If there is an industry more conservative and less likely to take chances than popular music I'd be surprised. Now obviously I'm not talking about the independents who operate on the fringes of the business, but the big players for whom this is a multi-million-dollar industry. They're about as liable to take a risk as Bush and Cheney are to be invited as guest speakers at an Amnesty International convention. It's why when you turn on your radio or listen to the Top Forty, you're only going to hear the same few songs played over and over again.
Oh there might be some variations — perhaps the lyrics will change or the face behind the voice will be different — but pretty much everything else is just a variation on a few themes. Don't fool yourself into believing that the music industry has anything to do with artistic creation; it's all about making money, which means taking no chances and not messing with a formula that works. Both of which are the antithesis of artistic creation, as taking risks and doing things differently are how an artist breaks new ground. When was the last time you heard an established popular musician or band do something radically different or even change their sound in a minor way?
While it's true there are some who may tinker with their sound, a quick survey of their careers will show it always remains within certain parameters. Very few have had the courage and the ability to almost completely re-invent themselves and move their music in a completely new direction. Which is exactly what Iggy Pop has done with his new release on EMI, Preliminaires. For instead of an album filled with his signature smash and destroy rock and roll that earned him the name "grandfather of punk," Preliminaires sounds like it sprung from the cafes and bistros of the Left Bank in Paris.
Such isn't surprising when you consider the fact that it was inspired by French novelist Michel Houellebecoq's 2005 novel, The Possibility Of An Island. Iggy had been approached to write some songs for a documentary about the author's life including his attempt to direct a film of his book. However, what he ended up creating was a score for the novel itself, for as he states in a press release announcing the disc, "I found the emotions from my reading transforming themselves into music."
Article comments
1 - Jon
Uh, don't you mean "Godfather of Punk"?
2 - Phil
Excellent review. I am an Iggy fan from The Grande and Eastown days in Detroit and I thought I would hate this. Not so at all...I hear shades of The Idiot. The more I hear the more it grows on me. Mr. Ig is crazy like a fox...I can already hear this stuff in a movie soundtrack, which is appropriate since it was inspired by a book. Thanks for your insight.