Music and Authenticity

Music and Authenticity

A recurring theme in music, while very poorly understood, is that of authenticity. This term is generally used to define musicians' fidelity to their cultural roots and musical traditions; however, it is ambiguous. On the one hand, it seeks to distinguish a particular music, as well as the cultural, aesthetic and even social or political stance taken by the musicians who perform that music. On the other hand, all music inevitably suffers the repercussions of the influences of globalization, westernization, but above all of western style "commodification": world music becomes a commercial commodity. As soon as they are no longer profitable, they are abandoned. A number of music’s considered traditional have been remodeled according to the mold imposed by this commercialization, thus modifying a presumed authenticity.

What then defines authentic music? Is it the respect of a tradition? No tradition is static; it undergoes diverse influences and evolves. Does music that originated in the twentieth century really have a tradition when its roots lie in slavery or oppression? Is pop music that emerged in the 80s authentic, despite potential links to any tradition? Do musicians who fuse African and Irish, Chinese or other instruments make authentic music? Is a rock band from Singapore more authentic than a rock band of Australian aborigines? These musicians say that they express their cultural roots through rock, roots that are sometimes difficult to discern because their rock is so typical and so little "different".

The term authenticity, for want of another, is often misused. It seeks to demarcate and protect a few still living elements of precarious cultures, lost in a westernizing sound mass, as well as to try to particularize the cultural and social roots of a music, despite the influences that are often imposed on it. All world music is today diluted to a greater or lesser extent. Is there then real authenticity when a music has been created outside its country and culture of origin? Is there authenticity when none of the members of a gypsy group are originally gypsy?  Is there authenticity when Chinese musicians perform Western pieces on their Chinese instruments? Many musicians are judged on the basis of the crossbreeding they practice. Often, musicians who are truly authentic and traditional are criticized precisely because they do not mix.

How to really define musical "authenticity"? in this case? Generally speaking, something is defined as authentic when its truth, reality or sincerity is unquestionable.

In this essay, I will try to develop how the vision of authenticity is shaped by the society in the sense that it is this same society that provides the new inventions and technologies that make music evolve. However, these inventions and technologies make music non-authentic and break with pre-existing genres for some individuals. We are therefore in a situation where the people "responsible" for the development of music, instruments and new musical genres view them negatively, which can be problematic and even contradictory.  

1. Renewal in music and in society, a concept that is not always well received.

The notion of authenticity, and especially in the musical field, has a lot to do with the technical progress made by society in parallel to this musical field. Indeed, what is new, what is newly invented is often considered as non-authentic because it is new, it is unusual, it breaks with what already exists and so some people are against progress in its early stages.

Thus, it must be kept in mind that many new instruments, musical technologies or even new styles are the result of inventions that sometimes have nothing to do with music. We can take the example used by Laurence Libin in her writing Progress, Adaptation, and the Evolution of Musical Instruments, she explains that the evolution of music and instruments doesn’t stem solely from the evolution of the musical style, and she illustrates it with the case of the “prepared piano”, which was a piano whose form has been modified in order to satisfy buyer’s taste, which is an economic factor. Moreover, she explains us that during the war, the piano strings were used to replace the copper which was missing. In order to overcome this lack, people had to invent new strings and so to push forward their instrument.

The case of the piano is therefore a good example of the author’s thesis.

But on the other hand, society can also benefit from advances in music that can be emancipatory.

If we take the example of the phonograph (which is an acoustic device that reproduces recorded sounds), William Howland Kenney explains in his text The Gendered Phonograph that it allowed women's liberation when it has been invented (in 1877 by Thomas Edison).

Indeed, society was at that time a bit “macho” and women had a well-defined place: they were “housewives”, in charge of the decoration and the cleaning of their home while the husband was working to feed the family.

But according to William Kenney, thanks to the phonograph, women no longer had to improve their musical skills, but they could still introduce a musical culture into their homes. This is why women were somewhat liberated from the guardianship of their husbands and also from their life as housewives: they gained autonomy and freedom thanks to the phonograph in their private space, which had consequences for society as a whole.

More broadly, this was a source of liberation for women because it led to a new vision of their place and status in society: women became more independent, lived alone, and began to work (selling phonographs, for example, they were the ones with the most experience and musical culture).

Doing that, the phonograph was one of the elements which broke the “tradition” and the hitherto established order in which women had to be confined to the home. It had an inauthentic dimension for this reason, but above all for the technological advance it represented.

[pic 1]

• advertising poster for an Edison phonograph highlighting its popularity with women.

Here, we have seen why the progress in the musical field is closely dealing with the notion of authenticity. Now, I am going to develop this opposition through examples more precise on new technologies which were breaking the rules at the time they were invented.

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