I find this really interesting. I watched a video from David Banner about the state of the music industry, and he had some really interesting things to say. What do you think about this statement? This has been my opinion on the music industry for quite some time now, and it's quite frustrating when you think about it, because defining what is good has become impossibly difficult for music.
There is so much art out there in the world - music, video, photo, etc. and everyone takes on the stance of - "well who are you to say this sucks?" or "who are you to criticize this person's music?" One of the biggest paradoxes of society today is that everyone is so afraid of offending everyone else, while at the same time, getting offended by everything. You'll see comments on youtube videos or soundcloud posts to the tune of "oh my God you should kill yourself" or "this is terrible, you suck." I'm torn on these statements because while they are mean and mostly posted by malicious people, part of me - a very dark part - actually looks at them as a positive thing. Let me explain.
There was a time (long ago, mind you) when musicians were hired to entertain the Kings and Queens, and if they were bad, they might be stoned, thrown out, or killed. They certainly wouldn't be paid or fed, in fact, even if they were great they'd be lucky to get paid or fed. Now sure, I'm not saying this is what we need now, haha. But my point is that there was a fear of being bad back in the Middle Ages. It meant pain. Now, there is no fear of being bad. Instead, there is false pride. There are a LOT of haters out there that just want to be mean for no reason, I get that - but then there are people who are actually listening to the music and making a judgement that it sucks. Thanks to the internet, it's now impossible to tell the difference.
Let's look at the opposite side of the coin - the false pride. I see a LOT of music shared on social media. Some of it is incredible, and some of it is terrible, and on both posts I'll see comments like "sounds amazing!" or "you are so talented." In my mind, of course I'm thinking "how can anyone say that this is good? The performance is weak, the lyrics are regurgitated, the music is poorly written, and it feels emotionless... Doesn't even sound like they tried to express any sort of emotion or thought. On the other posts, the music is creative and original, the lyrics are thought provoking, the emotion feels honest. And then it dawned on me - we as a culture have become so desensitized to mediocre music being pushed down our throats, we don't know how to judge it anymore. People are unable to make judgements about music because they are uneducated on the topic. Have you ever heard someone say "I just listen to the beat" when talking about music? What a sad, empty, musical life they must live. They are throwing out hundreds of thousands of songs by saying that statement. What they really mean is "I like music with a 4/4 kick pulse so that I can mindlessly play it in the background without having to actually listen." It might as well be a grandfather clock ticking away.
Skilled Musicians, however, know how to judge music, at least to some degree. They can, within minutes, understand the complexity and creativity of a piece of music, they can identify strengths and weaknesses in the performance, and they can sense the emotion and honesty that went into making it. I'm not talking about recording quality - I'm talking about the music. They might make a comment like "This song really lost me with the lyrics and the music sounds is really formulaic." and people will lash out at them for making an informed, relatively polite criticism. Which is ridiculous, isn't it? Why can't someone make a suggestion? Why can't someone have an opinion?
Sure, I know that art can be formulaic and still be good. Just because something is "different" doesn't make it art, and just because something is common doesn't make it "not art." Look at pop music - there can still be great pop songs even though they have many similar details. Most songs follow a similar structure, have similar chord progressions, and have similar dynamic structures. But that's what makes it art - when you take the formulas and turn them into something great, primarily when it comes to the combination of emotion, lyrics, melodies, rhythms, and chords. The "new spin on the same old thing" is what makes it interesting.
The truth is, the average Joe/Jane doesn't know much about music. They hear a song and decide within 15 seconds (according to some studies) if they like the song or not. 15 seconds! What does that tell you? They often don't care about lyrics, dynamics, structure, or arrangement. They often don't care about meaning. And at the core of it all, music is about storytelling. Even if the song is instrumental, it still tells a story that deserves an open ear. If the average song is 4 minutes long, they decide whether or not they like a story whilst only hearing 1/16th of the story. That's the equivalent of watching a movie and walking out of the theater after 7.5 minutes. In many movies, that won't get you past the opening scene or two. You've barely met the characters. You don't really even have an idea of what is about to happen. Doesn't the movie deserve a fair shot?
