Vernacular Sounds

          To Alex Ross all American composers are invisible men. They lacked the tradition, support and audiences that composers in Europe had in the 1920's, but that was no restrain. He describes it as a freedom from tradition that allowed the American music scene to be full of diversity and incongruence, where composers created previously unheard music that thrusted American music to great heights. The lack of tradition allows people to break and set barriers that lead them to new findings.

          Duke Ellington's success caught my attention due to his exemplary deviation from tradition. Will Marion Cook, another African-American musician, told him "You know you should go to the conservatory, but since you won't, I'll tell you. First you find the logical way, and when you find it, avoid it, and let your inner self break through and guide you" (p. 165). Listening to Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-oo" one hears distinctive solos that distinguish from the rest of the composition with fast velocities and distorted sounds. According to Ross these innovations gave a sense of "circling like a cool crowd of onlookers". When I listened to the song I was unable to feel that circling, but I remembered another type of music that to me came out of nowhere and made me feel like I was being circled by a mashup of onlookers. I am talking about Skrillex's "First of the year", which features a blend of dubstup and electro house. I actually know nothing about these genres, but when I heard this song I was expecting something something like a rap, but suddenly the electronic part begins to and then the "bass drops". For the first time in my life I heard the crazy stringy sound effects. I have no other words to describe this because I do not even know what it is, but it feels similar to the breaking of tradition that Ross refered to. Like Ellingon, Skrillex did not go to the conservatory. Instead he created the most illogical sounds I have ever heard. 

vernacular: using a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than a literary, cultured, or foreign language