Zappa, the composer

Throughout this course I've been surprised again and again by how different Zappa's compositions could be. From something that sounds like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LvS8qKMAs8

to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS-5Dxhp4OE

to even this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trqfeg-5Duo

his music just covers such a broad range of styles. If someone were to ever ask me to describe Zappa's music, I wouldn't know where to begin. Is it rock? Is it progressive? Is it classical? Truth is, it's a bit of all of those, and that's what makes Zappa's music so interesting.

Not only is he diverse, but he's deep [for lack of a better word], as well. Every song was written with a meaning, or a message. Certainly, not all messages are as important as others - while "Valley Girl" was making a commentary on a trend at the time, the lyrics weren't exactly poetic - all of his songs were written with a theme in mind. Whether he be commenting about social status, about the government, or something that he's just interested in, Zappa didn't just write songs for the sake of writing songs. He wrote them because he believed that he had something to say, and wanted to get it out there.

What I like most, I think, about Zappa's compositions is that he wrote everything for himself. Don't like his music? He doesn't care. He was a fairly well-known person at the time of his death, but I believe that he would have been just as happy with his life and what he managed to do if he wasn't. He had a love of music, and worked for himself.

His contributions have certainly inspired musicians nowadays, too. He was a pioneer of music in many aspects, and paved the way for artists who came after him.