August 26, 2005

• Today I came across an interesting article in the LA Times Online (newsprint is only good for lining birdcages and washing windows: my animals don't do cages, and my windows don't get cleaned very often). It made me wonder if I am acquainted already with artists who haven't fit any particular genre, who will become more and more popular in the years to come. The artists my kids will be listening to in their teen years. My oldest son Nathaniel already likes Fernando Ortega and "world music" more than he likes the pop music marketed to young adults. A new genre is coalescing around these talented "unplugged" muse/musicians, called "Quiet Music" or "Soft Revolution". Some of the central figures are pretty weird, but many of them have a charming postmodern authenticity about them, and Christ-followers are apparently welcome.

  Alec Hanley Bemis writes, in The Soft Revolution (LA Times, today's issue):
  "The singer-songwriters of the Soft Revolution are part of the first generation to come of age in a world where nothing was forbidden. They are the anti-Victorians. For these kids—and in this day and age, even 30-year-olds can be referred to as kids—the bras have already been burned, rock 'n' roll is the soundtrack to a car commercial and the '60s are no longer thought of as a revolution in consciousness. Rather, the '60s are something from a history text or an ad in Rolling Stone, and rebellion is a canned message you can get your fill of by watching five minutes of MTV. Many members of this generation have had it with sex and drugs and doing it in the road. They are looking for something deeper."

  I know one band that may fall within the curtilage of this new movement: doSul. Another band whose music I have liked (particularly their song "Dick Cheney") is Kipchoge and the Ginger Ninjas. Some of the singer/songwriters at my church MOSAIC might also find themselves selling albums under this new genre.

  The article concludes, "...Beam, Stevens, Banhart and their cohorts are not the types to proselytize. They have no particular technique for living. Yet by their quiet example they show why this music is spreading. More than any of the others, though, Beam is the face of the Soft Revolution. He's the guy who wants to believe, who wants to be good, who wants nothing more than to have a wife and family, a good job and an off-the-radar life somewhere nice like Miami, where you can take your kids to the beach a couple of times a week.
  "These quiet people are today's equivalent of the silent majority. All they want is for the world to please calm down, please. So, those of you who are faithful and stable and undemonstrative, take strength. Those of you who hold as your foundation a quiet kind of belief—in family life, in spirituality, in the Tao—the Soft Revolution speaks for thee. And it will grow louder."

  Hmmm! Makes me want to browse the indie labels' websites for song samples I might actually enjoy! Maybe I ought to regrow my old beard before showing up at one of their concerts though.

  • 3:30 pm
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