Genius and music (and not having to worry about getting into classical music any more)

I was going to write an earnest piece about legalising drugs or something, but events have taken over and instead I am writing the piece that came to me last night whilst at a Prince concert. Be warned, like the drunken text sent to the girl you fancy at the end of the night, this is going to sound really wanky and I'm going to regret this pretty quickly...

***

There is this shadowy pressure amongst educated, rounded, and seen to be rounded people. As they move into and beyond their 30's the pressure is to drop their whimsical, low-brow love of pop music (and all its related industries from jazz to heavy metal) and start getting serious. Start listening, loving and being able to talk about classical music.

Whatever I or others may say about the relative nature of music, about the subjective nature of beauty, Western classical music is seen as the peak: complex, intellectual, visionary, requiring advanced levels of practice and expertise and emerging only from true musical geniuses.

However, this illusion, for it always was an illusion propagated by those within the industry, cultural imperialists and Tories, was surprisingly and dramatically ripped apart as I watched in thrall Prince play in concert last night. It struck me, high on the moment and a with the help of a good number of beers, that the genius being displayed surpassed anything that classical music has to offer.

There is no musician that I know of like Prince. Pained as it is for me to say this (see postscript). Prince plays all instruments - particularly the guitar, bass, keyboard and piano - to such an expertise his musicianship is unparalleled. Prince brings together an orchestra of brilliant, independent minded, jazz and rock influenced musicians and enables them to be coordinated yet free. Prince is a singer with such a vocal range that in spoken word he's as cool as Gil-Scott Heron, singing white rock numbers he screams with greater energy than Mick Jagger and during his ballads he sings with an Ella Fitzgerald-style poetry. And he seems to have the incredible vocal range of Jeff Buckley, who himself has been compared to classical singers. Furthermore, Prince has written for everyone - particularly in the eighties and nineties - from Sinead O'Connor to Chaka Khan, illustrating his irrepressible, prolific songwriting career. As he said immodestly, but quite truly: "I got too many hits for you".

And there is Prince the consummate and complete entertainer. The combination of a smooth dancer with an eccentric personality where his androgynous façade jars with his hyper-heterosexuality, an eye for the visual sensation (his stage was shaped in his trademark symbol) and flanked by his brilliant musicians, singers and two Beyonce-esque dancers a show was produced that completely commanded the huge O­₂ concert hall and all the twenty thousand attendant fans.

And finally, Prince is not simply an entertainer, he has a unifying theory. His work comes together under the belief that you should love what you do and do it lovingly. And in his case it has something to do with women.

Prince’s work is music at its very finest and classical music can only blush in embarrassment. And whilst people may disagree about this particular nearly-50 year old pop genius, what he does comes only from the pop genre. Those that have bridged songwriting, orchestration and entertainment such as James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney and U2 could never come from the classical field.

***

No longer is there the shadowy pressure of having to get in to classical music, the best music is located in the broad sphere of pop, jazz and rock. This is the music where true modern genius and where the best musical talents lie.

***

Postscript:

1. I've never liked Prince, in fact I've positively hated Prince until last night
2. Due to the Colosseum, circular nature of The O2 centre, Prince actually had his back to us all the time
3. If "cock" comes up in the comments, I will not get angry this time.