Big business blues

With the rise in popularity of services such as TiVo and
Netflix, it’s safe to say that many Americans center their
lives around the expedited and convenient use of media, especially
television. For years, musical and performance artists have often
lamented this trend, mainly because they worry that the members of
a television-based culture inevitably possess a limited attention
span and will not want to attend a two-hour performance with only
one intermission and no commercial breaks.

Rather than grumble about it, composer Mikel Rouse, who will
have the Los Angeles debut of his work “Music for
Minorities” on March 16 at Royce Hall, has chosen to embrace
his audience’s affinity for the television format. He even
caters to it, adopting a unique style of performance he refers to
as “romantic channel surfing.”

“People are watching TV and focusing on the media in a
different way than previous generations,” Rouse said.

“What I tried to do in a much more subtle and artistic way
is emulate channel surfing ““ maybe you almost finish one
program in bits, and maybe there’s a million things you never
reconnect or finish with, but that does become a new mode of
getting information.”

In his performances, Rouse incorporates and blends various types
of performance-based media, including live music, film and spoken
word. Rouse received earlier acclaim for “Failing
Kansas,” a multimedia performance that attempted to convey
the ideas in Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel “In Cold
Blood” in a form unique from the original narrative. With his
next piece of similar magnitude, “Dennis Cleveland,”
Rouse actually created a talk show-based opera, with a television
studio setting and even limited audience participation.

His newest work, “Music For Minorities,” continues
in the same tradition of a multimedia show, but on a slightly
smaller scale. Inspired by time he spent going back to his Southern
roots, “Music For Minorities” reflects the trademark
blues style of music from Louisiana and the Southern Delta. Rouse
means “minorities” to imply the lack of individuality
in the current offerings of corporate media, not to be confused
with its racial connotation.

Rouse performs “Music For Minorities” in its
entirety as a one-man show. In the piece, he fuses guitar-based
songs with films of interviews with people in both Louisiana and
New York City ““ all of his own direction and composition
““ to convey disparate stories and ideas.

“It’s tough to pull off, but the integration between
playing the songs and underscoring the film and the stories of the
film ties everything together,” Rouse said. “Some of
them are really meaningful; some of them are not meaningful at all,
just like television. When all that comes together, there are
moments that are quite unique.”

Yet Rouse is quick to point out that while “Music For
Minorities” is a one-man show, it cannot be classified in the
same category as performance art. Its uniqueness lies in its
devotion to music as its primary structure.

“Even though there’s a real performance element,
even though there’s an element of integration with media, at
the end of the day, the structure of music and how it integrates
into all the other aspects is my primary goal,” said Rouse.
“It’s the structure of the music that gives you a sense
that it’s not just hopeless, but that there’s something
bigger going on.”

With “Music For Minorities,” Rouse ultimately
continues his entirely original and affecting method of
storytelling that has been compared by critics to the experience of
listening to Bob Dylan for the first time, in terms of a different
sound or approach.

“Along those lines, I would like to think that a piece
like “˜Music For Minorities’ provides a performer,
whether it’s a songwriter or a performance artist, with a new
way to tell stories,” Rouse said.

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