and other DJs I’ve worked with over the years. While I’m obsessed with getting every dot on the page right in accordance with my german counterpoint and french color training, THEY are obsessed with getting the EQ settings on the mixer right, with defining the space that ALL bass frequencies will occupy (not just the pitches defined as the “bass line”), etc. And I haven’t even mentioned the pumping heart of any groovy mix, the compression!
Every composer, even those so severe as to demand the clearing of the fugue hurdle (at one time, educated music’s holy grail), should be open to the fact that they don’t know EVERYTHING about music or its potential. Somebody somewhere has gone further down some rabbit hole than you, or possibly even discovered new ones you didn’t know existed. This should EXCITE classical composers because it means there’s more for you to learn! It certainly excited classytroll back in the day!
After winning my school’s silly little prize I went on a self-assigned ten-year mission to learn from ANYBODY who could teach my ANYTHING about music’s potential beyond harmony and counterpoint. This led me to produce a number of shows with so called “illiterate” collaborators… Over time, they taught me what no serious music school seems to understand… They taught me what orchestration means TODAY.
So perhaps you could make the argument that Kendrick is a better orchestrator than he is a contrapuntalist (but you can say the same about Ravel). Or that he’s better at lyrical theatrics than he is at avoiding perfect 5ths (but you could say the same about Wagner). Or that he’s better at color and mood than modulatory thematic development (Debussy, anyone?).
The point is, we can’t dismiss today’s orchestrators (who work largely in the digital realm) as illiterate just because they use knobs and dials rather than dots on a page. But as an artist still claiming “dots on the page” as my personal origin story, I of course believe that version of musical literacy still has its place. My collaborators over the years have obviously believed that too… They were intrigued by my skills just as I was by theirs.
So let’s be honest here… WE (clasical types) are the ones putting up judgmental barriers designed to keep THEM (the so called “illiterates”) marginalized. I’ve never seen it go the other way.
The “illiterates” welcomed me with open arms…
Why can’t we do the same?
Oh, brilliant, wonderful, true. Thanks, CT! You really laid it out. “This should EXCITE classical composers because it means there’s more for you to learn!” I love that. I wonder why more classical composers haven’t used the techniques CT so well described. That are rock-bottom standard in other kinds of music. Michael Gordon did do it, on his Light Is Calling album (in which his aim was to use the techniques of pop production). There should be other examples — I hope there are! — but I don’t know them. Our composers are so wedded to acoustic music! Or else to electroacoustic stuff, where the means used seem fairly elementary, compared to what happens in pop music.
Case in point… I’ve seen George Crumb’s pieces for amplified/prepared piano performed live to the highest possible standard a couple times by a pianist I truly admire.
Now I want to be clear that what I’m saying next is NOT that pianist fault…
But each time the “amplified piano” consisted of a totally inappropriate dynamic vocal mic randomly shoved somewhere near the open lid, then connected to a junk quality mic pre built into an equally idiotic tiny mono stage monitor.
Are you kidding me?
It takes a top pianist weeks (maybe months) to really master that piece, with all its crazy finger picking inside the piano harp alternating with the most delicate work at the keyboard… Put some freakin’ earthworks condensers in there and get the piano’s stereo image at least!
The proper tools exist…
A Steinway 9′ costs well over $100k these days and we can’t spend $3k on decent mics, $1k on an acceptable stereo mic pre, and $2k for proper stereo amps?
I run that setup myself anytime the venue’s piano can actually beat my digital keys (which is surprisingly rare, actually). Anyhow, when you capture the entire frequency spectrum, the full dynamic range, and the complete stereo image, you can immerse the audience in the harp’s spooky upper harmonics and keep them immersed down to the very last halo warble (over a minute into the decay).
We still pretend like the very act of amplifying a piano is revolutionary and edgy… And maybe it was… In 1960… But in 2018 if you are going to amp a piano you’d better be willing to learn from the TRUE masters.
Stevie Wonder runs the same Earthworks mics I use whenever he’s on an acoustic. These problems have all been solved by people outside the classical world if only classical types would admit they are clueless and remember how to be students again.
As Greg says…
Doesn’t anybody know how to play this game?