Thousands of years ago, in or about 1977, I remember reading the intemperate jazzer Benny Green writing about Genesis, whose years of commercial success were just beginning. Green was not impressed. ‘It’s all very loud bits and very quiet bits,’ he said, or words to that effect. You can just imagine his customary wasp-chewing grimace of lofty contempt. But then everyone over a certain age hated pop music in those days, and senior jazzers were often wheeled out to express the silent majority’s view.
Green’s comment hit home with me partly because, at the time, I adored Genesis, and partly because he was right. It was all very loud bits and very quiet bits. That was the fun of it. Lovers of rock music don’t necessarily seek any great subtlety in their dynamics, but they do love a bit of drama. Is not ‘Song 2’ by Blur simply a very, very quiet bit followed by a very, very loud bit? And it is uncompromisingly thrilling, sending a shiver up the spine and straight out through the top of the head to this day.
As it happens, I am now the same age as Green was when he said those words, and I have to admit that, as I get older, my interest in loudness for the sake of loudness begins to wane.
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