If you'll familiar with both pop music and madrigals, you'll notice that the line separating them isn't all that thick. Love/sex is all everyone wants to hear about in today's time, and love/sex was all everyone wanted to hear about back in the 16th century. Nothing has really changed when it comes to the world of music. The only difference is their delivery and perspective, and that may very well be the most important. The people during that time were subtle and didn't stray beyond an innuendo. You have to remember they were just coming out of that quiet phase, where music was sacred. In their songs, they treated love/sex like a playful secret, where only the knowledge acquired the meaning and understood. Nowadays, innuendos rarely exist. We just come right out and say it explicitly, which in my view, loses the magic that is love. Some things are better left vague, sometimes a lack of privacy and discretion ruins what is meant to be done in private. We live in a culture where things don't count as reality unless they're "out on display". While madrigals revolved around sex/lust too, they did not value it above love itself. They still valued their beloveds rather than valued just what their beloveds could give them, whereas any song that comes on the radio says otherwise and completely paints sexual intimacy to be nothing more than a fleeting moment of pleasure, not a lifelong commitment.
I commented on posts by Brooke and Lily.
My goodness, this is so true! Our modern-day pop songs are riddled with some of the worst sexual descriptions and obscene meanings. Today's artists do not hold back, either.
ReplyDeleteAs we read through Medieval poetry and look at old madrigal ballads, we are only able to see the bad beneath the frills once it has been fully explained.
In addition, the balance of religious versus secular music has also been tipped. Nowadays, it is much more common to listen to worldly music than hymns that honor the Lord.
I see your point about being discret about their feelings of sex in Madrigals is better than today's pop music, but I disagree. I think both are evenly sinful. I believe a sin is still a sin (even when it is not seen or hidden).
ReplyDeleteI think you made some very valid points. I feel as if the madrigals were more respectful, however, than the artists are today. I also feel as if they were more passionate about their music and the stories that their music told than most pop artists you would hear on the radio are.
ReplyDelete