Is It OK To Love The KPM Albums?
I mean, the question seems kind of obvious, right? Of course you can like these albums, you are a free individual and you shouldn’t let random people on the internet dictate your tastes in music. If you like a certain type of music, that’s ok and that’s what makes you unique and special. Article over. So why am I writing this, then? I think this question poses a fun little philosophical thought experiment, and I would love to work it out.
Before we begin, we need to discuss what the KPM albums are. The KPM Music Library is a London-based collection of recorded music that is primarily used in movies and TV shows. According to the official website, the library boasts “over 30,000 recorded tracks and 800 CDs.” The range of music is extremely broad, covering pretty much every music genre and culture that you can think of. There’s a non-zero chance that you’ve heard a song from the KPM library in a TV show or cartoon that you watched long ago. If you were to plainly search “KPM” on your music streaming app, be prepared for your phone screen to be flooded with that iconic olive-green album cover.
I personally came across the KPM library a couple of years ago, thanks to my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. The album was so eloquently titled “Kpm 1000 Series: Clouds” by one Graham De Wilde. De Wilde was a frequent contributor to the KPM library (he’s still alive as of me writing this, he just hasn’t done anything for them in awhile). I was blown away by how spacey and jazzy this album was and immediately added it to my favorites.
When I first learned that this album was made for TV audiences in mind, I recoiled. In my mind, this revelation made this song somehow less valid. But why did I think that? I think it comes down with my relationship with music. I listen to music (especially jazz) to hear the ideas that the artist wants to convey to the listener. Each artist has a story that can be conveyed in many different ways.
This mindset of mine presents a problem with listening to music such as the ones from the KPM library. The underlying purpose of the KPM library is music that is supposed to be accompanied by a scene in a show or a film. What I find a bit more damning is that these song libraries are made just for *any* show or film. Films like James Bond or Star Wars have iconic soundtracks, partly because of the fact that they were explicitly made for that film series (and also because they have legendary composers behind them as well, don’t yell at me!). There’s an argument in there somewhere about the quality of the music if it’s made for any person to use in their plebian film or show.
Let me step off my high horse, here. These are top-of-the-line songs made by individuals who have more talent in one toenail than I have in my entire body — my first listen to “Cirrus” proves just that. So, what if the artist of the song didn’t have me, the listener, in mind as they composed the song? It’s still a good song. At the end of the day, “good music taste” is subjective. Maybe you aren’t in the mood for a song to go over something deep and complex like the relationships between Eastern European nations. Maybe you just need a song to make you feel happy or something to go along with you workday. I’m basically speaking to myself when I say this, but we should all learn how to take music less serious sometimes. Thanks for helping me realize that, KPM Music Library. As for the initial question I asked in the beginning…it seems kind of obvious, right? Of course you can like these albums, you are a free individual and you shouldn’t let random people on the internet dictate your tastes in music. If you like a certain type of music, that’s ok and that’s what makes you unique and special.
Thanks for reading!
