Hymn&Fuguing Tune: January 2001

What is the dominant musical style of today and what will be the dominant musical style of tomorrow?

P.Q. Phan
http://www.americancomposers.org/pacifica_phan_article.htm

P.Q. Phan Photo by Charlie Mercer/Mercer Photography courtesy of Shuman Associates Inc.

It is difficult enough to determine the dominant musical style in the United States, where pluralism is apparently embraced and encouraged. However, there is a great deal of evidence to reinforce the fact that “accessible music” is most often performed in paid venues.

What is this “accessible music?” Is it a type of music which is easier to perform? Does this type of music require less time to put together? Is it purposely designed to serve a large audience? Is it designed in parallel to its audience's musical familiarities? Whatever it may be, it is clear that the 'dominant' musical style (let's define it as the music most often played in paid venues) in the United States in the past decade has generally been “pleasant” and “relaxing” to listen to. It has reminiscences of much of the sound of romantic and impressionistic pieces. The “new neo-romanticism” with a “dash of impressionistic” style seems to dazzle its audiences well. Everything goes but to be new and inventive!

Why has this happened? Why has the mainstream music in the United States become so soft, meanwhile the music of the rest of world has become so “hardcore"? The younger generation of composers equally splits into those who are even more eager to please and those who feel the need to restore what has been lost.

But recent recognition of seriousness in making new music from the West and the East might also trigger music in the United States to change. Hard lessons from extreme differences in so called “academic” and “professional” music may yield a new “crop” of musical styles which would be musically 'sensible' while also consisting of new vocabulary, new sonorities, and even new techniques.

New technology has also reshaped the ways we produce and listen to music. It is difficult to think how music can remain untouched when each household will have at least one computer system!

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