Often, when I tell someone that I like music from genres like folk-punk or thrashcore, I get an odd look and some sort of comment on how weird that is. The common thought is that it is a negative thing to consume culture outside the mainstream. People react uncomfortably when they learn that someone has cultural interests they are unfamiliar with.
It is alarming the frequency in which people give the term weird a negative connotation. Weird is not a negative term; it simply means unusual. Yet, people are far more willing to embrace the usual and make efforts to avoid or disparage the weird.
But weird is where innovation comes from. Those who embrace the strange are the ones who truly change the world, especially in cultural terms. The recently passed David Bowie is one of the most shining examples of this from past decades. Bowie had no evident fear of being perceived as strange, and chose to continuously redefine himself in new, extraordinary ways. In a six-decade spanning career, he constantly challenged his fans, and never stayed in one style to long for it to become normal. There is no music that could be called typical Bowie, because he was always innovating.
Sadly, David Bowie is a lone islet in a sea of cultural copycats. Even when many creators come up with something new, they end up creating the same thing over and over, with little variation. In the late 80s, bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Nirvana created the grunge sound, and two decades later there are still bands mimicking their sound. And without a doubt, as soon as one unique idea becomes popular, a legion of mimics will appear and turn someone’s weird, new idea into a stale played out one in a short matter of time.
One example is the use of Pachelbel’s Canon, a musical work with a chord progression that has become vastly overused. A quick search on YouTube brings up a wealth of examples of popular music from recent decades that uses that sound.
Culture becomes stagnant when people fear embracing weirdness. This is how the movie industry has decided that instead of exploring new story ideas, it has chosen to release a bunch of big-budget superhero movies and ‘re-imaginings’ of old franchises that are devoid of original thought. People are afraid of trying to enjoy new things, and it creates a culture of safeness. The only cultural endeavors that receive the financial backing they need are ones with a guaranteed return, and it seems that every year the ideas that bring back money get fewer and fewer. Society embraces the safe, as opposed to the weird, in fear of negative results.
Society loves when new groundbreaking ideas come around, but what many do not realize is their own role in achieving these ideas. There is no success without support, and so many great, weird; things desperately need some sort of support. There are certainly hundreds of skilled directors, musicians, and writers, with wonderful, original, weird ideas that could blow the minds of the populace. Yet, they are forced to spend their time following the ideals of others because people are so cautious to embrace weirdness.
People refrain from giving opportunities to weird ideas, because the results are difficult to determine before they occur. Far too often, people choose the safest ideas they can, because they fear the risk inherent in a new idea. But without taking these risks, we are sucking the fun out of culture. With every new thing being derivative of something that came before it, sooner or later society will realize that there hasn’t been a celebrated original thought in decades.
Corey Krajewski is Opinion Editor of the Bona Venture. His email is
krajewcj11@bonaventure.edu
