Art Blakey Quotes

Music is music; you don't have to put a label on it.

People are always defining and re-defining music. My style of playing has been characterized as smooth jazz and acid jazz. I listen as I play; I'm not caught up in defining the type of music I play.

There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind.

I don't think a song should be put in a category.

Funk could very easily be called jazz, but you call it funk. Does that really matter? People dig that they associate themselves with certain genres, but the genres to me are made up things, like an imaginary world.

What is music about? You can't listen to one era, one composer, and know what music is about.

Most people say, 'Well, Earl, you sing the blues,' or however they want to categorize it. I just sing songs.

I've always tried to stay clear of being labeled, putting a label on what type of music that I make.

When I was younger I didn't really know what genre of music I'd want to do because I'd always done so many different types, so many impressions.

I know music is subjective.

I love a lot of music that's considered folk music, but I also love a lot of music that's considered punk or considered rap. I don't mind being called a folk singer. But it seems a bit limiting. I want to be able to write whatever kind of song I want.

I didn't want to go out and change anything. I just wanted to make the music that was part of my background, which was rock and blues and hip-hop.

I have a very difficult time describing my music. Because I run into people in the hardware store and they go, 'Oh, you're a musician. So what kind of music do you play?' And I go, 'Uh, I've been doin' this for many years - I don't know what to call it.'

Music is music. It doesn't matter if I am trying to aim at country or trying to aim at pop.

Music is music and there are only two types: good and bad.

I don't think there's such a difference between older and newer music as there is between one composer and another.

What makes one type of music classical and one bluegrass and one folk - these things aren't what's important.

Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and many other great jazz musicians objected to their music being called jazz. While the outside world may want to put a label on it, those who create it think of it just as music, and tend not to classify it.

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

I've always had a close connection to both rock and classical music.

I don't try to make the guitar sound like the harpsichord or lute. That makes you end up being like a bad copy.

The way I feel about music is that there is no right and wrong. Only true and false.

I'm not too bothered about what category my music goes in and there's no point in limiting in who you can reach, but I want it to be respected.

I can take any series of numbers and turn it into music, from Bach to bebop, Herbie Hancock to hip-hop.

What I'm trying to do is break the genre from what is rap and what is music.