Fiction, essays and spoken word exploring cultural memory, forgotten women and storytelling.
Pop music is not a hobby that has gotten out of hand
Rock & roll comes from the streets - not from a classroom. That myth, of raw talent emerging from nowhere, is persistent. A pop musician is especially young and, better yet, disadvantaged, because only then is it real, authentic. Only then does she/he/it convince.
That's the myth. But what is the reality?
Unlike athletes, for whom suffering is part of the entertainment, we are not supposed to see the professional toil and sweat of performers. That only gets in the way of our enjoyment. To enjoy a ballerina's feather-light swaying, we don't want to see the disconcerting blisters on her twisted feet; to listen to a brilliant etude, we don't want to see a highly gifted pianist, sick with stress, throwing up in the toilet beforehand.
We don't see it, but we know it; such convincing performances are preceded by a lifelong investment.
A different standard applies to pop musicians; not only are we not allowed to see the painful preparations, but we must also totally ignore the professional downside. If pop music is learned, it is thought of as ‘manufactured’ (as in fake, not authentic).
If athletes cannot train or get injured, and therefore get angry, the public and media show sympathy. If pop musicians cannot rehearse or play on a stage, and get upset about it, they are called 'spoiled'.
I've seen that word 'spoiled' come up many times in the past few days, including in response to a column by musician Jett Rebel in the Volkskrant. ("I get that as musicians we don't make as much money as tourism or the hospitality industry, but is that why we're permanently at the bottom of the priority list?") Spoiled, that's just pop musicians. Not angry or sad athletes and not even musicians from another category of music (which Dutch people like to call the respectable Latin name ‘musicus’).
How does that image, of being spoiled, come about?
That as a musician you have to learn something, that you have to study hard, is not cool - at least, not when it comes to pop music. Pop is something you just have to play with your heart and soul - and don't forget to have fun. And yes, if you can't pour your heart out, and you can't have fun, and you're fretting about that, then in a pandemic you're easily called spoiled.
But the reality is different.
To become good as a pop musician, you have to search, over and over again. Day and night you are busy searching. That creative search, for a specific sound, a beautiful melodic line, a compositional surprise, takes a lot of mental strength, perseverance, trust (which you keep threatening to lose) and persistent dedication.
Imagine: you walk five hours a day through the woods to find the most diverse mushrooms for a surprising mushroom ragout. You research all kinds of recipes, try out spices, baking, steaming and roasting times, and after a lot of preparation you get a phone call and dinner is cancelled. There you are in your kitchen, defeated.
Would anyone call you spoiled then? Wouldn't everyone be understanding, and maybe even do their best to make the dinner possible after all? Introducing your findings to the public is an important reference point in your development as a musician; from there you know the direction in which you must continue your search. The search is a development that starts early and continues throughout life, with ups and downs. From that growth process the most beautiful performances can emerge.
Unfortunately, the bias toward pop musician as a profession begins as early as high school. A creative curriculum is quickly called a ‘fun package.’ Studying pop music is often dismissed as 'oh what fun it is, making a song every day'. And finally, the profession of a pop musician is all too often seen as a hobby that has gotten out of hand.
Corona has an extra bite to it. Because if you play music with pleasure (read: for pleasure), then there are weighty arguments for cancelling performances. So, no 'entertainment' for a while; after all, we are now very serious about surviving.
We are talking about loss of income, companies going bankrupt, missed connection and unavailable relaxation. But we are not talking about a professional group; about the people who have worked hard from an early age to be able to practice this profession, who have gone into debt to do so, who are undergoing training, and studying, to do so.
Pop musicians are top athletes. But while politicians regularly put moral considerations aside to allow sports competitions to go ahead ('because athletes have worked so hard'), the interests of pop musicians are ignored with incredible ease. I find this incomprehensible.
Pop musicians don't feel they are being taken seriously - and given the unfair and hard-to-fathom measures, they won't be. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science writes on its own website that it wants ‘everyone to experience culture and for teachers, artists and scientists to be able to do their jobs.’ But that promise is now being systematically, and all too easily flouted.
Facilitating live pop music is necessary. Because pop music is much, can be very much, but it is not the proverbial icing on the cake.
Blanka Pesja is ‘Art: Language & Image’ teacher at the pop department of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (2003-2025)