Posted by manualblock [ 69.112.69.86 ] on October 11, 2005 at 08:36:20:

In Reply to: Re: Starbucks posted by lon on October 11, 2005 at 00:25:26:

Well; thats a hard concept for me in terms of wrapping my thoughts around whether music is happy, or sad, or melancholic. This is not the first time I have heard this argument that the Blues music by definition is a sad music. I personally and the people I speak to about this can't see the line of debate here. Blues to me represents a means of communication developed around the human condition.
Not whether it may be telling a sad story but is it telling any kind of story? That is where the value lies in offering the human component of day to day living.
There is a type of music sung in Portugal called Fado. Those unfamiliar with this genre will hear it and call it a sad sound. The Portuguese say that is wrong; they say Fado is life and the music holds within it all of life; the pathos/longing/desire/love/regret on and on. If you say it is sad they say all of life is short and that is what gives the music it's beauty. That we can enjoy all of these beautifull things while knowing they will come to an end.
That is more of how I see the music of the Bluesmen; it represents what is true about living.
When you offer the Polka as a example; that is a dance music developed as a music to dance by. That I see as similar to the Tango; an ethnic music derived from several sources that allows people to express it in motion.
So when you compare swing with blues in the sense of whether one is more legitimate than the other regarding what that music is saying I don't have a real response. To me they are different animals.

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