I guess I could write a song about it.
Monday, October 5, 2009 at 2:44PM Every work of art is a very special form of bitching. Someone is watching the world from their eyes, crying, "Unfair" or "That's not how I see it" or "I want it my way". These days everyone can be an "artist." Slap that face on a book cover or some album artwork and said individual wanders the streets of their hometown with crossed fingers waiting to be recognized, murmured about, included maybe. But few of these people are any good at bitching. I have to say, college is teaching me an awful lot on that. To figure out what is wrong with something is the beginning of making it better. To think critically and suggest alternatives, or inspire someone else to. This is the stuff of art. Artists critique the world, their world, however infinitesimal or grandiose it exists in their mind. It must be personal, it must be bitching, it must be about one's own world.
Art as business. Eh, pass? This is the world of a college student artist musician. It may be the most prevalent topic being discussed in the young twenty-somethings blogs/radio shows/classrooms. Making a living off of your passion. Maybe the EP that gave me so many excruciating headaches while making it over the summer taught me more about this topic than about being a musician. While recording a song, there are a billion ways to bring in new instruments or write new parts or make the song sound hip and flashy. For a songwriter, this stuff is all just the fashionable excess. The song is the message. The instruments dig and burrow the message somewhere into the listeners being.
(while writing this, I’m listening to Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky” and I think to myself, what about Nels Cline’s guitar work? Isn’t it just as pertinent as the lyricism and melody of the song? My answer is that the jury is still out on that one. Sorry.)
I want to pay off my college debt. That’s the only reason I want to make a penny off of music. But why do I have college debt? It’s because I wanted to get really good at music. I still don’t know how to make a living by playing music. Music is free these days. People are downloading albums, shows are free, we can’t go anywhere without some radio playing in the background. We are a culture forgetting how to listen, how to read, and maybe even how to communicate. I go to a bar late at night and see some rip-off of the scene in “Being John Malkovich” where all the people in the restaurant have the head of John Malkovich and they are all conversing with each other using the incredibly limited dialogue of, “Malkovich, malkovich, malkovich. Malkovich? Malkovich malkovich.” Except all I hear is, “Sex sex, alcohol, sex, longing.” You’ve heard it too. You’ve been the one saying it. Have we lost our language? I don’t mean we have too limited a vocabulary. Have we seriously lost the language of our souls? We're desparate to communicate without the proper tools. One of them being relative sobriety, perhaps. (eh, tangent)
What I learned is that the song I wrote and worked so hard on in the studio, the album I spent so much money to create has done two very valuable things to me. It has given me a desire to share myself with my community so that my voice is one of the collective of voices changing our world. It has given me the desire to continue making albums. To continue speaking to my community, sharing my ideas, inspiring new ones. It has shifted my expectation from being noticed or recognized, to finding community, opening dialogue, and sharing ideas. To reexamine the language of the soul and figure out what words we’ve lost. If you've made an album and it made you not want to play music or make another album, you did it wrong.
Reader Comments (8)
right on. tangents and all.
I acknowledge and respect your views here. I myself don't like to narrow my views of art.
Everything we do, publish, or if we want to get our message out there somehow is a form of business. Even if it is free to others it is still business, someone is going to be affected by this aspect.
Also I believe that people don't purely listen to criticizing messages without some breaks and things to release tension.
So it is possible for music to be entertaining, informative, inspiring, fun, insulting, moving, stopping. In the end music expresses something and it is not limited to just Criticism, because such a view is small and I like to let it be what it is; Expressive.
art can bitch. art can remind. art can nudge. it can breathe newness. it can bring us back/down/in.
the main phrase that you mentioned that i connected with is "dig and burrow."
i want my art to burrow inside of me....and hopefully others. it can include a 'critique-ful' burrowing, but does not need to have any sens of correction to it. beautiful truth can burrow just as deep/deeper.
AND i spelled 'sense' wrong.
AND i was re-thinking/re-reading......actively creating art/anything is kind of an attempt to "make the world better," or at least "change the world" in some way.........and if you are attempting to bring change/movement, you are indirectly saying that it shouldn't stay the same......thus.....bitching.
p.s. - "Shine" by The Album Leaf on the "Into the Blue Again"
Devon,
Thanks so much for your thoughts on this. I want to acknowledge that you're right about how we perceive art. Considering art as a consumer or a viewer, then it does many things for us.
However, in creating art, we must have a purpose. Perhaps narrowing it to one thing was harmful to my point. I'll have to reconsider that one.
Stephen and Jason,
I'm glad you see it my way. I think I know what you mean, Jason, about beautiful truths. I'm going to focus on that more. Sorry I messed my pants with you this morning. Trust me, it's not your fault.
Love this post!
I like reserving the word art for the way in which we conduct ourselves or how we do what we do. - to be 'artistic' is do whatever you do with passion, uniqueness, and with craft.
a painting is a painting.
a song is a song.
a sculpture is a sculpture.
a new media installation is a new media installation? er...
an artist is an auto mechanic that can fix and engine with a screw driver, a stick, and a coke can.
..Have we lost the language of our souls?....
.....Hmmm...I think so....:)))
....And here I thought I was onto something...:)) I adore your lyricism and was listening to your music this early Sunday morning only to read your post and...well...you are heartbreaking...(in a good way...)
...And you are right on about this newfound culture where any effort is lost and instant gratification ( no matter how empty) is the ultimate goal....
...Does anybody listen or feel anymore...? Mechanically maybe...frrom memory...cause we learnt it once... And we are forever going onto the next "best thing", involved only so long as it involves us, forever longing for something we have an archaic sense about but can't quite figure out how to attain... and so on....Interesting topic to explore.....
...In any case you are very bright and wonderful....and will continue to listen to your music and appreciate you....:))
..................
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you are so right ! it is very sad in a lot of ways not only art but with everything
you are so amazing - I will buy your CD
!
you put your HEART into your music - that is the KEY to success