When they got us to call it content, we lost. It’s called music, painting, printing, sewing, sculpting, literature, dance, “the Arts”. Can’t whizz it all up in a blender and call it content—produces the creamed squash that babies fist into their mouths and smear all over the high chair. It’s time for creativity to be valued and rewarded. It’s possible.
Social media does not reward or value anyone outside the bubble that they think you should be in! Their goal is to keep you on their platform by keeping you in your bubble! This is the sad state of the artistic society today!
I think the "new economic models" part is the one to focus on most. Artist-forward places like Bandcamp are a great start, but systemic change (affordable housing, healthcare, etc.) would reap the biggest rewards. They're also the hardest sell.
This puts into words something I’ve long felt. The rise of conformist cultural styles feels regressive and boring. The profession of influencer, for example, is a return to the most basic and old fashioned type of advertising - buy this to be like this cool person. It’s like the corniest 1950s TV ad with a smirking salesman, only wearing body ink and speaking in 2020s catchphrases. The culture will only return to vitality when art re-finds the virtues of imagination and playful non-conformity. Ted’s principles draw a line in the sand.
HI! This is a new place in Portland, OR, that appears to be taking its cues from the future. MORE OF THAT, PLEASE!!! (Evidently, it's also a reconstituted porn palace, which makes it weirdly even cooler.)
So what's the new term? Outsider Cinema? Counterculture Cinema? Rebel Cinema? Not-Buyin'-The-Bullshit Cinema? I mean, I love Ted Hope to distraction -- love BOTH of you Teds! -- but NonDe as a term says nothing to me. (I'm not even sure how to access that little accent on my keyboard, just for starters.)
The words that catch on are the words that resonate. Words have power when they work, and they don't when they don't. We need a word that's defiant. A fuck-you word that's fun to say, and that makes the old power structure kinda blink back tears and stare at its shoes in profound embarrassment every single fucking time we say it.
Meanwhile, in the "A Rose by Any Other Name" Department: this is the creative moment for which I feel I was born. I make books, movies, and music with the fungasmic ferocity and non-conformist spirit I think we're all discussin' here. Always lookin' for cool, kind-hearted wildasses to art-o-tain with! THANKS, TED!!! LET'S DO IT!!!
I don't think it's a matter of vilifying. Indie's still a good word. I think it's just that the air has gone out of that tire. And that we won't be able to resurrect it with any juice at all until it has left the conversation for awhile.
So for now, let's let something else with some REAL juice do the job. Then, when indie comes back, we'll have actually missed it. HOPE THAT MAKES SENSE!
It has old connotations now, that at least in my head scream "nothing i want to watch or hear". But even if others dont feel those particular implications from the word, they likely do feel something that will be hard to shake in a redefining.
Thrilled to see Filmstack mentioned in the hallowed pages of the Honest Broker! This got me curious - are there other arts communities working to create new systems or models like this?
After a lifetime of music, storytelling, and creative ventures that culminated with the investment into a digital production studio (with money I couldn't afford to spend) and the launch of a doomed publishing house, I've spent the last few months dubious of my artistic design, overcome by my apparent inability to connect and participate in the spaces I feel called. I've taken a soul-sucking day job for the first time in a decade, and I feel more isolated by the day.
Nevertheless, I can't shake the embers and ideas within me to build something different and better with independent artists—to tell new stories and reclaim a culture that's been commodified by corporations, devalued by platforms, and scared into the shadows by the existential threats of AI. Nothing feels like "the people's" anymore because nothing is. Creativity is now "content," and content is nothing if not wholly disposable.
As a Xennial, I've witnessed our stories, ideas, dreams, and passions—the movies, books, and music that shaped our worlds—watered down and sold back to us my entire young adult/adult life. Everything's recycled; everything's repackaged; nothing is new in "pop culture" (whatever that means anymore). Where are our Spielbergs, our Princes, our Bowies, our De Niro's, our studio heads, our governance, our academics, our traditions? Where is our culture—the culture of the digital age? (Which is our collective culture, of course, not just my cohorts; I only use that time frame as an example.)
This is a massive problem, one I have ideas about tackling. But I'm a nobody, an unknown fish in an unending ocean, and the tides are rising faster than I can tread, trying to raise four kids in a flooded world.
