Music is a core part of the human experience. Where would we be without music? It really sets us apart from the other species of the world and is just one of the great creative arts that we as humans are born with.
But in music, there are many different genres such as, rock, punk, rap, pop and many others. The music industry has a problem and I think that there is a stigma against instrumentals.
Instrumentals are core to understanding and appreciating music and I think that we should appreciate them more. They give us some of the most freeflowing, interpretive, stylistic and creative songs that I have ever heard. As a kid in elementary school, I saw the Haven Jazz Night, and I found that sometimes songs didn’t really need lyrics.
Instrumental music is so meaningful as it is interpreted differently by everyone who hears the same song.
There are songs that have guitar solos that are so creative, that they bring me out of a bad mood instantly. There are songs that have a lone piano that really make me feel vulnerable and moody.
The world of instrumental music is as wide as the imagination and I don’t hear people talk about it enough.
If you took a rap beat — for example, Rapp Snitch Knishes by MF DOOM — you could simply start a song with a beat like that and make a few improvisations and create an instrumental that is completely new. Some people might just call that jazz.
Jazz and instrumentals go hand in hand historically and jazz is one of the largest producers of instrumental music. With jazz, there is more focus on the instruments and how they sound and the complexity and rhythm and beat and how it all ties together beautifully.
You can really see the creative spirit of people when you listen to jazz and instrumental music. It is by far one of the most multi-dimensional and complex genres of music that also goes unappreciated by pop culture.
I have this concept in my brain that jazz is almost from a bygone era and that it shouldn’t be as appreciated as modern pop or rock or rap. In fact, jazz and instrumental music are the poetry of music and poetry is the jazz of literature. They paint the world in such bright words and vivid sounds and detail why creativity is our greatest strength while recounting what it is that makes us so unextraordinarily human. The ears of pop culture are deaf to their shouts and have been for quite a while.
Classical music is another form of instrumental music that has been ignored by popular culture. Composers and performers of classical music are masters of their craft that have immense skill in the sound of their music. The difficulty and complexity of classical music is astounding and is essential to the listening experience.
Instrumental music can also come in the form of music that is made for other types of media, like movies, theater and television shows. These are called original sound tracks and a lot of them go unnoticed. The creativity of music can be seen in these original songs and the instrumental tracks are no exception.
Instrumental music should be more appreciated and widely listened to by more people. More eyes on instrumental music would mean that there is a better chance that the instrumental artists would get the awards and praise that they deserve.
If you want to listen to my recommendations of instrumental music, then you should listen to Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, Casiopea by Casiopea and Seychelles by Masayoshi Takanaka.
Each opinion represented in The Panther Press is the view and voice of the writer. Opinions, as the selection and curation of content by the editors, do not represent the views of the entire Panther Press staff, the adviser, the school, or the administration.
