Translator: Midori T Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
I remember very clearly
the first time when I had an opportunity to watch a TEDTalk.
It was the early stages of the Internet,
and I believe that after watching that,
Internet became important to me, and I said, "If somebody invented this
in order to deliver such a beautiful thing as TEDTalks are,
I think the Internet is fully justified."
I was right about that.
So, at that point, I was also intrigued about the words,
the three words that defined "TED,"
and that's Technology, Entertainment, and Design.
And if you see my presentation, there is a little "m"
that I took the liberty to add:
"TEDm?"
M stands for music.
I believe that music is as important as anything else we do in life,
if not even more.
And I believe that everybody who is involved with music
should continue to do that throughout their life.
So, my life for the past 50 years
was centered around teaching, learning, performing,
and my experiences are reflected in my talk today.
So this is not a theory, this is not a hypothesis;
this is something that I experience on a day-to-day basis.
So, I view music as something that we share.
Music is beauty that we share.
And by enriching ourselves through performance, we enrich others.
And I can tell you that, as a performer, I feel enriched when I perform,
and also as a member of the audience, I feel enriched when I listen to someone.
So my fear is that this interactive creativity
is something that's diminishing over the past 20 years or so.
So my plan for today is to explore music or talk about music
through the lens of those three terms, those three areas, those three words:
technology, entertainment, and design.
Obviously, technology is probably one of the most important factors
that changed music in the past 50 years.
And without a doubt, we can say
that the number of people who have access to music today,
any kind of music you can imagine,
is larger than it was ever in the past.
So the influence of technology on dissemination of music is incredible.
And probably one of the reasons
why we are trying to figure out where to go, what to do
is because technology is changing faster
than we can really adopt our knowledge and our ability to sort of work with it.
So, one way that I view technology is in the way that I look at you guys;
many of you here,
as soon as you leave this room, you will pop the headphones,
and you will be going on your own to listen to music.
So what that does, it gives you beautiful sound, right,
but that sound is here, within your skull.
It doesn't even go beyond two feet around you; it's just in your head.
It's like a cocoon that isolates you from the rest of the world.
It's because technology allows us to do this.
On the other side, because of technology,
we're able to bring together 5, 6 thousand of people in the arena
and have them be part of the concert.
Well, last time I attended one of those events,
I ended up watching the entire event
on a screen that was the size of a house,
and the real performers were about the size of a doll in the distance.
And I was asking myself, "What would be the difference
if I stayed at home and watched it on the computer
versus being here with a few thousand of my closest friends?"
And I really believe that we are missing a point:
why do you pay so much money to sit in the first row?
Not because the sound is better
but because you want to feel close to the action.
That is what's in our DNA; that's what's in our genes.
We grew out of this tradition where music was part of the ritual,
and we were all part of the tribe; we all need to feel the beat.
We all need to feel that music, right?
(Foot tapping and clapping)
(Laughter) (Foot tapping and clapping)
(Audience clapping)
You see that? I mean we are all together, right?
I never asked you for anything. You knew what to do, right?
That's what music does.
So, what we are losing with some aspects of technology
is this immediacy; this needs to be there.
We are not fulfilling our need to be part of the actual act of music.
We're being passive.
We're just sitting down, enjoying it from the distance,
or even just kind of closing ourselves from the rest of the world,
and therefore, you know, experiencing music just as one unit,
as opposed to part of the larger group.
So,
my point is that we have to be engaged,
not entertained.
So, since I used that word, let's move on to that area of "entertainment."
So, yes, music should and can be viewed as an entertainment,
but not solely as an entertainment.
There are so much more to music.
The range of expressions that we can express through music
is way more than just entertainment.
When I think of the word "entertainment,"
my first thought is music that's very light, easy to listen,
kind of inconsequential, somewhere in the background,
you know, maybe you're going up the elevator - that's entertainment.
I don't think of music as an entertainment.
I want you to be engaged when I play.
Whether it's a fun tune that makes you want to swing and hop,
or if it makes you cry,
I want you to be engaged, not entertained.
Entertainment is not bad, but still, I want it to do more than that.
And unfortunately, music, over the past 50 years or more,
has been narrowing down from this huge plethora of feelings and emotions
to a very few chords and very few musical terms
that we're turning over and over for about 50 years or longer.
So, we can't blame, really, just musicians for that.
What's the other word that comes to your mind when we say "entertainment"?
"Industry," right?
So, at one point, we start looking at music
as more of a good that can be sold
than we're really looking at music as something that has artistic value.
So, at one point
when we start thinking about music as something that should be sold,
of course, our goal is to sell as many units as we can
because that's the only way we can make profit, right?
So, what can you sell easy?
You can sell something that doesn't take too much time to get absorbed.
So I'm going to use a very simple example,
maybe not even appropriate.
Imagine you are hungry.
Somebody brings you a slice of pizza,
or you have this wonderful, fresh assortment, straight from the market,
healthy nutritious vegetables, and everything you need,
about half an hour later, you can sit and eat;
you have to prepare that meal.
