This week in class, we listened to Bob Dylan. I have heard his name before, but have never listened to him since I’m not really into his type of music. It was interesting to me that he won the Nobel Prize for literature, not for music. However, towards the end of class and after having heard some of his songs, it’s evident why.
One thing I liked about his music is that whatever there is to hear, it’s right there for you. There’s nothing extraordinarily spectacular about his lyrics or his voice, but you can tell him apart from others and his message was there loud and clear. His singing doesn’t appear to be singing, but rather him speaking into the microphone at times. That was another thing I liked about his music. He makes a few subtle changes from what we now consider to be “the norm”, and what everyone else is doing, but he’s special for that. His performances were simple, just him and 2 other instruments, opposed to singer now a days, who use their voices and a million other effects/instruments/featurings. I liked the more toned down effects, and more focus on the lyrics and voice of the singer. The lesser the amount of editing and distracting effects/unnecessary sounds, the better you can hear and understand what the singer is trying to convey.
I think it’s true that Bob Dylan is sui generis, meaning he’s his own genre, and one of a kind. Although he falls into the category of folk music, he is clearly his own category within. He’s different from people of his time, before, and after as well. Being that many of his songs were anti-war and pro-civil rights, many of them stirred up controversy and got him into some trouble.
One song we listened to was “Blowin’ in the Wind”. Unfortunately, we live in a world where we are still battling American involvement in military conflict. Is sad to see how a song written not so recently discusses a problem we are still facing. We still have people constantly dying in warfare and people are fighting for this country all the time. “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” was also an interesting song to me because he sang about the nuclear threat. Although these songs were written many years ago, they are scarily still relevant to us.
Finally, I can see why Bob Dylan is such an icon, and there is no doubt in my mind that he deserved that Nobel Prize, but I personally wouldn’t listen to his music again since it isn’t my style.