Outsider music

This article is about the music genre. For the record label, see Outside Music. For the jazz technique, see Outside (jazz).

Outsider music is the term used to describe songs and compositions by musicians who are not part of the commercial music industry who write music that ignores standard musical or lyrical conventions, either because they have no formal training or because they disagree with conventional rules. This type of music, which often lacks typical structure and may incorporate bizarre lyrics and/or melodies, has few outlets; performers or recordings are often promoted by word of mouth or through fan chat sites, usually among communities of music collectors and music connoisseurs. Outsider musicians usually have much "greater individual control over the final creative" product either because of a low budget or because of their "inability or unwillingness to cooperate" with modifications by a record label or producer.[1]

Very few outsider musicians ever attain anything resembling mainstream popularity; the few that do generally are considered novelty acts. This notwithstanding, there is a niche market for outsider music, and such musicians often maintain a cult following.

Though Irwin Chusid claims to have coined the term in the mid-1990s, the sociological descriptor "outsider" had been used in connection with music cultures prior to Chusid's writings (with jazz as early as 1959,[2] with rock as early as 1979,[3] and in the late 1970s it was a "favorite epithet" in contemporary music in Europe).[4]

Types

Outsider music includes various styles that cannot neatly be classified into other genres, the AllMusic guide describing it as "a nebulous category that encompasses the weird, the puzzling, the ill-conceived, the unclassifiable, the musical territory you never dreamed existed."[5]

Although an outsider musician, by definition of the word, typically operates outside the realm of the music industry, historians and critics have included a number of musicians who in fact operated from within the mainstream music industry and had significant success, even scoring hits on national charts. Pop music critic/popular culture writer Gina Vivinetto, for example, includes among her list of “outsider” musicians Brian Wilson, who not only was responsible for most of the successes of the mainstream surf-music group The Beach Boys but also charted a top 40 hit of his own with “Caroline, No;” and Syd Barrett, the original lead singer and songwriter for Pink Floyd, a band that had several hits in Barrett's tenure.[6] Irwin Chusid, in his book and companion album Songs in the Key of Z, includes Joe Meek, an English record producer with a number of hits to his credit, including the international hit “Telstar.”

There are some links between outsider music and anti-folk: the emotional starkness, the lack of formal training and the humour. Jeffrey Lewis names Daniel Johnston as a major influence, Syd Barrett influenced anti-folk's British strain, and there are similarities between the tuneless singing styles of outsider Wesley Willis and Paul Hawkins.

The book Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music (2000), by music journalist and radio personality Irwin Chusid, is a guide to outsider music. The book profiles several relatively well-known outsider musicians and gives a definition to the term. According to the guide, fans of outsider music are "fairly unusual", "inquisitive" types who have an "adventurous taste in music".[7] While the guide does not "contend that Outsiders are "better" than their commercial counterparts", it does suggest that they may be more genuine, depending on how cynical a person is "about packaging and marketing as practiced by the music business", given that a "gangsta rapper... is considered an authentic 'voice of the street'" even though they sell millions of albums.[7]

The guide argues that music that is "exploited through conventional music channels" has "been revised, remodeled, and re-coifed; touched-up and tweaked; Photoshopped and focus-grouped" by the time it reaches the listener, to the point that it is "Music by Committee" that is "second-guessed" by a large team of record company staff. On the other hand, since outsider music has little target audience, so they are autonomous, and able to go through an "intensely solipsistic" process and create a singular artistic vision. Outsider artists have much "greater individual control over the final creative contour", either because of a low budget or because of their "inability or unwillingness to cooperate with or trust anyone but themselves." The guide notes that "our inability to fully comprehend the internal calculus of Outsider art... partly explains its charisma."[1]

Notable musicians

Outsider musicians range from unskilled performers whose recordings are praised for their honesty, to the complex works of highly trained avant-garde composers.

Daniel Johnston
Wesley Willis in 2000.

Other notable musicians who are identified with outsider music include:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Time and Curiosity: Journey to the Outside"
  2. ↑ Charles Winick, "The Use of Drugs by Jazz Musicians", Social Problems 7, no. 3 (Winter 1959–1960): 240–53. Citation on 250.
  3. ↑ Bernice Martin, "The Sacralization of Disorder: Symbolism in Rock Music", Sociological Analysis 40, no. 2 (Summer 1979): 87–124. Citation on 116.
  4. ↑ Zdenka Kapko-Foretić, "Kölnska škola avangarde", Zvuk: Jugoslavenska muzička revija, 1980 no. 2:50–55. Citation on 54.
  5. ↑ Obscuro
  6. 1 2 3 Floridian: The bipolar poet
  7. 1 2 Chusid, Irwin (April 2, 2000). Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1556523726.
  8. ↑ Space Age Pop
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Becker, "Corrispondenze dall'Estero: Da Colonia", Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana 10, no. 1 (1976): 116–18. Citation on 118.
  10. ↑ Burkholder, J. Peter (1995). All Made of Tunes: Charles Ives and the Uses of Musical Borrowing. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-05642-7.
  11. ↑ Sage Rockermann, Kristin (January 1, 2002). "Daniel Johnston". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  12. ↑ Neil Strauss, "Lucia Pamela, 98, a Musician to the Moon, Dies", New York Times Sunday, August 18, 2002.
  13. ↑ Moore, David Cooper (September 12, 2012). "The Scary, Misunderstood Power of a 'Teen Mom' Star's Album". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
  14. ↑ Macpherson, Alex (September 27, 2012). "My Teenage Dream Ended: Album Review". Fact. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
  15. ↑ Freeman, Phil (September 3, 2012). "The Secret Cyborg Genius of MTV Teen Mom's Farrah Abraham". io9. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
  16. ↑ Chusid, Irwin (April 2, 2000). Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 156976493X.

External links

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