The truth is, the average Joe/Jane doesn't know much about music. They hear a song and decide within 15 seconds (according to some studies) if they like the song or not. 15 seconds! What does that tell you? They often don't care about lyrics, dynamics, structure, or arrangement. They often don't care about meaning. And at the core of it all, music is about storytelling. Even if the song is instrumental, it still tells a story that deserves an open ear. If the average song is 4 minutes long, they decide whether or not they like a story whilst only hearing 1/16th of the story. That's the equivalent of watching a movie and walking out of the theater after 7.5 minutes. In many movies, that won't get you past the opening scene or two. You've barely met the characters. You don't really even have an idea of what is about to happen. Doesn't the movie deserve a fair shot?
That of course raises a different question - how bad does a movie have to be before you walk out in 7.5 minutes? If we translate this into music, what might it be saying about the state of songwriting?
Let's look at this differently. People travel from all reaches of the earth to visit the Louvre museum in Paris. I've been there, and it's amazing. Many of the paintings in that museum are from unknown or unpopular artists. Yes, the Mona Lisa is there, but there are paintings littered about that museum, everywhere you can see. So here's my question - who decides what goes into the museum? Who decides what is worthy? My assumption is that there is a board, or a panel, of critics/experts that decide what is worthy to go in a museum like that. Yet some people think music is beyond this - the whole who are you to say this is bad music?
Let's look at this differently. People travel from all reaches of the earth to visit the Louvre museum in Paris. I've been there, and it's amazing. Many of the paintings in that museum are from unknown or unpopular artists. Yes, the Mona Lisa is there, but there are paintings littered about that museum, everywhere you can see. So here's my question - who decides what goes into the museum? Who decides what is worthy? My assumption is that there is a board, or a panel, of critics/experts that decide what is worthy to go in a museum like that. Yet some people think music is beyond this - the whole who are you to say this is bad music?
Everyone remembers Simon from American Idol. So many people had it out for the guy and said he was mean, rude, etc. But you know what? He was right, 90% of the time, and He was honest 100% of the time. He didn't give people false pride. He didn't tell them "you're amazing" when they weren't. People would boo and yell at him for "being mean," when in reality, he was being truthful. Society doesn't like truth - they like white lies. They like fantasy. They like a fairy tale (ironically, they like fairy tales but don't like or have time for musical storytelling...) Society thinks it's a good idea to "encourage" and "support" those that are mediocre, but there's a point where it becomes dangerous - now the skill-less person has a false sense of pride, and they continue without a kick in the ass from anyone. I don't know about you, but some of my most humbling moments (and most educational moments) have come from someone saying I needed to practice more, or that I was lacking, or that I wasn't good enough, or that I was wrong, or that I was inexperienced. Those things can be hurtful, yes, but they end up making you a better person. They drive you to be better, because one of the few things we like more than being known is being impressive.
So what I'm getting at is this: we need people to fear being bad but accept criticisms. We need people to sit in their rooms and work, work, work at their art until they feel they are ready. The problem is that culturally, we've accepted "you're ready" way too easily. "You're Ready" in society today basically means "You just figured out how to upload it to youtube." It may sound harsh, but it's true. I think fear is a powerful motivator. Fear of the Simons. Fear of the critics. Fear of the ones who actually know something about music. Fear mediocrity. Those who fear mediocrity will likely show their music to peers, to people that are better than them, and they're humble enough to admit it. Their peers give them advice. They proceed to work until it's perfect. When it's ready, they release it to the world.
And that's the second thing...we as a culture need to educate people on music and art. We need people to have informed opinions. Not only that, but people need to crave talent. We need to foster a culture of people that crave talent, skill, so that they can recognize it. If they actually know what they're looking at or hearing, They'll cherish it. There are a lot of talented people in the world, and I hate that many of them are essentially just youtube carny sideshow acts. People watch their videos for amusement, not for absorption. They don't think twice about it. We are conditioned to go from carny to carny, enjoying out 15 seconds of laughter, our 15 seconds of amazement, or 15 seconds of fear, our 15 seconds of empowerment, like a fun house. We are conditioned to hop from site to site, content to content, video to video, without giving much thought into what we just witnessed. We watch it, we move on. It's training us to be thoughtless, passive, and emotionless. It's training us to be consumers of general content rather than enthusiasts of the actual content presented. We are trained to like, like, like, like, which lowers our standard of what we actually do like.
So here's my moral of the day:
1. Fear mediocrity. Live your life striving for greatness, always.
2. Embrace criticisms, ask why, don't get offended.
3. Surround yourself with people who are better than you. 4. Learn to spot the difference between haters and honest opinions.
5. Be picky about what you define as "good art."
For those asking "how do we actually criticize art, then? Isn't it all subjective?"... That will be my next blog post.
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