Ted: You definitely have a "horse" to ride, but not in the cultural apocalypse derby. You are (one of) the knight(s) who are trying to slay the dragon of the "financial" types who run so much of the music and media businesses. In Western culture, the dragon is a symbol of possessiveness and greed (see, e.g., Smaug).They can't play an instrument, so they buy catalogs of songs. They can't act, so they buy up or license the libraries of the movie studios. And now they fund AI projects to swallow up the world's literature and spew it back in unbearably trite prose. Yes, there are horsemen of the apocalypse; but they mostly are hanging on to the back end of the horse.
Saw this, it may be on a best seller list but it won't move needles. Words in the wind.
It isn't illegal to have bad taste or be addicted to screens and in honor of our new pope, a former teacher at my high school, it's time to name the Digital Devil that's brought all this about at the speed of a click. Great art rises and embraces the human heart, and it will always be with us.
When I was a kid I played a ton of music. I had a ton of time on my boring small town hands to do so. Being mostly self taught and playing piano and guitar on my own I got pretty good at finger picking in the Mississippi John Hurt style. Mostly I just loved music,. Then I married a professional musician brought up to be a concert pianist who blasted all my love of music out of me due to the perfectionism drilled into him since the age of five. I divorced him ages ago but still haven’t played a drop of music since. I recently started listening to Leo Kottke and he’s revivied that love. I’ve re-stringed my guitar and started playing again. It was my ex-husband trying to .”make it” in the music business that drove him cuckoo in the bongo. This was way before the internets. It’s the financialization of everything like love, beauty and truth in the United States that’s destroying culture.
It's a damn shame, how expertise can kill love - if not your own, then someone else's. Amateur is good - it means lover, and to have the love of music beaten out of you is a very hard thing. Glad you got back onto it.
Do you have a horse in this race? Yes! You help lead us on your personal Shadowfax back to sanity in the arts. You're at the Humanities helm, Prof...& there is always hope.
I think it takes a lot of courage - perhaps a bit of plain bloody-mindedness- to really put oneself out there in the wilds of the internet. Particularly if one's views are not (currently) popular. Never mind actual columns and podcasts being made about someone- more often than not I've read of various individuals from the previous blogging era stating 'I don't read comments' to shutting them off entirely. It's a shame that anonymity or sheer contrarianism(?) can bring out the worst in people.
Stick to your guns. Let people say what they will- in my opinion, as long as you can back your material with conviction and facts where applicable- damn the torpedoes... full speed ahead.
Number Three on Derek Thompson's assessments, ISOLATION, rings differently with me. People have access to tools that enable them to be creative in their time, instead of hitting bars and spending time watching and listening to bands that have accessibility to tools. And more and more are taking their time at their convenience for personal growth, their own creativity, and their own way of connecting with others.
Music is a different art, say from painting, or writing, or the art of sculpture, or fabric work.
These are created in a solitary space, then shared with the public, whereas music is created, composed and recorded (typically alone or in a controlled environment), then recreated live, over and over again. How do you build that audience? The artist or performer has to find a way of connecting with people. It's their responsibility.
I have many musician friends that still do the bar circuit, which as I push 69, are not the venues I want to be at late at night. I did the bars for years, solo and bands. Yet, they don't always share the same enthusiasm to come hear me play at 12:30 in the afternoon, or perhaps an Exhibit Opening at 5:00 PM. Kind of funny (for lack of a better word)( but I just shipped CDs to Korea, whereas I'd be lucky to sell the same amount locally in my hometown. And I don't have a large social media audience. Maybe a thousand on one platform, five hundred on another. I've stated before here,
I can't stand Spotify, however I am on iTunes, Apple Music, BandCamp, Amazon and others.
I feel as if I'm rambling, so will close shortly.
Times have changed for sure! I just feel there is great art being created, and the exceptional will always find a way to rise to the top and be known to a part of the world. One last thought...
There are 8 billion people on the planet. If you find 20K people that really, really supported your art, you could make a good living. Not rock star living, but a living. A vocation.
So, what is the response--from a generation who made its bones by fighting authority--when young media consumers, comfortable with pablum, say: 'Boomers ruined everything, Sit down and shut up. It's our time.' [Marginal boomer here, by the calendar--more Gen X by circumstances.]
One of the reasons for the current stagnation was how quickly the boomer "counterculture" was co-opted. Boomers were affluent even as teenagers. Those were fat times. (Forman's 1971 movie "Taking Off" was about this.) Maybe there was a brief period where that music was considered countercultural, perhaps even subversive, but that passed pretty quickly. With all the money involved, this was no surprise even back then. (There was a market for people to write "those kids" columns and make "aren't they awful" exploitation movies by the middle of the decade.)
Then, that culture got locked in. This happens. There was a period when what we consider classical music and classical opera was the music of a generation. Then came records and radio and pop music. Then came that god awful rock and roll. Now, that god awful rock and roll is worth billions if only because there are still a lot of baby boomers still alive and they have money. I expect there will be a lot of interesting mergers and bankruptcies and court battles as baby boomers die off and the market for their music softens. It's not like any other generation is as well fixed as they are.
