Buddy Rich's Dislike For Country Music

The Evolution of Music through Genres

Question:

Discuss About The Essentially A Movement Against Musicians?

Music, like all other art forms, has never been stagnant in only one place. With the evolution of humans, music has also continuously evolved and newer forms of music sprung from basic structures. Genres have given birth to other genres, that actively breathed life into newer genres and all of these collectively reached out to even greater number of people. While some music genres were restricted to certain groups and social structures, the newly developed genres appealed to other social groups. Like blues, which was originally brought to the western world by the African plantation workers, gave birth to jazz, which was almost synonymous with the most elite sections of the society. Buddy Rich was one of the most prolific and influential drummers of all time and a true jazz legend (McDonough 2017). His playing style and technique influenced and shaped the playing style of the countless other jazz drummers that were to idolize him. However, being a human being, he held his own beliefs and had preferences towards specific genres and held dislike for others. Buddy Rich was not at all fond of country music because of many reasons that were elaborated by himself on many occasions on different interviews and the current essay looks into the many facets that rendered his dislike towards the genre of country music to be sanctified by himself (Wilson 2018).

Jazz, in its purest form, even though is derived from blues, detached itself from its roots in terms of being available or accessible by the mass. Jazz maintained a stature where it was meant to be only for the musically refined and those who did not possess any knowledge about complex musical theories could not appreciate the complicated playing techniques of jazz. Buddy Rich was a benchmark in not only jazz, but across any and every music genre. However, he had reservation against country music that he had highlighted in many different occasions. Buddy Rich expressed his discontent over the genre of country music publicly and dismissed the entire musical form to be “too simple” for everyone to learn and play (Milkowski 2018).

Buddy believed in musical sophistication and his loathing of country music was not kept to himself by any means. Public interviews and talk shows were platforms which were broadcasted across national and even international channels and these served as the places where Buddy emphasized his disregard for the country western genre of music. Buddy argued that country music was a giant step backwards, in a time when all other musical forms and other aspects of life was moving ahead: people were landing on the moon, new technology was being invented, jazz was creating things and playing styles that were never imagined of before. Standing from this place, it was his view that country music is too primitive and did not offer the listener anything new to think about or be excited about. On the other hand, he argued, jazz has given the world prolific musicians who have expanded the fields of music to extents that were uncharted before.

Jazz: Detached from its Roots

Despite his views on country music, it must be remembered that Buddy held a very narrow view of country music overall. Musicians such as Chet Atkins, Hank Cochran, Lucinda Williams and John Denver have all made incredible additions to the world of music (McDonough 2017). Country music being simple is the exact thing that helps to attract a lot of people. The dream like country music has the power to invoke nostalgia and hit a very personal place with the listener which is often associated with fond memories (Milkowski 2018). This has helped country music artists to make sure that more people are attracted towards the music because they can relate their beautiful childhood times with the music. Artists can tap into a place within the listeners that gives them instant connection and the both can begin a journey together towards a dreamscape that can enable the listener to sit back and smile.

On the other hand, jazz is all about complexity and technical virtuosity that shows of the capabilities and the prowess of the player. However, it must be remembered that, complexity does not always mean “better”. A song can be tremendously complicated in terms of the time signatures or the complexity of the rhythm sections, and still can lack the very passion and the heart that is the essential foundation of music to begin with. It should be remembered that blues and soul artists had initially dismissed even jazz artists by saying that they only make noise and not actual music. However, this view of jazz has since been changed and the prolific talent that is required to play jazz has long been acknowledged and incorporated into mainstream music (Rosario 2015).

To understand Buddy’s perspectives on country music, we have to also understand the contemporary social structures and the music scenes that were prevalent at that time. It was an actual fact that jazz had been experiencing somewhat of an ignorance and even legendary and superb instrumentalists were being overlooked. On the other side, country music had taken over the western world and a number of artists and musicians had shot into fame who were essentially using the same style and the same techniques as their baseline (Wilson 2018). Buddy’s dissent for country comes from a suppressed anger and he mostly speaks up for a whole community of musicians who felt, at that time, that their talents were not appreciated enough and cheaper skills and shallow musical styles were being prioritized over. To be very honest about the origin of jazz, its roots are firmly planted into the fields of blues, which is essentially as simple as music can get. To brag and be vocal about a music style that traces its ancestry back to one of the most basic and simplistic forms of music, is almost nothing short of coming off as arrogant. To be fair, even country music sprang from the same aquifer which gave birth to jazz. Hank Williams, one of the most highly regarded country and western music artists, himself learned to play the guitar from a black blues musician, which almost gives him the same background as Buddy Rich in terms of musical origins.

