We the Living: Objectivist Music?

If you're going to rip a novel title in entirety and commit a level of intellectual property rights infringement, you couldn't pick a more ironic source than a novel by the greatest champion of property rights. 

In an act of unconscionable unoriginality, We the Living (the band) lifted their name directly from Ayn Rand's novel.  The band claims to be influenced by Ayn Rand; apparently borderline plagiarism is their homage?  Unfortunate.  Unless the reference is to the novel's setting in post-revolutionary Russia and, like the Red Army, the band thieves and appropriates without consent.  In which case, spot on guys! 

Seriously, despite the blatant bite, the band name could legitimately have been a well-meaning (but poorly expressed) act of deference.  The real question now: is there any pay-off from the band in the form of Objectivism-inspired material?

These guys?

You'll find lyrics identical or strikingly similar in content to this throughout the lot of the band's works:

"This is the sound of you falling in love,
Can you feel it?"

Basically, the kind of vague sentimentality that would make even the most inane pop artists roll their eyes.

Then there's the self-pitying whimpering idiomatic to the indie genre where the band seems to have found their fan-base:

"I wanna tell you about me,
Let you know who I am.
But you don't care."

A song about falling in love with a person who doesn't care about you at all?  That might actually be the opposite of Objectivist lyrics.

And musically, what're these guys like?  No need to describe them.  You've already heard this band.  Even if you've never listened to a single We the Living song, you've heard every song they've written a hundred times over.  So if you're curious about this band just on the name alone, save yourself the time and the disappointment: We the Living (the band) is an uninspired mess of recycled ideas. 

If you just can't help yourself, here's a sample:





As luck would have it, the band broke up in 2010 citing a lack of passion to produce music.  Burning out after only 3 years of producing generic songs with repetitive concepts, one has to wonder: did they have any passion to begin with? 

The bad news is that these guys don't create Objectivism-inspired music in any capacity.  The good news is that at least they won't be associating wretched nonsense with one of the finest works of literature any longer.

Objectivist Music, does it exist?

Some pedantic Objectivists foam and chomp at the bit for any chance to blurt out, "Ayn Rand said there was no such thing as Objectivist music!" And they want to leave it at that, even though it's a mangled representation of a half-truth.  

If you've read the Romantic Manifesto, Ayn Rand's treatise on art, you'll find that she has exacting views regarding what constitutes good art.  You'll also note that she has little to say about music.  She readily admits that she does not have an extensive understanding of music, largely leaving the field up to others to explore; regardless, she makes two important realizations: 1) Music has a profound ability to alter man's emotion. 2) Music alone cannot define concrete things.

The first point we've all experienced; Music has emotional power that is effective apart from any conscious consideration of meaning.  It can make you feel something -- even if you don't really know what the music is about.  Cue the second realization: music can't really be about anything.  And this is the assertion that's responsible for Objectivists all over the world spouting off that music is little more significant than any other sensory experience; if it cannot define concrete things, how can music have meaning?

To a degree, that's a fair point; an oboe can imitate the sound of a duck, but no matter how many notes the oboe plays, it can't tell you what color the duck is or even really what the duck is doing.  A melody may be disjointed, and the composer may even title the piece in which it occurs, "The Psychotic Break," but you'd have a hard time making the case as to why the melody must conjure psychosis and not instead the jagged topography of a South American mountain range.  Fine, instrumental music cannot convey concretes.

Because of this, and because of its emotional effectiveness, music becomes relegated to a form of medication -- use music to feel inspired to achieve a goal.  In a functional sense, it is said there may be music appropriate for listening by an Objectivist, but there can't be such a thing as Objectivist Music because a medium which cannot convey concretes cannot carry with it any philosophic attachments -- right?

Wrong.  This entire line of argument ignores a massive category of pieces that have existed from the dawn of music itself: songs.  A song is a piece of music that has, as its central focus, a vocal performance of a text.  And let's get this clear: the entire work is the song.  One has no more right claiming the music and text are disparate elements than one has saying that a film is simply a photography project played synchronously with a story.  As a man is both his mind and body, a song is the totality of its elements: music and text.   

Music and text.

You've realized it, too?  Music -- in the form of a song -- can describe something.  Actually, a song can describe anything.  Even abstractions.  One could write, dare I say, a song about a hero with Objectivist ideals.  And this freedom of discourse is coupled with the ineffable power to influence emotion.  Hearts and minds may be won simultaneously.

So yes, a song (and thereby music) can be Objectivist.  Not only that, but it is probably the most powerful medium left unexplored by Objectivists looking to spread their ideas.  Objectivism is exceedingly convincing in a rational debate; when cold, hard logic is asserted, Objectivism prevails.  But how often have you heard Objectivism called precisely that: cold?

Music can break down that final barrier standing in the way of many who would otherwise embrace Objectivism's unassailable truths, but who are unsettled by the perception of how Objectivism 'feels.'  That's where you let the music do the convincing.  Objectivist Music.

And so this blog will serve to bring Objectivist Music into the spotlight; exploring, elevating and promoting a genre that rightly deserves the focus.