Music has become discombobulated.......
The new artists are not penetrating consumers attention span or finding a space in their soul. Those two things need to be accomplished. The new artist is the life source of the music industry. Much of the D.I.Y material isn’t penetrating and not connecting to the music public. The so-called stats are saying that, but I do not go by stats I go by my own observational capability that I use 24/7. I know what I am looking at! I look for ‘‘cultural impact’’ and I ask where is it?
My first observation was ‘‘where is the summer song? Where was that summer song you could always remember growing up? The best we had was ‘‘Glorilla’’ out of Memphis? That was it for summer of 2022! With the ‘‘Digerati’’ swallowing the music industry for without paying in the 2000’s we are starting to see the results of that. This is the new music industry. Where is the captivating artist that the ‘‘label system’’ provided the public with their Artist & Repertoire skills consistently yet all you hear is how the labels do nothing but steal!
All we hear about now is data and streaming numbers! Those numbers are also very suspect because the element of hacking is always something that must be posed! Let’s get a definition of hacking:
1) The gaining of unauthorized access to data in a system or computer.
2) The act of identifying and then exploiting weaknesses in a computer system or network, usually to gain unauthorized access to personal or organizational data.
3) Hacking is not always a malicious activity, but the term has mostly negative connation due to its association with cybercrime.
Data does not connect with people……lyrics and musical production married together does. The soul/energy has been stripped from the music. We have arrived at the destination of ‘‘soul less’’ music being fed to us by the latest Tik Tok trend. However, trends do not last long in the era of short attention. We now are built for that short attention and the key word is short! An artist can’t be treated like a social media trend! That means the artist is not built to last!
In our education system, parenting and being spread to society as true talent or being special is ostracized in our current system that is built of the illusion of your expression having meaning because you did it. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should do it! We are all unique but not special! It seems we do not know the difference. Let’s get some definitions:
Unique - Being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else. Single; solitary in type or characteristics.
Special - Better, greater or otherwise different from what is usual.
Due to the ‘‘Digerati’’ we are in the time of breeding productions of expression not necessarily works of art! We are in a totally different time where the goal is not art but the data! We are witnessing is that everyone gets a trophy and being told they can do something that they not built for but since we are in ‘‘participation economy’’ that is built to feed the algorithm of the big tech companies. We are in the midst of celebrating mediocrity which is why you see the downgrading of music. Now everyone can be on a ‘‘pedestal syndrome’’. You do not have to have talent for real anymore. Talent is superfluous now and this generation coming up are what I call P.G aka participation generation.
By adding the virtual element, we are truly into the era where the hobbyist has now believed they can be a professional. Let’s define the two as to be clear:
Hobbyist - Someone who does something as a hobby. Here are synonyms: amateur, dabbler, putterer, trifler and finally layperson.
Professional - 1) Engaged in a specified activity as one’s main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.
Doing research for my next narrative that I just wrapped up about the ‘‘post American Dream’’ I discovered something called ‘‘Dunning Kruger effect.’’ That D.K.E truly hit the spot of this time period. Folks are suffering from an illusion of superiority, mistakenly assessing their cognitive ability as greater than it is! Plus, with society via the ‘‘Digerati’’ pushing these narratives via apps and cheap music software tied to bedroom equipment we now have a society jumping deeper and deeper into the delusionary state of I am a professional musician and just because I do it you are supposed to like it!
Tik Tok is fueling and feeding this 55th state of delusion as part of the Union! This leads to self-inflated self-assessment. Music has now become a popularity contest and not an artform. With absolutely no gatekeepers we are now flooding this 55th state because it is very little cost to the individual until someone says oh, I do not like it! Rejection is part of the game. However, when You Tube removed the dislike button, I saw we had gone to delusion! As someone who has toured extensively and released records you and your team put yourself out there for rejection always and there is no protection but to put out your best work always which still may not be good enough. As the old mantra goes: If you can’t take the heat stay out of the kitchen!
Bertrand Russell philosopher/mathematician said one of painful things is about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision. This discombobulation has created this rancid output that I am calling ‘‘Digital Pollution’’! We are not producing art at the moment because we are producing ego mainly. The music industry has lost its way and has become a ‘‘reservoir of mediocrity’’. We have lost any authenticity which led to the vein attempt of originality with those dozen notes we have to use.
We must go back to stretching our minds and soul to create art not just disposable content. Humans create art! Robots/drones create content for the ‘‘Digerati’’ to fuel their data feeding fest to keep this trillion-dollar economy in high speed always. Music has been reduced to a monthly bill now when it was a special event. It has been downgraded to a utility. The supply and demand realities have also caused this digital tsunami of output!
The greatest threat to the artist, the label and the overall music industry is that becoming a utility has sped you to becoming background noise. The grave fight ahead for the professional music industry individual will be to not become ‘‘background noise’’ via some playlist just playing all night. Now what will your mind allow you to do?