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10:03:2004 Entry: "Stan : Lloyd-Webber's Awful Stuff"

Lloyd-Webber's Awful Stuff

In Roger Waters' lyrics to 'It's a Miracle' there's a line that "Lloyd-Webber's awful stuff runs for years and years and years". There's an ad on our local TV channels for Lloyd-Webber's Phantom of the Opera, and from what I saw it looked far worse than awful. Ann pointed out to me that a segment of the music from this production sounded like it could have been taken from Pink Floyd's Echoes. It's my understanding that Roger alleges that Lloyd-Webber took musical structures from Echoes.

What I saw of the production and hearing a bit of music, which clearly sounded like it was borrowed to me, reminded me of another time in history: a period in Art History just after the Renaissance generally known as Mannerism when the way to make a creative effort was to use things from other art works and perhaps make them appear more dramatic. Artist stopped trying to come up with their own observations from nature and used other art works for their sources.

To me this seems so very postmodern. People feel they never have to be responsible for the content of anything because everything they write or create is simply lifted from other sources. People have the idea that they can never be blamed for making any bad art because everything they use in their production really comes from other sources. It's all very clever because in Mannerism and Postmodernism artists like Lloyd-Webber can make big productions without ever having to invest any of their deeper selves in their work.

I'm sick to death of the shallow way most creative people are recycling other creative ideas as their own in this post modern era of music and other arts. I guess I'm either old and out of step with people like Lloyd-Webber or perhaps I'm ahead of my time. There is very little art worth remembering from the Mannerist era and even the memorable works are quite dramatically dumb. I think this is how history will remember Lloyd-Webber's works. It may be like candy to most people living now, but it will surely fade quickly even from the imaginations of Lloyd-Webber's fans.

After Mannerism came to an end, artists were again looking at the human body and real landscape again for the sources of their intellectual creative works. This is how postmodernism will end soon too. People will become tired of artists who can't look into the depths of themselves and merely quote from others for their alleged creative content. I hope people will once again become interested in artists who actually lay their hearts on the line for their work instead of these worthless charlatans like melodramatic Lloyd-Webber.

2 Comments

I think it's very interesting that you compare his work to Mannerism, and then I found that Roger quote where he calls Webber's stuff "derivative." What is Mannerism if it isn't derivative?

Good observation!

Well, with this *ahem* new performing arts center that Madison now has, we can look forward to *cough* years and years and years of Lloyd-Webber productions right here in our fair city. Oh joy.

Can't wait for Cats. Just kidding.

Posted by Ann @ 10:04:2004:08:38 AM CST

I found this link which sums up Mannerism quite well, in case one needs a refresher Art History class.

In fact, when we were discussing this yesterday, Stan, I had completely forgotten about Mannerism until you refreshed my memory. It is completely forgettable. I had to laugh at reading that description by Delacroix on the link above; it could've been coming from you or Roger Waters regarding Lloyd-Webber and/or any given artist that you dislike!

Again, this plays into my own thesis that I have been on for a few years now regarding genuineness and authenticity of feeling vs. irony. It seems that so much of culture now thrives on irony.

But I don't want to go on about it, I know I've discussed it enough already.

Posted by Ann @ 10:04:2004:10:12 AM CST

By Stan @ 06:46 PM CST:10:03:04 ..::Link::..