I agree with Rachel Aroesti that Brian Wilson was a gift to humanity, and I love his music (Brian Wilson was a musical genius. Are there any left?, 14 June). But musical genius should not be equated with mainstream success – music exists to be appreciated by whomever it reaches. And I could name many lesser-known musicians who still push the boundaries of sound: Anna Meredith’s marrying of electronic and classical springs to mind, for example, or Anna B Savage’s mix of intimate pop vocals with soaring folk arrangements.
Beyond that, Aroesti seems to be working from a very narrow frame of cultural reference. Her article says Wilson was “lyrically radical” in transforming pop into an “emotional autobiography”, in the words of Wilson’s biographer David Leaf. What about French chansons that dominated Europe in the 1940s and 1950s and brought autobiographical lyrics into the mainstream?
Aroesti also suggests pop music reached its apotheosis in the 1960s and is now repeating itself – which overlooks the fundamental truth that all art is in conversation with itself, on a never-ending journey of development. Sure, Shakespeare and Chekhov were unusually great, but there were some decent plays written in the 300-plus years between them, and we’d never have got to Chekhov without the stepping stones of all the interim works.
I suggest Aroesti spends some time reflecting on the system she lives in, which seems to lead her to believe that the only remaining musical geniuses are all over 70 (and mostly boomer white men). In the meantime, I’m off to listen to Kae Tempest (a genius, in my eyes).
Anoushka Lucas
London
• The question posed in Rachel Aroesti’s article is provocative, but the frame is narrow. It treats “musical genius” as if it exists primarily within western pop and rock, ignoring the extraordinary musical invention happening in pop music across the globe and in other genres. Brian Wilson was a brilliant innovator, but he drew inspiration from classical, jazz and experimental music. Aroesti briefly touches on the Beatles, but not on their immersion in Indian music. This interconnectedness matters. Genius is rarely confined by geography or genre.
If Aroesti thinks pop feels stagnant, perhaps that says more about the industry in the west than about the existence of genius. It may not always be packaged for British or US charts, but that does not mean it has vanished. We have more music available at our fingertips than at any other point in our history; we just need to listen more widely.
Tarik O’Regan
San Francisco, California, US
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