Another long-suffering musician commits suicide, opening new opportunities to explore the signs of his downfall in his lyrics. An old music-scene friend whose deadpan humor was a set-up for truly good times passes through town and plays a last-minute show. Thomas Newman, brother of Randy [CLICK HERE to see that I’ve already been corrected about this blatant inaccuracy – it was noisy in the kitchen while I was trying to hear this interview the other day, sorry], is interviewed on NPR regarding his Oscar-nominated score for some movie, probably Up. Did you know Thomas Newman talks nothing like brother [CLICK HERE to see that I’ve already been corrected about this blatant inaccuracy – it was noisy in the kitchen while I was trying to hear this interview the other day, sorry] Randy?
We’ve long been aware of the pitfalls of the Sincerity Fallacy, but let’s face it: there are times now and then when even the most enlightened among us like a little sincerity.
Randy Newman has long been a thorn in my side. Part of it’s his music, although I’ve very slowly come around to appreciating it over the yearss. Most of it has to do with his voice and the way Newman fans defend his approach to music that for some reason gets filed under Rock ‘n Roll. Randy Newman probably would never have bugged me so much if his albums were filed alongside those by people like the jazz cat who did most of the Schoolhouse Rock stuff – or that guy with the bushy mustache and the white suit. Randy Newman should be filed in some bin that’s labeled something with an extraneous e: Olde Tyme Musik, or something like that. Not Rock ‘n Roll.
Thomas Newman speaks nothing remotely like Randy Newman. I believe they were raised together [CLICK HERE to see that I’ve already been corrected about this “misbelief” – it was noisy in the kitchen…]; as Thomas told his family history [CLICK HERE…] in a clear, California voice, there were no mentions of Randy being shipped off to a plantation in the South. Why should it matter to me that Randy Newman’s schtick is ingrained as deeply as his speaking voice? I believe Dylan remodeled his speaking voice too, but I get a good share of what I consider sincerity out of Dylan, whether it’s foolish or not that this matters. There must be some instance where you fall on the side of sincerity, regardless of whether it’s a fallacy or not.
But I’m not bringing this up to rag on Randy Newman or bemoan the setback this temporary Thomas Newman interview caused my latent appreciation for brother [CLICK HERE…] Randy’s music. I’d like to discuss the role sincerity plays in our appreciation of music. What am I looking for out of music that would ever make these thoughts cross my mind? What do you seek out of music that ever brings sincerity into the equation?
Damn! You will twist and misstate reality to get a good row goin’. Here’s a bit about Rendy Newman from Wikipedia:
“Newman was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Adele (née Fox), a secretary, and Irving George Newman, an internist.[4] As an infant, Newman moved with his Jewish family to New Orleans, Louisiana, where his mother’s family lived. He lived in New Orleans as a small child and spent summers there until he was 11 years old, his family having by then returned to Los Angeles. The paternal side of his family includes three uncles who were noted Hollywood film-score composers: Alfred Newman, Lionel Newman and Emil Newman. Newman’s cousins Thomas and David, and nephew Joey are also composers for motion pictures. He graduated from University High, Los Angeles. Newman attended the University of California, Los Angeles.”
So Thomas is not his brother; he’s a cousin. and 12 years younger. And since Randy Newman’s MOTHER was from New Orleans, and since Randy and Tom have the same last name, it’s likely their father’s were related, meaning that Tom had no reason to live in the South, where apparently Randy Newman did live for some time. I wonder if your inability to believe that Newman talks that way for real says more about your opinion of Southerners than it says about anything else.
As a former new Orleanian of long standing, I can say that Randy Newman’s speaking voice sounds Californian to me. His singing accent is something else, but in conversation he does not remind me of home.
To answer the question, what I want out of music is the appearance of sincerity, not actual sincerity. You want the singer to be convincing on some level, but basically I guess I want fake sincerity.
geo, thanks for pointing out my gross inaccuracies! Really, that was shameful and sincerely inaccurate on my part. It really was noisy in the kitchen while I was washing dishes and trying to listen to Fresh Air. I knew the whole part about him spending summers in New Orleans and even know that he once lived in the same zip code where Berylant lived in North Jersey, the zip code that makes it possible for one to appreciate the movie Garden State🙂
BigSteve, yeah, I exaggerate what I hear when I’m hearing Randy talk – and I’m about as ignorant as they come when it comes to identifying regional speech patterns. I have trouble not hearing his singing voice whenever I hear him talk. Like that MadTV skit suggests, it can be hard for the mind to allow him to “break character.”
Thanks for getting around to answering the real question, BigSteve. This is what I had hoped to explore.
“Fake Sincerity.” Great name for a record.
Bruce falls under this category when he speaks — like he’s a farmer’s son from Iowa. I believe him when he gets inside the characters when he sings, but that talking voice gets under my skin.
