Lusting For Brand Spanking New Art
TweetIt’s so freakin’ true, it hurts me to say it. We have a problem.
When it comes to music, there hasn’t been anything truly brand spanking new in terms of a music genre since perhaps hip hop. After rock, after pop, after hip hop, there’s only been pretty much rehash, retro, and auto tuning. It’s enough to make me consider carefully that by the time I’m in an assisted living home, the administrators are going to be playing auto-tuned versions of Rebecca Black’s, “Friday” song in the effort to keep me happy and calm, when in fact, this non-music will signal my greatest efforts to lobby for assisted suicide so I can save myself from fate worse than an earlier demise.
Do you see what you see? Do you look for brand spanking new art, or rehash and retro?
According to Jaron Lanier, author of “You Are Not A Gadget“, the digital age could have ushered in a wild and beautiful age of new music. Instead, it appears to have given the dullards and the cookie-cutter kids a clever tool to suffocate the masses with talent-free goop, right along with viral Youtube videos containing cats, and “aww”-provoking art targeted towards the 25 to 35 year old’s who have never known anything but MIDI-generated sound. [If you don’t know what MIDI is, I suggest you start with Wikipedia, and then find your way back to Lanier’s description of the effect MIDI had on the music industry].
But you know, it’s our own damn fault [you know, anytime you want to blame just about anything on anyone else, there’s always a few of your fingers pointing back at you for your inaction].
When we had a chance, we chose the technology instead of the band classes. We got excited when the first MIDI controller let us create endless, perfect loops of sound without distortion or variation. We trained a generation to prefer these undifferentiated, auto-tuned cold tones over the warmth of a human voice that quavers with emotion, or breaks and squeals. We voted up the double rainbow video. And we didn’t spend our dollars at local play houses. We didn’t even tell them how they could get us in their doors before they went belly up financially.
We applauded when photographers edited, removed, air-brushed, and changed the lighting. We gave our nods of approval when the squeak of fingers on guitar strings were removed from an album. We forgot what records sounded like. We positively reviewed bands who performed their music just like the albums we owned.
I use the inclusive “we” because even if you are finding yourself saying, “I didn’t agree, I didn’t do that,” you might have not done anything to stop technology from chipping away from the creative process that might have brought us brand spanking new art in this age. Like myself, you probably didn’t protest loudly enough when you had a chance. Now, I protest, and no one’s listening. They are too busy cutting band class out of schools, and making modern dance something only the rich can afford to teach their children as a hobby, and not a career boasting reasonable pay.
It’s not too late.
When you see really innovative art, dance, and music, get it in your mindset that you owe the world an obligation to tell others what you’ve seen. Don’t leave the world drowning in the most lost era of music ever. Perhaps with your help, we actually will discover and promote new music and dance styles, and new forms of art. They will find their way to Kickstarter.com. They will emerge. They will be seen. With your help, they will not be lost.
Have you seen something truly innovative lately? Do your part, and please share. The world will be a better place. And if you disagree, then tell me why you think I’m wrong. Supply us all with evidence to the contrary, and show me where new art is thriving enough that it can support the people who make it. Show me the numbers. Show me the money. Show me the art, dammit.
Dance Artist, Psychotherapist, Triage Nurse. Gluten intolerant and recovered anorexic. Consumer geek and audophile. Slave to two adorable Applehead Siamese iKittehs with conductive paws. iPad DJ. Soon to be published author. Google Glass Explorer since July 1, 2013. Plays with the geeky toys and likes them. Marathon runner training for her first marathon May 4, 2014 and first Olympic Distance Triathlons in Summer 2014. Send offline comments to info at hips for hire dot com.