Ted, I appreciate how your posts always seem to come at the right time, reminding me we can still swim. That things can shift—that they WANT to shift. That we're not so alone. Thank you.
Actually, there’s something happening outside the algorithms and the most popular social media, and you’ll only see it if you’re not there. I think you start to notice it as soon as you step away from that ecosystem.
In fact, there is EVERYTHING happening outside that ecosystem. Real fucking life is happening, as it always has, and it really is the place to be. I think the social media/platform world is a cheap substitute, and thats so obvious when youre not in it. And i even see that idea growing in younger generations. They see it more for what it is, not the idea of it we were all sold. It boils down to a scrolling dopamine addiction, and its a pretty shitty addiction at that.
Much of this terrible crushing of the indie ecosystem came from pricing out cheap urban life in major cities. I was a student at a certain school in that Palo Alto about 35 years ago, and plenty of indie life was at hand around the Bay Area. PA still had its beloved indie movie theater, its indie arcade, and indie bookstores, as well as the charming 24-hour creamery started circa WWI and surviving the Great Depression.
The wash of Big Tech money began destroying that world in the late 90s, then demolished what was left after 2008. First and foremost was the devastating tripling and quadrupling of commercial rents. Residential rents went from a tad expensive to absurd, then absurd squared. Gentrification doesn't start to capture the change. Even well-paid people have a hard time making ends meet in such areas.
The story is the same in the ultra pricey traditional urban centers of creative culture. Even Austin is expensive now. What will be the geography of Ted's new culture?
I would just hope that indie or whatever comes next is not like free jazz, which in my opinion, took many years of valuable production away from some great artists (including the last years of Coltrane). New can be great. It can also be a disaster (like, in my view, most disco, rap and a lot of pop music). There is so much great old music that new technology has made available to us that I don't worry that I dislike what's new. Some people I know are satisfied with just a few albums their whole lives. I need thousands, but I probably have a core group of several thousand pieces that keep me happy. And I'm happy some artists are content to keep varying older type music without falling off the cliff.
I was ten when straight outta compton came out, rap is definitely the music of my generation. I can tell you in the rap genre there is some serious musical genius type talent out there. And honestly i cant think of a genre that has a more diverse sound profile(which im sure is hilarious to people who feel rap all sounds the same lol. But anybody who says anything all "blanks" the same is really saying theyve closed their mind to that thing, bc nothing with any breadth is all the same. Like disco, which i hate, all sounds the same to me, and im ok with my mind being closed to disco lol). Not trying to convince you you should like rap, but to call it a disaster is not giving it the credit it deserves.
But everything else you said exactly describes how i see the music situation. There is so much music already that im happy exploring whats already here, be that revisiting or discovering what i missed.
I wonder how much of that is linked to age. I remember at some point thinking nothing new was fitting into my tastes and that was ok bc what i really wanted was music that sounded like what i liked from 15-35, maybe 40ish. And i feel that way about older music too, like id rather hear the led zeppelin albums i had when i was in high school over the ones id never gotten around to. But then when i do feel that need for "new", THEN i hit those albums i hadnt yet heard.
So yeah it really doesnt matter to me what they make at this point. If it turns out to be something i like, cool, and if not, im already good
I have also spent many hours listening to rap and getting recommendations from younger people about what I might possibly like. In its whole history I can find about 10 songs I enjoyed, which I have on a playlist, but they are something more than just rap, crossovers. Two are by Prince. If you have someone or some album you think might change my mind, let me know. I would listen to it.
I realized that most people are trapped with the music they grow up with, and I was very fortunate to have discovered classical and jazz when I was young. I love rock too and little bits of pretty much most types of music. I try very hard to keep my mind open and I wish I could say that about almost anyone else I know, when it comes to music. 99% of my friends find it intolerable to listen to anything but their favorite subgenre. I feel bad for them. Can't help it. There's so much great music out there.
