Rock n Roll invades the Discworld26 July 2014tWell, I can't believe that I have just finished my 16th Terry Pratchett Discworld novel, and that is over two years (no, not sixteen books in two years, 16 Discworld novels in two years) since I decided that I would give Pratchett the benefit of the doubt and actually read them again prior to writing up a commentary, and this isn't even the last of the Discworld novels on my 'to read' list (I think there are another six, which would bring it up to The Last Continent). Anyway, enough of my pondering over the Terry Pratchett books that I have read because I think it is time to say a few things about this particular book.tAs I was discussing this book with a friend last night we came upon the conclusion that there were a number of things in this book that felt forced, such as the parody of Rock n Roll. While the concept was good, and amusing in a way, I felt that the term 'Music with Rocks In' just seemed a little too forced. It seemed as if Pratchett had come up with another modern phenomena to throw into Discworld but struggled with a suitable name, which suggests that maybe Pratchett's creative juices in regards to Discworld are starting to run out. However, as I suggested above, there are another six books on my to read list (Discworld novels that is) so we will see where they go from there.tSoul Music was a little strange in that while wikipedia lists it as a 'Death' novel (that is a novel starring the favourite Discworld character, not the state one enters when one ceases to live) it seemed that Death was a minor character, and the whole Susan Sto Helit storyline was more of a subplot. I say this because he focus of the novel was more on Buddy, Cliff, Glod, and their Music with Rocks In band. To me it felt more like Moving Pictures, in that a new idea arrives in Anhk-Morpork and takes the city by storm, which is the modern phenomena known as 'Rock n Roll'. tWhen I say Rock n Roll, Pratchett is referring to: or: as opposed to: or: though he does give a tribute to: and: (You can click on the image to open up a video-clip on Youtube).tWell, that is enough of me showing off my limited HTML skills (even though some of the limit is imposed by Goodreads) and time to get back to the book. Considering the content of this book (and others like it) I sometimes wonder whether Pratchett has a conservative outlook on life since, once again, we have a modern phenomena invading Discworld and by the end this phenomena is defeated and Discworld goes back to being your normal (or not so normal) fantasy world. In Moving Pictures we had an invasion of, well, moving pictures, and in Reaperman we had an invasion of shopping centres. In another sense it could simply be satire, and here were have Pratchett taking aim at the music industry, especially with CMOT Dibbler successfully (or not so successfully since he doesn't get any of the money) profiting heavily off of the band (we have five thousand dollars for Dibbler, and out of that comes our cut of twenty dollars).tI guess in another sense Pratchett is using the absurdity of Discworld to poke fun at the absurdity of modern life, in this case being rock n roll music. The phenomena that arose in the fifties saw a change in the way music was performed. Then again there was not actually all that much of a change. I guess what changed is the style of music in that prior to the fifties much of the popular music, such as jazz, was played in pubs and clubs, while classical music would be played in the concert halls. What musicians like Elvis and The Beatles did was take the popular music out of the club and moved it to the concert hall (or more fittingly the outdoor stage). Where as before you had huge orchestras performing in concert halls, the number of musicians suddenly shrank significantly, usually hovering between three to five. Then there was the mass marketing of music, and this came about with the development of the record player, the radio, and then the television (though while record players had been around for quite a while, we suddenly begin to see them in every home).tWhat I guess Pratchett is really poking fun at here is the effect that the music seemed to have on people. As Pratchett points out, applause would begin at one spot and then radiate out, however when the Band with Rocks In arrived on stage, the entire crowd erupted simultaneously. We have the wizards changing hairstyles and clothes (with one wearing a leather jacket with 'Born to Rune' studded on the back, and this jacket plays a rather interesting role at the end of the book) and we have fans going absolutely crazy when the music is played. In fact that is the key to the antagonist in this book: music changes people - in fact the music has a life of its own.tWhere does Death fit into all of this. Well, the book opens with Death, and it closes with Death, and it seems that Death is going through another of his crises. I would suggest that it is a mid-life crisis, but this is Death we are talking about, and he is technically not mortal (and as such cannot have a 'mid-life crisis', but rather is a personification of an idea. This time it is the realisation that he cannot forget anything, so he goes on a quest to learn how to forget. Obviously, when he goes off on his merry adventures somebody needs to fill in the void, which is where Susan Sto-Hellit comes into the picture, the daughter of Mort and Ysabell. In fact, what we discover that sixteen years (or longer) has passed since the events of Mort, which is longer than the amount of time that passed between the publication of Mort (1987) and this book (1994).