The common thread running through all four of the points made by Derek is attention. They want our attention. Some people surrender it very easily others not so much. These are the people who read books, listen to music from their own collections and think for themselves.
Truth can be found here. I went Thursday to a concert. And the vibe and energy was there giving me and the others a volt in the mind and body. Can we defeat the four horsemen of the pip culture apocalypse? Sometimes we need to turn off the electronics and leave our castle/ cage. It's good to step out into the world. DO THINGS! HAVE FUN! ENJOY ! AND BREATHE! CAN THESE ACTION DEFEAT THE HORESMEN? TRY IT! THANKS for the read.
RE: Taming the four horsemen. First step: Put the damn smartphone down and leave it there! Does wonders for isolation and attention rot. Real hope is an antidote for cynicism. Courage/conviction is key to breaking through creative stagnation. Are we waking up and finding out technology isn't the miracle salvation our tech overlords want us to believe?
" Are we waking up and finding out technology isn't the miracle salvation our tech overlords want us to believe?"
I don't need to put my phone down - it's never been up. For me, its just a Phone, nothing more. Of course I have to text mostly these days if I need to communicate with people ,but NO - I'm constantly amazed by the Lemmings who sell themselves short in life ... watching Movies on that tiny screen ? Nuts. Or endless 15 second Videos of other people trying to sell/Monetize themselves ? I saw the multitudes in St. Peters Square the other day. Thousands upon thousand of phones held up - a sea of them with those thousands watching the new pope through their tiny screens. They were all there at that marvelous place (I have been there). Why wouldn't anyone want actually experience that wonderful day / Instead a tiny screen. Just pitiful ...
Absolutely one of the best insights on culture there is. I have seen and intuited what you speak of for a long time now, but your vision and insight is far far deeper.
Could post-modern cynicism be followed by a yearning for sincerity?
Paul Anleitner and others have been suggesting this is already beginning, calling it “meta modernism.”
Seems like this could fit with some of what you’re anticipating Ted, for example people abandon social media like they once left shopping malls. In pursuit of reality and face-to-face community. We can hope.
How did you resist the temptation to call this "The Four Horsemen Of The Pop Eclipse"?
Or maybe the "Apopalypse"?
Ted: You definitely have a "horse" to ride, but not in the cultural apocalypse derby. You are (one of) the knight(s) who are trying to slay the dragon of the "financial" types who run so much of the music and media businesses. In Western culture, the dragon is a symbol of possessiveness and greed (see, e.g., Smaug).They can't play an instrument, so they buy catalogs of songs. They can't act, so they buy up or license the libraries of the movie studios. And now they fund AI projects to swallow up the world's literature and spew it back in unbearably trite prose. Yes, there are horsemen of the apocalypse; but they mostly are hanging on to the back end of the horse.
Saw this, it may be on a best seller list but it won't move needles. Words in the wind.
It isn't illegal to have bad taste or be addicted to screens and in honor of our new pope, a former teacher at my high school, it's time to name the Digital Devil that's brought all this about at the speed of a click. Great art rises and embraces the human heart, and it will always be with us.
When I was a kid I played a ton of music. I had a ton of time on my boring small town hands to do so. Being mostly self taught and playing piano and guitar on my own I got pretty good at finger picking in the Mississippi John Hurt style. Mostly I just loved music,. Then I married a professional musician brought up to be a concert pianist who blasted all my love of music out of me due to the perfectionism drilled into him since the age of five. I divorced him ages ago but still haven’t played a drop of music since. I recently started listening to Leo Kottke and he’s revivied that love. I’ve re-stringed my guitar and started playing again. It was my ex-husband trying to .”make it” in the music business that drove him cuckoo in the bongo. This was way before the internets. It’s the financialization of everything like love, beauty and truth in the United States that’s destroying culture.
It's a damn shame, how expertise can kill love - if not your own, then someone else's. Amateur is good - it means lover, and to have the love of music beaten out of you is a very hard thing. Glad you got back onto it.
Do you have a horse in this race? Yes! You help lead us on your personal Shadowfax back to sanity in the arts. You're at the Humanities helm, Prof...& there is always hope.
I think it takes a lot of courage - perhaps a bit of plain bloody-mindedness- to really put oneself out there in the wilds of the internet. Particularly if one's views are not (currently) popular. Never mind actual columns and podcasts being made about someone- more often than not I've read of various individuals from the previous blogging era stating 'I don't read comments' to shutting them off entirely. It's a shame that anonymity or sheer contrarianism(?) can bring out the worst in people.
Stick to your guns. Let people say what they will- in my opinion, as long as you can back your material with conviction and facts where applicable- damn the torpedoes... full speed ahead.
Always thoughtful and provoking, Ted.
Number Three on Derek Thompson's assessments, ISOLATION, rings differently with me. People have access to tools that enable them to be creative in their time, instead of hitting bars and spending time watching and listening to bands that have accessibility to tools. And more and more are taking their time at their convenience for personal growth, their own creativity, and their own way of connecting with others.