Also the soul tape 3, by the same artist. I think that might actually be a better recommendation for you. Its a more mellow vibe, and a little deeper too. Try that one first, fabolous soul tape 3
I will make a recommendation but honestly, i get it. Not liking a genre seems as natural to me as liking another, and it is what it is. And then, if you dont know the music its hard to appreciate why this is good or that isnt. For instance, you could play some jazz for me and i wouldnt know if it was good or bad. Best i could do is tell you if i like it or not and see if that lines up with the general consensus. On the other hand if you played me like 10 albums i think i could pick out the good from the bad. Anyway im digressing here lol
So my recommendation rn would be Fabolous' three mixtapes, summertime shootout 1-3. They play more like albums, with a cohesiveness you rarely come across in rap albums, let alone mixtapes. Theres alot more going on with the music than just his rapping, the whole package is very well crafted. I personally think #3 is the best, which exactly the opposite of what i thought when i first heard them. But they are all pretty good, and definitely have that reputation with people that like rap.
Id totally be interested to hear what you think, if you do get to check them out. To me they are definitely fabs magnum opus, and are stellar examples of rap/hip hop done right.
lol dude free jazz “took years of production” from Coltrane and others? what the hell does that even mean? jazz isn’t a museum piece my dude. it evolved and keeps evolving like any other genre. Coltrane’s later albums are legendary for not sticking to his legacy but innovating and exploring outer space. don’t get stuck in nostalgia! Ted talks a lot about that in this space.
Of course it evolves. By the way I've read Ted on free jazz. He's very open in his book The History of Jazz that some critics and artists seemed to think the worse the better. There were some artists who understood how to just walk that line as even Coltrane did early on and as Pharaoh Sanders did afterwards - sometimes. But most free jazz was just horrible screeching. No melody, no harmony - just distortion and dissonance. I could play it, because you don't need to know how to play. I've listened to my 6-year-old grandson play better music than I've heard in free jazz. By the way, I've listened to many hours of free jazz trying to give it a chance, because I do that with all "music." It's just horrible. It's not about evolution or having an open mind. There are other types of music I don't particularly like, but I don't put them in the same category. Some things are just bad. That's why, thankfully, it's pretty much gone and jazz, though not very popular, survives and continues to evolve.
I’m convinced the future will have to strike some balance to achieve the best of both worlds: digital egalitarianism and industry patronage. Ross Barkan talked about this with his idea of the mesoculture. Above all, though, I think it will require more in-person (ie, not online) engagement: a return to the community aspect of artistic enjoyment and consideration: theaters, readings, concerts, clubs, etc.
Amen Ted! It is great to see some positive chat around the future of whatever indie culture is turning into. So much of late has been broadly negative - and with good reason - but in the face of that, it is welcome indeed to see some focus on how things might eventually get better. Here's to it coming sooner rather than later.
Haha! I was about to do the same thing! Raising AND lowering the ninth, including the 11th and not altering the 5th but flattening the 13th. Yeah, alt chords allow for interpretation, but that was a bit much!
Im not even gonna shit in your wheaties today man, it sounds cool and i hope it spreads. They dont really do any making of any of this type of stuff in my neck of the woods, so i dont really have anyone to share the good news with, but consider me a staunch supporter, for whatever thats worth lol.
The alt chords thing? No link? Bc i think youve written about it before but idk how the hell id find it in your vast corpus.. and i would like to know more about these banned chords.
Edit: i googled it and the ai explained the whole alt chords thing to me rather succinctly
Do you live down the street from me?! lol. I’m right there with you in the “nothing like this in my neck of the woods”. It would be great to see/hear a change instead of just reading about it.
When I read something like this; an essay filled with platitudes about what needs to be done to make it all better, I'm sorry to say but I'm a step closer to ending my subscription
I kind of agree with you, though i suspect for different reasons(and im not so ready to end my sub), so let me ask, what is it from ted that you do like?
obviously I like a lot of what Ted has to say and recommend in the way of music, video, etc or I wouldn't be a paid subscriber. He has big ears and a critical handle on many of the things that are going south in the music biz and the human disconnect that's happening in our digital culture. What are your 'different reasons'?
Well maybe they arent so different, idk. Im not here for the music recommendations, i am here for his analysis of culture overall and in specific areas. But im dubious of the proffered solutions.
