Content, art, music

Music is very frequently categorised by style (rock, classical, blues ) or genre (opera, symphony, instrumental) and people are asked whether they like a particular style (e.g. rock or classical) or genre (opera, ballet).This is superficial and not the most important point. It was Hegel in his Aesthetics who made the relevant distinction – between what may be termed entertainment and art.Science and technology can also be used to produce the trivial, harmless toys, or the extremely important. In the same way art can be used to provide pure entertainment or profound insight: 'it may appear as if fine art were unworthy of scientific consideration; because it is alleged, it is at best a pleasing amusement... it is no doubt that art can be employed as a fleeting pastime, to serve the ends of pleasure and entertainment, to decorate our surroundings, to impart pleasantness to the external conditions of our life, and to emphasise other objects by means of ornament... That art is in the abstract capable of serving other aims, of being a mere pastime, is moreover a relation which it shares with thought... art... only achieves its highest task when it has taken its place in the same sphere with religion and philosophy, and become simply a mode of revealing to consciousness and bringing to utterance... the deepest interests of humanity, and the most comprehensive truths of the mind.'Hegel argues, for example 'It is in works of art that nations have deposited the profoundest intuitions and ideas of their hearts; and fine art is frequently the key... to the understanding of their wisdom and of their religion.'The 'classical' music which is still performed, and it is only a tiny fraction of that which was written, is so not because it is performed on violin or piano but because it expresses something important. But it is very far from encompassing all the profoundly important experiences of humanity. Beethoven or Bach had no experience, for example, of the life of black people under slavery and its aftermath in the US. Therefore blues, which resulted from this, is both profoundly important and has a content which was not expressed in classical music.Much music is, at best, only entertainment not because it is played on particular instruments or with a particular style, but because it expresses nothing important. Beethoven is important because he expresses something and so does Howling Wolf. It is essentially irrelevant that they have totally different styles – although the content does, of course, determine the style, but that is a different issue.