Sidebar: They play “I Love L.A.” at Dodger’s Stadium following a win. I’d prefer X’s Los Angeles ’cause that’s how I feel trying to get out of the parking lot…gotta get out.
For a second there, I thought we were about to learn that Thomas Newman and John Fogerty had been switched at birth, explaining their accent issues.
I’m with Big Steve: sincerity is a function of the performance, not a comparison between the performance and the real life of the musician.
Also: a lot of people think sincerity simply means “singing in a manner that sounds conventionally sincere.” That is, they’re not looking for sincerity, but for convention.
David Thomas and Captain Beefheart are two of the most sincere singers going, in my book.
I’m reading Clinton Heylin’s book Babylon’s Burning about the development of punk. In 1976-77 many people were attracted to punk bands because of what was seen as their sincerity, their commitment to some kind of punk ethos. Knowing what we know now, that seems kind of laughable, but what was really important was how, say, the Clash projected total authenticity in their performances. Strummer may not have actually been up from the streets, but it now seems sillier to have cared about such things than it does to have put on the act.
Compare and contrast the whole ‘keepin’ it real’ thing in the rap scene. I wonder if we could get a comment from Lil Wayne on this topic.
Sincere question: who’s the most insincere performer out there? That’s a tougher question to answer than you might think.
Thanks for taking an initial crack at this mwall, but I am hoping we can move a step beyond the academic level and get some personal comments on the matter. Why do ever ever get hung up on matters of sincerity when it comes to music and other arts? Although we know better than to fall prey to the Sincerity Fallacy, there are times when we all expect some level of sincerity in our music. Why? What does it do for us?
For me, it’s pretty straightforward – and maybe the first person who expresses why on a personal level will end the discussion altogether for the obviousness of the answer. That’s fine. However, I’ve been surprised many times before by our ability to skirt simple assumptions. I’ll leave that first personal answer to my question to one of you, in case my answer really is so universally agreed upon that no more discussion ensues.
BTW, that “academic level” comment was not a cut on your being an academian, mwall. It’s just the phrase that came to mind to try to explain what I’m hoping we can move beyond. I think BigSteve did a good job defining the Sincerity Fallacy a while back. I’m not attempting to dispute those thoughts.
who’s the most insincere performer out there?
That’s easy. It’s Steve Malkmus/Pavement. I don’t believe a word he says.
Bakshi: I think Nick Lowe is pretty consistently insincere. That’s not a putdown in this instance, though. I won’t claim he’s the “most” insincere but I think Lowe has done more with insincerity than almost anyone else I can think of.
Mod, for me the hang-up might be: I want the song to sound like the singer knows something about whatever is being sung about. The issue of sincerity is wrapped up for me with the “bullshit detector.” But this “knowing” about something doesn’t have to be connected to what the singer might know or not in real life; just that, in the song, the singer knows.
Doesn’t a singer have to “act” the part of the viewpoint in the song? It’s true whether they wrote it or not, that they aren’t going to be actually like the person in the song forever. Is Daltrey allowed to sing My Generation at all now that he’s old? Maybe in his internal definition, he’s going to be middle aged for a long time.
Hey cdm:
Why don’t you believe Malkmus?
I thought Sammy Hagar singing Whiter Shade of Pale is a good example of the bad kind of insincerity. He doesn’t convince me that he has any idea what the song is about, and the way he mimed the line about playing cards and pointed to his eyes when he sang “although my eyes were open” didn’t help.
On the other hand he’s pretty convincing on those ‘I just want to drive fast and drink tequila’ type songs.
Why do we care? Maybe because it’s standard nowadays for singers to be singing songs that they’ve written. Since most of these songs are written in the first person, and romance is the classic subject matter for pop songs, perhaps it’s inevitable that people think the singer is singing about his or her experiences.
I find “Angie” to be an insincere song in a bad way–but I still like it, probably more than it deserves to be liked.
mwall asked “Why don’t you believe Malkmus?”
I say: because everything I’ve heard from him (which admittedly is not a whole lot) seems steeped in irony and smug hipsterisms. I thought this was obvious and in fact part of the reason that his fans liked him. Am I wrong about that?
No, you’re not wrong. But the thing is, since he obviously doesn’t want you to “believe him” in the usual way, then not believing him isn’t actually a rejection of what he’s up to. That’s what I was saying before about “sincerity” getting trapped in “conventional.” How is it possible to “not believe” someone who wasn’t even trying to make you believe?
I went a little wild with the quotation marks there. Part of the problem.
I’ve never bought completely into the “Sincerity Fallacy”. The type of insincerity that most irks me is songwriting that comes across as a second hand rewrite of some concept of what a song should be. A particularly egregious example would be Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive”. I’ve also gotten that whiff of second hand songwriting from Tom Petty.
Petty is a great example of what you call second-hand songwriting, geo. Not all of his songs, but most of his output over the last 20 years seems to fall into this trap.
Best yet, in your comment, is the acknowledgment that sincerity itself can be worthwhile.