Which isnt to say i have anything better to suggest lol. Im very much on the outside looking in. Im appalled at what i see but on the other hand i think well what did people really expect? I think these things are doing exactly what they were designed to do, so they arent broken, and we cant fix them anyway, bc we have no real power to do so. Theyre going to continue to be used as levers to squeeze the populace, and i dont think theres any fixing from the inside.
The main (perhaps only) thing I learned in college was this: Art is nothing without institutionalization. Here's what I mean (and what the industry understands): If you have enough outliers, meaning artists or ideas, they eventually coalesce into something that can be taught. Can be MARKETED. The artist eclipses boundaries, but eventually defines what they've become. The next generation learn that definition and launch beyond it.
What happened is that everyone was independent. We all uploaded whatever wherever, had access to the world equally. A few people got lucky. Marketers latched onto that and asked the rest of us to do what the lucky people did, because they didn't have a budget like they used to. Even in the "good old days," only about a dozen people could make a living off of poetry. Nowadays the big box publishers will only invest in those 12 people, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves.
What you're saying is that we have, as independents, reached a critical mass in which some sort of filtering is necessary. As a person who's read slush for litmags, I assure you this is true. We need parameters not only for investors and marketers, for for the audience to filter their limited bandwidth into something that will benefit them. There is literally somebody out there writing or recording what you want to read. Vampire unicorns in polyamorous street gangs? Absolutely. But how do you find them? Keywords, they say. Metadata. But wouldn't it be great to gather them into an arena where quality has also been vetted before the reader burns out? Yes. That's where we are.
The outline provided is a good step forward. It's going to lead people whose talent is opportunism to create a platform they can monetize. That's all you get. Get on it.
When they got us to call it content, we lost. It’s called music, painting, printing, sewing, sculpting, literature, dance, “the Arts”. Can’t whizz it all up in a blender and call it content—produces the creamed squash that babies fist into their mouths and smear all over the high chair. It’s time for creativity to be valued and rewarded. It’s possible.
I AGREE WITH THIS. Words matter. Content demeans everything by making it transactional.
Lovely thoughts. I await specifics
Social media does not reward or value anyone outside the bubble that they think you should be in! Their goal is to keep you on their platform by keeping you in your bubble! This is the sad state of the artistic society today!
Welcome to today’s music industry:
leaders follow, followers perform, and the algorithm plays the same five chords until we forget what feeling sounds like.
We’re up to FIVE chords now?
I thought three was about the limit.
I think the "new economic models" part is the one to focus on most. Artist-forward places like Bandcamp are a great start, but systemic change (affordable housing, healthcare, etc.) would reap the biggest rewards. They're also the hardest sell.
I agree with this, too.
This puts into words something I’ve long felt. The rise of conformist cultural styles feels regressive and boring. The profession of influencer, for example, is a return to the most basic and old fashioned type of advertising - buy this to be like this cool person. It’s like the corniest 1950s TV ad with a smirking salesman, only wearing body ink and speaking in 2020s catchphrases. The culture will only return to vitality when art re-finds the virtues of imagination and playful non-conformity. Ted’s principles draw a line in the sand.
Dear Ted --
HI! This is a new place in Portland, OR, that appears to be taking its cues from the future. MORE OF THAT, PLEASE!!! (Evidently, it's also a reconstituted porn palace, which makes it weirdly even cooler.)
https://tomorrowtheater.org/faq/
So what's the new term? Outsider Cinema? Counterculture Cinema? Rebel Cinema? Not-Buyin'-The-Bullshit Cinema? I mean, I love Ted Hope to distraction -- love BOTH of you Teds! -- but NonDe as a term says nothing to me. (I'm not even sure how to access that little accent on my keyboard, just for starters.)
The words that catch on are the words that resonate. Words have power when they work, and they don't when they don't. We need a word that's defiant. A fuck-you word that's fun to say, and that makes the old power structure kinda blink back tears and stare at its shoes in profound embarrassment every single fucking time we say it.
Meanwhile, in the "A Rose by Any Other Name" Department: this is the creative moment for which I feel I was born. I make books, movies, and music with the fungasmic ferocity and non-conformist spirit I think we're all discussin' here. Always lookin' for cool, kind-hearted wildasses to art-o-tain with! THANKS, TED!!! LET'S DO IT!!!
