Self-Consciousness In Music

I was watching this Joni Mitchell video earlier, and it struck me that basically everything I've watched from the 70s has this sort of free-spiritedness/freedom or even innocence if you will ... it's very un-self-conscious ... I think in the 80s, that got replaced with being unappologetic ... and now we are in the era of hyper-self consciousness over music and video...

I was also watching this Steven Wilson Interview earlier, and he was commenting on how with modern pop music, not only is musicianship downplayed (for the sake of highlighting the vocal line), but the parts that are there have been squeaked and edited to perfection... and perfection is boring...

I think he's very spot on...

I've also been thinking about Amanda Palmer lately, between the TED Talk & just listening to her music a bit more... it's still not really my thing, but I'm starting to understand more what people like about her... I think one of the aspects is that she's incredibly unappologetic or frank in her live performances... it's also interesting to see how she talks about everything in her blog, and it's clear how it's all relevant...



I was also listening to Simple Gifts performed by Yo-Yo Ma & Alison Kraus ... if there's one area of music that is incredibly conscious of *everything* all the time, it's classical music ... I think that's reflected in their version ... but I think the words of Simple Gifts relate to the point I'm getting out of the other 2 videos:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come 'round right

I'm going to strive for that same sense of freedom and lack of self-consciousness in my performing .... just "Hi, I'm here, doin' my thing... be here with me :) " sort of attitude