It's one of the greatest (and most tragic) human triumphs that words can be so beautiful, used in poetry to describe and entice the imagination. However, that was before the Internet and other modern advancements came along. Now, we're stronger multimedia communicators than ever before, and while the written word undoubtedly still has its place, it often feels like an incompetent solo artist who plays better with a band.
Speaking of band, music is one of the prime affected: styles of music are borne from disparate sources, mixed up in a blender and like their foody counterparts, passed from person to person and varied, bred along the way. To describe clusters of music, most people don't sing a melody (altho they perfectly well could!) which is symbolic, they use labels. Ah yes, these labels get affixed when something gets popular, as a way of tagging-'n'-bagging it.
The problem is plainly evident, especially with the rapid growth of electronic music: the manifested thing outgrows its label but each person has a conflicting concept of what it means. Word wars and even club fisticuffs arise from these weaknesses, where the actual music has long transcended a label. Pedantic self-indulgence takes over, not unlike Keystone Kops getting into a car crash and arguing over who was right — instead of focusing on the bandit who got away.
I envision a future where legal dinosaurs continue to be challenged and we have easier ways to accurately refer to music and the many other things that demand more than words. A plausible form today would be making auto-linking easier, so I don't have to go through several websites and find a song to link to. I can type it in just about any app which allows for text entry, and have a hyperlink inserted seamlessly.
The most important thing here is being able to blend all the ingredients we use to communicate into a stew far more savory than any one sense, mode, or medium can provide.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I can't really speak to music or academic theory — the former of which is to me a magical mystery and the latter of which is a box of polysyllabic disdain — but I do concretely disagree about this: that words are taking a back seat to anyone.
If anything words take on only more meaning in an accelerating world; pictures and music have little to no primal legal standing; it is through a vast chicanery in language alone that we are being disinherited by diabolical entities; it is through words and text that power is exercised by those who rule — and to combat that even on the sparsest level, one had better know to read and write…and I am not to familiar with any academics writing their nonsense papers without words, let alone any musicians impacting the broader culture without lyrics, these days.
Too many academics are locked into tradition. They don't have enough fun. And what's fun? Dancing and music.
Also, what you said about lyrics reinforces the point I made — they're more effective when made melodic!