Yer pal in the trenches,
Skipp
Correct - NonDe isn't going to catch fire. What about just cleaning up and redefining "Indie" rather than vilifying it?
I don't think it's a matter of vilifying. Indie's still a good word. I think it's just that the air has gone out of that tire. And that we won't be able to resurrect it with any juice at all until it has left the conversation for awhile.
So for now, let's let something else with some REAL juice do the job. Then, when indie comes back, we'll have actually missed it. HOPE THAT MAKES SENSE!
It has old connotations now, that at least in my head scream "nothing i want to watch or hear". But even if others dont feel those particular implications from the word, they likely do feel something that will be hard to shake in a redefining.
Movements are generally named by the mainstream and the label is rejected by the artists who lead them.
Fair enough! Unless somebody makes up something powerful (or at least hilarious) first!
How about Alter (Ego) Cinema?
Thrilled to see Filmstack mentioned in the hallowed pages of the Honest Broker! This got me curious - are there other arts communities working to create new systems or models like this?
After a lifetime of music, storytelling, and creative ventures that culminated with the investment into a digital production studio (with money I couldn't afford to spend) and the launch of a doomed publishing house, I've spent the last few months dubious of my artistic design, overcome by my apparent inability to connect and participate in the spaces I feel called. I've taken a soul-sucking day job for the first time in a decade, and I feel more isolated by the day.
Nevertheless, I can't shake the embers and ideas within me to build something different and better with independent artists—to tell new stories and reclaim a culture that's been commodified by corporations, devalued by platforms, and scared into the shadows by the existential threats of AI. Nothing feels like "the people's" anymore because nothing is. Creativity is now "content," and content is nothing if not wholly disposable.
As a Xennial, I've witnessed our stories, ideas, dreams, and passions—the movies, books, and music that shaped our worlds—watered down and sold back to us my entire young adult/adult life. Everything's recycled; everything's repackaged; nothing is new in "pop culture" (whatever that means anymore). Where are our Spielbergs, our Princes, our Bowies, our De Niro's, our studio heads, our governance, our academics, our traditions? Where is our culture—the culture of the digital age? (Which is our collective culture, of course, not just my cohorts; I only use that time frame as an example.)
This is a massive problem, one I have ideas about tackling. But I'm a nobody, an unknown fish in an unending ocean, and the tides are rising faster than I can tread, trying to raise four kids in a flooded world.
Ted, I appreciate how your posts always seem to come at the right time, reminding me we can still swim. That things can shift—that they WANT to shift. That we're not so alone. Thank you.
Actually, there’s something happening outside the algorithms and the most popular social media, and you’ll only see it if you’re not there. I think you start to notice it as soon as you step away from that ecosystem.
Preach!
In fact, there is EVERYTHING happening outside that ecosystem. Real fucking life is happening, as it always has, and it really is the place to be. I think the social media/platform world is a cheap substitute, and thats so obvious when youre not in it. And i even see that idea growing in younger generations. They see it more for what it is, not the idea of it we were all sold. It boils down to a scrolling dopamine addiction, and its a pretty shitty addiction at that.
Much of this terrible crushing of the indie ecosystem came from pricing out cheap urban life in major cities. I was a student at a certain school in that Palo Alto about 35 years ago, and plenty of indie life was at hand around the Bay Area. PA still had its beloved indie movie theater, its indie arcade, and indie bookstores, as well as the charming 24-hour creamery started circa WWI and surviving the Great Depression.
The wash of Big Tech money began destroying that world in the late 90s, then demolished what was left after 2008. First and foremost was the devastating tripling and quadrupling of commercial rents. Residential rents went from a tad expensive to absurd, then absurd squared. Gentrification doesn't start to capture the change. Even well-paid people have a hard time making ends meet in such areas.
The story is the same in the ultra pricey traditional urban centers of creative culture. Even Austin is expensive now. What will be the geography of Ted's new culture?
I would just hope that indie or whatever comes next is not like free jazz, which in my opinion, took many years of valuable production away from some great artists (including the last years of Coltrane). New can be great. It can also be a disaster (like, in my view, most disco, rap and a lot of pop music). There is so much great old music that new technology has made available to us that I don't worry that I dislike what's new. Some people I know are satisfied with just a few albums their whole lives. I need thousands, but I probably have a core group of several thousand pieces that keep me happy. And I'm happy some artists are content to keep varying older type music without falling off the cliff.