Music is a different art, say from painting, or writing, or the art of sculpture, or fabric work.
These are created in a solitary space, then shared with the public, whereas music is created, composed and recorded (typically alone or in a controlled environment), then recreated live, over and over again. How do you build that audience? The artist or performer has to find a way of connecting with people. It's their responsibility.
I have many musician friends that still do the bar circuit, which as I push 69, are not the venues I want to be at late at night. I did the bars for years, solo and bands. Yet, they don't always share the same enthusiasm to come hear me play at 12:30 in the afternoon, or perhaps an Exhibit Opening at 5:00 PM. Kind of funny (for lack of a better word)( but I just shipped CDs to Korea, whereas I'd be lucky to sell the same amount locally in my hometown. And I don't have a large social media audience. Maybe a thousand on one platform, five hundred on another. I've stated before here,
I can't stand Spotify, however I am on iTunes, Apple Music, BandCamp, Amazon and others.
I feel as if I'm rambling, so will close shortly.
Times have changed for sure! I just feel there is great art being created, and the exceptional will always find a way to rise to the top and be known to a part of the world. One last thought...
There are 8 billion people on the planet. If you find 20K people that really, really supported your art, you could make a good living. Not rock star living, but a living. A vocation.
Peace and love!
So, what is the response--from a generation who made its bones by fighting authority--when young media consumers, comfortable with pablum, say: 'Boomers ruined everything, Sit down and shut up. It's our time.' [Marginal boomer here, by the calendar--more Gen X by circumstances.]
One of the reasons for the current stagnation was how quickly the boomer "counterculture" was co-opted. Boomers were affluent even as teenagers. Those were fat times. (Forman's 1971 movie "Taking Off" was about this.) Maybe there was a brief period where that music was considered countercultural, perhaps even subversive, but that passed pretty quickly. With all the money involved, this was no surprise even back then. (There was a market for people to write "those kids" columns and make "aren't they awful" exploitation movies by the middle of the decade.)
Then, that culture got locked in. This happens. There was a period when what we consider classical music and classical opera was the music of a generation. Then came records and radio and pop music. Then came that god awful rock and roll. Now, that god awful rock and roll is worth billions if only because there are still a lot of baby boomers still alive and they have money. I expect there will be a lot of interesting mergers and bankruptcies and court battles as baby boomers die off and the market for their music softens. It's not like any other generation is as well fixed as they are.
Since we're talking about a Cultural Apocalypse, I think they should be called "The Four Endorse-men of the Apocalypse".
The common thread running through all four of the points made by Derek is attention. They want our attention. Some people surrender it very easily others not so much. These are the people who read books, listen to music from their own collections and think for themselves.
Truth can be found here. I went Thursday to a concert. And the vibe and energy was there giving me and the others a volt in the mind and body. Can we defeat the four horsemen of the pip culture apocalypse? Sometimes we need to turn off the electronics and leave our castle/ cage. It's good to step out into the world. DO THINGS! HAVE FUN! ENJOY ! AND BREATHE! CAN THESE ACTION DEFEAT THE HORESMEN? TRY IT! THANKS for the read.
RE: Taming the four horsemen. First step: Put the damn smartphone down and leave it there! Does wonders for isolation and attention rot. Real hope is an antidote for cynicism. Courage/conviction is key to breaking through creative stagnation. Are we waking up and finding out technology isn't the miracle salvation our tech overlords want us to believe?
" Are we waking up and finding out technology isn't the miracle salvation our tech overlords want us to believe?"
I don't need to put my phone down - it's never been up. For me, its just a Phone, nothing more. Of course I have to text mostly these days if I need to communicate with people ,but NO - I'm constantly amazed by the Lemmings who sell themselves short in life ... watching Movies on that tiny screen ? Nuts. Or endless 15 second Videos of other people trying to sell/Monetize themselves ? I saw the multitudes in St. Peters Square the other day. Thousands upon thousand of phones held up - a sea of them with those thousands watching the new pope through their tiny screens. They were all there at that marvelous place (I have been there). Why wouldn't anyone want actually experience that wonderful day / Instead a tiny screen. Just pitiful ...
This seems to be turning into just another thing to talk about on the internet. Or maybe its always been that, and im just catching on.
The revolution will not be blogged, tweeted, liked, and subscribed to.
Naval said it very well: “The devil is cheap dopamine.” My thoughts on this terrifying trend: https://www.whitenoise.email/p/dare-dopamine-abuse-resistance-education
Absolutely one of the best insights on culture there is. I have seen and intuited what you speak of for a long time now, but your vision and insight is far far deeper.
Could post-modern cynicism be followed by a yearning for sincerity?
Paul Anleitner and others have been suggesting this is already beginning, calling it “meta modernism.”
Seems like this could fit with some of what you’re anticipating Ted, for example people abandon social media like they once left shopping malls. In pursuit of reality and face-to-face community. We can hope.