4 Responses to “Lusting For Brand Spanking New Art”
-
[...] my previous blog post entitled Lusting for Brand Spanking New Art, I’ve already shared my opinion ... hipsforhire.com/2012/01/on-stealing
Leave a Reply
My Favorite Feed Of The Moment: The Oatmeal
-
Scrambles: Cat Detective! October 7, 2015
This cat solves mysteries.ViewMatthew Inman
-
Minor Differences Part 6 September 21, 2015
ViewMatthew Inman
-
Shoot for the moon September 8, 2015
ViewMatthew Inman
-
I'm gonna revolutionize how we store babies September 2, 2015
ViewMatthew Inman
-
America explained to non-Americans July 1, 2015
ViewMatthew Inman
You know Imei, I totally agreed with you, longing for the “good old days” … that is, until I saw Midnight In Paris. That movie really made me reevaluate how I look at the past. Yes, there was some great music and art in the ’60s and ’70s. They were magical times. But when I reflect back (without the romantic nostalgia) I have to admit that most of the art and music back then was crap too, save for a few brilliant artists and musicians. Seems to me the main difference today is there’s an overwhelming mountain of crap and mediocracy, easily created through less expensive technologies and made ubiquitous through social media.
After seeing Midnight In Paris I wandered over to Gasworks Park for a late night walk and a group of performers were juggling and hula hooping rings of fire. The sight assured me that the magic and creative spirit is still alive. True, there been no real breakthrough in new genres of music for a long time. But there’s plenty of great art being created outside the mainstream, even here in the Northwest — Erin Corday and DAE to name just two. I also saw an amazing kinetic art show at IMA Gallery a while back and recently saw Late Autumn, a brilliant film shot in Seattle.
And paradoxically, while digital has gone downhill with MP3 downloads, analog keeps improving. I recently heard a friend’s stereo after he upgraded to a new Benz Micro LP-S cartridge and it sounds more live than live music!
I don’t buy your argument that I need to fight to save the masses from wallowing in swill. I didn’t try to save them from TV in the 70s, Midi in the 80s,or Youtube in the 90s.
I make and enjoy acoustic music, renaissance art, and surround myself with people who appreciate new ideas, rich information and actually thinking deeply about things (as I know you do, having met your friends).
I’m not being elitist here – like some kind of intellectual 1% disdaining the 99% for enjoying pro wrestling or all that reality TV offers – I am content to like what I enjoy and appreciate and not bemoan that the rest of the world doesn’t always share my tastes.
I’m glad that making content is easier for everyone – that anyone can be a publisher, a photographer, anyone can make movies, anyone can make music – the ubiquity of access to creative tools is a wonderful thing for this age.
What I think you are disturbed by is that the mass market buys crap and makes the purveyors millions, while real artists and entertainers eek out a living, or perform as a hobby because it can’t feed the kids.
True artists will always starve, and the public will always buy crap – this has been a true statement no matter what age you live in.
Love your optimism.
It is, and probably always will be, my weakness to ask people to take more responsibility for their actions, and to think more critically before they share content. I am also content with what I enjoy. But I am not just disturbed by what the mass market does. As you say, they will do what they do. I am more disturbed that as our technology becomes more advanced, I’m just not seeing art becoming necessarily better because of it. I’m miffed that with the tools, people have chosen to become… well, lazy. It’s like there’s been an overall lowering of the standard, instead of the standards raising ever higher because of the potential to do so much more with our innovations.
Admittedly, a good amount of people who read this are in the Seattle area, and a good amount of those people are in the tech industry. They have education, they’re programmers, or they simply have more access and influence. While you don’t have to “fight to save the masses” from anything, let alone wallowing in swill, I also believe that there were any number of people in the tech industry when certain advances were being developed, and similar to Jaron Lanier’s position, they probably had no idea what their decisions did to the current atmosphere in music and art technology. We could have made a difference.
And yes, I will always be disturbed that true artists don’t get discovered and have to suffer so much. I think it’s a myth that suffering and poverty must be a part of artful creation. In a way, I’m simply naming another aspect of why I started this blog in the first place. I believe truly good artists can learn how to share their art and be compensated for it.