Totally agree, except that rap is a disaster.
I was ten when straight outta compton came out, rap is definitely the music of my generation. I can tell you in the rap genre there is some serious musical genius type talent out there. And honestly i cant think of a genre that has a more diverse sound profile(which im sure is hilarious to people who feel rap all sounds the same lol. But anybody who says anything all "blanks" the same is really saying theyve closed their mind to that thing, bc nothing with any breadth is all the same. Like disco, which i hate, all sounds the same to me, and im ok with my mind being closed to disco lol). Not trying to convince you you should like rap, but to call it a disaster is not giving it the credit it deserves.
But everything else you said exactly describes how i see the music situation. There is so much music already that im happy exploring whats already here, be that revisiting or discovering what i missed.
I wonder how much of that is linked to age. I remember at some point thinking nothing new was fitting into my tastes and that was ok bc what i really wanted was music that sounded like what i liked from 15-35, maybe 40ish. And i feel that way about older music too, like id rather hear the led zeppelin albums i had when i was in high school over the ones id never gotten around to. But then when i do feel that need for "new", THEN i hit those albums i hadnt yet heard.
So yeah it really doesnt matter to me what they make at this point. If it turns out to be something i like, cool, and if not, im already good
I have also spent many hours listening to rap and getting recommendations from younger people about what I might possibly like. In its whole history I can find about 10 songs I enjoyed, which I have on a playlist, but they are something more than just rap, crossovers. Two are by Prince. If you have someone or some album you think might change my mind, let me know. I would listen to it.
I realized that most people are trapped with the music they grow up with, and I was very fortunate to have discovered classical and jazz when I was young. I love rock too and little bits of pretty much most types of music. I try very hard to keep my mind open and I wish I could say that about almost anyone else I know, when it comes to music. 99% of my friends find it intolerable to listen to anything but their favorite subgenre. I feel bad for them. Can't help it. There's so much great music out there.
Also the soul tape 3, by the same artist. I think that might actually be a better recommendation for you. Its a more mellow vibe, and a little deeper too. Try that one first, fabolous soul tape 3
I will make a recommendation but honestly, i get it. Not liking a genre seems as natural to me as liking another, and it is what it is. And then, if you dont know the music its hard to appreciate why this is good or that isnt. For instance, you could play some jazz for me and i wouldnt know if it was good or bad. Best i could do is tell you if i like it or not and see if that lines up with the general consensus. On the other hand if you played me like 10 albums i think i could pick out the good from the bad. Anyway im digressing here lol
So my recommendation rn would be Fabolous' three mixtapes, summertime shootout 1-3. They play more like albums, with a cohesiveness you rarely come across in rap albums, let alone mixtapes. Theres alot more going on with the music than just his rapping, the whole package is very well crafted. I personally think #3 is the best, which exactly the opposite of what i thought when i first heard them. But they are all pretty good, and definitely have that reputation with people that like rap.
Id totally be interested to hear what you think, if you do get to check them out. To me they are definitely fabs magnum opus, and are stellar examples of rap/hip hop done right.
I'll give a listen. You never know.
lol dude free jazz “took years of production” from Coltrane and others? what the hell does that even mean? jazz isn’t a museum piece my dude. it evolved and keeps evolving like any other genre. Coltrane’s later albums are legendary for not sticking to his legacy but innovating and exploring outer space. don’t get stuck in nostalgia! Ted talks a lot about that in this space.
Of course it evolves. By the way I've read Ted on free jazz. He's very open in his book The History of Jazz that some critics and artists seemed to think the worse the better. There were some artists who understood how to just walk that line as even Coltrane did early on and as Pharaoh Sanders did afterwards - sometimes. But most free jazz was just horrible screeching. No melody, no harmony - just distortion and dissonance. I could play it, because you don't need to know how to play. I've listened to my 6-year-old grandson play better music than I've heard in free jazz. By the way, I've listened to many hours of free jazz trying to give it a chance, because I do that with all "music." It's just horrible. It's not about evolution or having an open mind. There are other types of music I don't particularly like, but I don't put them in the same category. Some things are just bad. That's why, thankfully, it's pretty much gone and jazz, though not very popular, survives and continues to evolve.