Buddy Rich's Views on Country Music

If things are to be categorized in a singular perspective of how many chords were used to write the song, people may very well completely reject the entire musical efforts that were made by the Ramones. Almost all of their songs comprised of mainly three chords and a simple drum groove. They did not exhibit virtuosic playing styles or did not display much technical mastery. And yet, somehow, their music hit the mass in a way that no one before or after them could manage to do and they became one of the greatest punk groups to have existed. If complexity and technical prowess were indeed the parameters that decided if a song is good or not, then the Ramones would not have any hopes to carve the place for themselves which they did. Blues, which lay down the foundation stones for so many different and versatile music genres that were to come in the following decades, including heavy metal, was also often a rustic display of simplistic chords and super laid back rhythms carried the entire songs. Jazz is also a derivative form of the same music style as the others, but incorporates much complex techniques and playing styles that require the instrumentalists to often possess an in depth knowledge about musical theory.

However, there is still some justification and truth to the opinions and views of Buddy Rich that he had towards country music. The lyrical content of the music genre seldom went beyond some core themes and the same themes were essentially presented in different combination styles. This can soon become incredibly tiring for the listener who is always trying to get exposed to something new and venturing into newer grounds in terms of art (Sobhani, Snyder and Steward 2017). The music, however soothing or peaceful as it may be, it fails to keep the listener hooked to the genre, if all that is being presented to the listener are basically the same things on loop. The same issue had also persisted during the anti-disco movement, which was the point of origin for an array of different musical forms in the later years, such as Hip Hop and other similar subcultures. The disco culture had become stagnant after a point and had started to only reproduce the same things over and over again (Rosario 2015). The apprehension that was given a rise by the disco music soon started to look for other forms of music which helped the artists to express themselves as they wanted to and in the process a new culture and musical genre was given life to.

Deeper Analysis of Buddy's Views

Buddy’s personal dissent towards country music stems from what some may identify as ignorance on his part and some sort of personal reservation against the genre (Blair 2015). For others, it is simply the fact that he chose to be narrow minded and did not want to accept any form of music that could form its base upon simple tunes and nothing complicated. The technical mastery that he possessed about jazz drumming is unquestioned and often hailed as supreme. During the height of his career, he was billed as the “Greatest Drummer of all Time” (Fark.com 2018). This sort of recognition does not happen unless the player actually has something to back up such claims. However, being bestowed with such titles and honour can also significantly create a boundary around the celebrities and make their visions highly narrow. However, there are some people who look at Buddy Rich as a person who is giving the voice to the people who were prolific at playing instruments and in a genre of music that was being largely ignored at that time because of the skin colour of the people who were playing the music. Jazz, and especially bebop, was dissed as “noise” by a lot of musicians at that time. Even the movement that gave momentum to development of a subculture against the disco style was also essentially a movement against the black musicians. Irrespective of the final results of the movement or what new things it gave birth to, the initial sparks of the same were lying in racial undertones which was very valid at the time of Buddy Rich (Wilson 2018). His interviews and ideals that he held against country music can also be viewed from a perspective that may has to involve an understanding of racism in the contemporary American society.

Despite his great reputation as a fantastic drummer, Buddy had also grown a reputation for himself for showcasing mean behaviour towards his bandmates in many cases. He became widely known for getting into arguments with members from his band and firing them on the spot, while a performance was going on (Milkowski 2018). This is indeed something that is to be frowned upon and not to be exhibited by a celebrity.

From the above discussion, it can fairly concluded that Buddy Rich held some reservations against country music that were not always justified. When it comes to music, what it ultimately is diluted to is the matter of personal choices and tastes. People listen to a lot of genres of music and from those they chose the one that they feel the most connected to and delve deeper into the genre. Even if a person does not like a specific genre of music, ridiculing the entire genre and degrading the people who listen to it or the artists who work hard to create the same, is something that cannot be accepted. One of the most popular myths that surrounds Rich is the story of him being on his deathbed and when asked what is that he fears the most, to replied with “country western”. Hating something such content can come off as being inhibited towards it and it cannot bode well when making a judgement about the same. Music is something that is attributed, ultimately, to the ears of the listener, and cannot be simply disrespected because the person talking about it does not feel good about listening to a specific genre.

References

Blair, J., 2015. Southern California Surf Music, 1960-1966. Arcadia Publishing.

McDonough, J., 2017. Buddy Rich FIRE STARTER. DOWN BEAT, 84(1), pp.42-44.

Milkowski (2018). Bugle Call Rag - Buddy Rich & His Orchestra - Jul 1, 1967. [online] Available at: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2010/07/buddy-rich-his-orchestra-bugle-call-rag.html [Accessed 27 Jan. 2018].

Rosario, N., 2015. Burn This Disco Out.

Sobhani, S., Mark Snyder, M. and Steward, T., 2017. 80 Years of Popular Music. Metamorphosis.

Wilson, J. (2018). Music. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/1974/06/02/archives/how-buddy-rich-discovered-karate-and-tamed-his-temper-music-ever.html [Accessed 27 Jan. 2018].