“He had the feeling, once again, that he’d missed out on something somewhere. He’d never really realized it until the last couple of days. He didn’t know what it was. He just wanted to do things. He didn’t know what they were. But he wanted to do them soon.”“There are millions of chords. There are millions of numbers. And everyone forgets the one that is a zero. But without the zero, numbers are just arithmetic. Without the empty chord, music is just noise.”It was just happenstance that the first Pratchett book I got to read after Sir Terry died last month is one of those that feature DEATH, and musings on, but it certainly made the experience of reading Soul Music more bittersweet than it would have been otherwise. It didn’t end up being my favorite Discworld book, but it’s still a reminder of what we’ve lost in losing* Terry Pratchett.*A euphemism implying we can probably find him hiding under our beds or stuffed in the fridge next to the ketchup if only we just looked hard enough.The Discworld books don’t have to be read in order, but I have to read them that way. If you’re looking for a way in to the series, you could do worse than with this book. I feel it’s good, not great. But if you want a stellar one to start with I’d recommend Guards! Guards! instead, or even Reaper Man, which was the previous book in the DEATH sub-series. Terry Pratchett’s version of Death is an anthropomorphized, soulful, skeletal sort of guy who’s always having emotional crises, losing faith in his job, and then wandering off for a while to find himself. He also speaks IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.This time around, his crisis precipitates his granddaughter, Susan, taking over the business. Susan is a very practical girl, raised by her parents (Death’s adopted daughter and his old apprentice) to disregard anything even remotely nonsensical. While Susan is busy learning the Family Business, magical disaster is of course once again invading the Discworld, this time in the form of music. Specifically of the type “with rocks in.” Imp y Celyn (Welsh for Bud of the Holly . . . get it?) and two new acquaintances also new to the fine disaster of a city known as Ankh-Morpork decide to start a band after being rejected by the Musician’s Guild, and after finding a guitar in a Mysterious Shop that produces the most wondrous music . . .As they tend to do in Discworld books, the two stories converge in a manner I can only describe as “wonko,” but the twin themes of Death and Music actually work really well together, and I ended up coming out of the book sort of teary-eyed, and not just because I was thinking about its dearly departed author.
What do You think about Soul Music (1999)?
With the exception of The Color of Magic, this is the only Discworld novel I did not like. I'm not entirely sure why; maybe when compared with the lofty subject matter Pratchett has tackled in the other books, a fantasy novel about rock music seemed frivolous. Pratchett definitely belabored the Elf jokes (you'd recognize them); really, once was enough, and twice was pushing it. Past that, I was telling the pages that I got the joke, and would they cut it out. They didn't listen.However, if I appreciated anything about the book, it was his description of the blues: It was sad music. But it waved the sadness like a battle flag. It said the universe had done all it could but you were still alive.Yeah, man. Even Andrew Vachss never nailed it quite so succinctly. So, kudos for that.
—Rev. Nyarkoleptek
Another great Pratchett which takes the idea of music having a soul and life of its own which inhabits and drives the disc world. I really enjoyed this book because it gave me a little bit of all the characters I love, swapping between death, the city guards, wizards and other interesting characters whom I'm becoming to know well. This book also introduces Susan, deaths granddaughter and let's us love him in a new and more insightful way.My only draw back was, given,the amount of characters in this one, it flitted around a bit more than your usual Practchett - which is a hell of a lot. While reading this book either between work or at bedtime I found that my brain couldn't keep up at times. Still a good read full of wonderful Pratchett humour and originality tho.
—Jade
Remain In Print Sir Terry Pratchett 1948 - 2015Once upon a time I was given a book voucher from my school and with that book voucher I went straight out and made sure I could actually own a Discworld novel rather than having to go to the library. It just so happened to be that small window in time when I would have preferred a Disc novel about music with rocks in than one with moving pictures, and so for a while Soul Music was my favourite book about life on Disc.I went on to criticise the animated movie based on this book for losing the magic of the prose. Turns out I had no idea what I was talking about and Soul Music the book is as lacking in the magic and the intellect as Soul Music the movie.Essentially following the same plot as for Moving Pictures, magic from another world invades the Disc causing obsession amongst the residents that could lead to the end of the world only for an intrepid hero to save the day, this sixteenth entry in the series feels empty, an excuse for pushing puns beyond their breaking point and making really obvious jokes about rock n roll seemingly from the point of view of somebody who doesn't really understand the appeal of the music.Sure, there's a bit about Death and his granddaughter Susan and the evolution of Ponder Stibbons in the High Energy Magic building of Unseen University but there's very little else going on here.
—Tfitoby