I’m convinced the future will have to strike some balance to achieve the best of both worlds: digital egalitarianism and industry patronage. Ross Barkan talked about this with his idea of the mesoculture. Above all, though, I think it will require more in-person (ie, not online) engagement: a return to the community aspect of artistic enjoyment and consideration: theaters, readings, concerts, clubs, etc.
Amen Ted! It is great to see some positive chat around the future of whatever indie culture is turning into. So much of late has been broadly negative - and with good reason - but in the face of that, it is welcome indeed to see some focus on how things might eventually get better. Here's to it coming sooner rather than later.
Great article. But the altered chord does NOT have a G natural in it
People are fact-checking my jokes now.
I never joke about harmony. (Well, yes we can joke about it)
Haha! I was about to do the same thing! Raising AND lowering the ninth, including the 11th and not altering the 5th but flattening the 13th. Yeah, alt chords allow for interpretation, but that was a bit much!
Brisco county jr reference? Rad!
Im not even gonna shit in your wheaties today man, it sounds cool and i hope it spreads. They dont really do any making of any of this type of stuff in my neck of the woods, so i dont really have anyone to share the good news with, but consider me a staunch supporter, for whatever thats worth lol.
The alt chords thing? No link? Bc i think youve written about it before but idk how the hell id find it in your vast corpus.. and i would like to know more about these banned chords.
Edit: i googled it and the ai explained the whole alt chords thing to me rather succinctly
Do you live down the street from me?! lol. I’m right there with you in the “nothing like this in my neck of the woods”. It would be great to see/hear a change instead of just reading about it.
When I read something like this; an essay filled with platitudes about what needs to be done to make it all better, I'm sorry to say but I'm a step closer to ending my subscription
I kind of agree with you, though i suspect for different reasons(and im not so ready to end my sub), so let me ask, what is it from ted that you do like?
obviously I like a lot of what Ted has to say and recommend in the way of music, video, etc or I wouldn't be a paid subscriber. He has big ears and a critical handle on many of the things that are going south in the music biz and the human disconnect that's happening in our digital culture. What are your 'different reasons'?
Well maybe they arent so different, idk. Im not here for the music recommendations, i am here for his analysis of culture overall and in specific areas. But im dubious of the proffered solutions.
Which isnt to say i have anything better to suggest lol. Im very much on the outside looking in. Im appalled at what i see but on the other hand i think well what did people really expect? I think these things are doing exactly what they were designed to do, so they arent broken, and we cant fix them anyway, bc we have no real power to do so. Theyre going to continue to be used as levers to squeeze the populace, and i dont think theres any fixing from the inside.
The main (perhaps only) thing I learned in college was this: Art is nothing without institutionalization. Here's what I mean (and what the industry understands): If you have enough outliers, meaning artists or ideas, they eventually coalesce into something that can be taught. Can be MARKETED. The artist eclipses boundaries, but eventually defines what they've become. The next generation learn that definition and launch beyond it.
What happened is that everyone was independent. We all uploaded whatever wherever, had access to the world equally. A few people got lucky. Marketers latched onto that and asked the rest of us to do what the lucky people did, because they didn't have a budget like they used to. Even in the "good old days," only about a dozen people could make a living off of poetry. Nowadays the big box publishers will only invest in those 12 people, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves.
What you're saying is that we have, as independents, reached a critical mass in which some sort of filtering is necessary. As a person who's read slush for litmags, I assure you this is true. We need parameters not only for investors and marketers, for for the audience to filter their limited bandwidth into something that will benefit them. There is literally somebody out there writing or recording what you want to read. Vampire unicorns in polyamorous street gangs? Absolutely. But how do you find them? Keywords, they say. Metadata. But wouldn't it be great to gather them into an arena where quality has also been vetted before the reader burns out? Yes. That's where we are.
The outline provided is a good step forward. It's going to lead people whose talent is opportunism to create a platform they can monetize. That's all you get. Get on it.