What's going to happen? We know.
You go for that slice of pizza because you're hungry.
You're going to satisfy your need, like this.
So that's what the music industry does with us with music:
they give us quick satisfaction;
we don't have to think about that; we don't have to analyze it;
it just goes in and makes us happy and satisfied.
So, you know what that is going to do to your diet,
if you continue eating pizza day after day.
We know that's not good for us,
but we continue doing it just because of the magic of marketing
and everything that industry brings with it.
So, my point here is that, yes, industry is good,
yes, music that we're listening to is fun,
but let's not view music just as an entertainment,
just as a good that can be traded.
It almost seems like we're evaluating music through non-musical means.
We're saying, "How much can we sell of this?"
instead of saying, "How good is this?"
So this duality, this kind of view of music as two different things
makes me think of design.
And seriously, when I was thinking about those three words,
"design" - I was wondering, why not "art"?
It will make a very nice acronym: TEA Talk, right?
We relax, we drink tea, we talk as opposed to TEDTalk, you know.
So, unfortunately, there's design - right, not unfortunately, but here it is.
So what is design?
What's the difference between art and design?
Design serves two masters.
It has be aesthetically pleasing; it also has to be functional.
So it seems like everything that we're talking about multitasking
is also expressed in that view of art: that we have to satisfy two things.
I see a lot of students here, so I'm going to ask you one question:
how many of you were involved with music in your high school?
Alright, very good, this is a good school.
How many of you were involved with, in the back of your mind,
the idea, "This is going to help my college application"?
Don't be shy. They can't see you, I can see you, alright?
How many of you were saying,
"This is going to be good on my college applications
that I'm playing music in the orchestra"?
Nobody? Alright.
I know, I teach students who say, "Oh, I really should be taking music
because it's going to help my college application
to show that I'm interested in different things, et cetera."
I am very sick of that idea of trying to prove music as something that you need
in order to become a good math student.
Through the research,
we know that if you study music, if you're involved with music,
it will contribute to your emotional and intellectual development as a child.
We knew that forever, but now science proves that too.
How many times you read a novel
with the idea that it's going to improve your research?
Maybe it will, but that's not the primary reason why you're reading a novel.
When you study physics,
do you study physics because you want to be a good athlete?
No!
You study physics because of studying physics
and the good that you can get from that.
So let's make music what it is.
Study music for the sake of music, for the beauty of aesthetics,
and for understanding how it works with other people,
working, creating music with other people and all that.
Let's not study music for the sake of something else.
So, a few trends that I noticed
and that I hope I was able to share with you
is that all the time, we are disengaged and less involved with music.
We see music as a very simple thing, something that's fun and entertaining,
and we don't try to go deeper into music.
And music is reduced to a very simple set of rules,
as is opposed to all the beauty that it can be.
And we also see, because of the way the industry works,
that diversity is not as present as we would like to have it.
I grew up in a country where within 80 miles,
I could go and visit to hear seven, eight different languages
and also hear music from seven, eight different sorts of cultures.
When I arrived in the United States,
there was absolutely no way for me to find any other music on the radio
except pop songs.
I couldn't hear French, I couldn't hear anything
other than English language, and I really missed that.
So what are we going to do now about it?
What are the steps that we can take
in order to make music relevant in our lives?
First of all, coming from my background as a performer, as a teacher,
I think, as many people as we can get involved with music is the first step.
So, it's very easy to be involved with music at any age.
Parents and future parents,
you can start to bring your kids to music classes as early as three months.
And then, you know what you went through in your elementary school;
start playing music, seek lessons,
and then, when you get to your age, college age,
that's probably the hardest time
because there's so many things going on in your life,
and it's hard to find a little time for music to be involved.
Well, try it. I know it's hard, but try it.
If you're a professional musician, on the other side,
you should actually go out and seek the audiences;
don't wait for audiences to come to you.
Go out, go into schools, go into libraries.
That's how we're going to build our audience for tomorrow.
And, as educators, we need to build skills
for people to evaluate music on their own
rather than expecting that the industry is going to give you
the right answer to what's the kind of music you should listen,
or what is the quality in music?
And finally, we should try to open our eyes and open our ears,
and include as many different cultures and as many different kinds of music,
the many different genres into our repertoire.
So, my point was not to make this into a battle cry for my cause,
but I can't help it; I have to do this.
So I would like to leave you with two challenges:
one is, if you're not involved with music, do get involved with music.
It's going to make you a happier person, no doubt.
If you are involved with music, bring others with you, share that,
and talk about benefits and beauty that you actually get through music.
And finally, I know that within the next four hours,
all of you are going to go outside, either plug in your headphones,
turn the radio on in your car, turn the radio - whatever.
My challenge is, before you set on a dial, or before you set on your playlist,
ask yourself, "Am I brave enough
to try something different, to listen to a different kind of music?"
Thank you.
(Applause)