“maybe we’re getting back to a time where making music is a product of living.”
cousin dave and i were talking not too long ago about music as a practice and where it’s headed. we’re both in our mid-thirties and have families and jobs and all that jazz. i won’t speak for him but frankly, i’m not sure that i have any desire to do any of the crazy stuff associated with being a hugely successful musician. touring and all that is just out at this stage of my life. but i really do want people to listen to the music that i produce.
as our conversation progressed, he said something that completely reset my focus. something along the lines of being in a time where music returns to “a product of living.”
when i think about that turn of phrase, everything that i have been trying to say for the last 10 years or so comes together very clearly. in fact, it could really work its way into being my “artist’s statement.” there has always been an inner struggle with why i need to do what i do. it isn’t purely for enjoyment that i play and record. it isn’t the product that is the goal nor is the state of flow achieved in the process. making music has simply been something that i do. it’s a sort of cross between blinking my eyes and taking out the trash; done automatically but with intent.
that said, i am not by any means unique. other people feel this way. even the ones with albums for sale in big chain stores. this instinctive assumption has always led me away from the “if musicians don’t get paid they won’t make any more music!!!” rhetoric. take a look at the internet and you’ll find scores of people posting their songs for anyone to hear. and why is that? because we’re a culture of day jobs. creative people have the means to share and when given the choice between waiting for a record company to sign them or having 50 comments under a blog post, they’ll take the comments.
it would be great to make money from creative output and that potential still exists. there are plenty of applications for art and music within commercial boundaries. at the same time, this is not the reason to create. writing about this on the internet for a savvy audience of web types might make it seem like there’s some claim here that a shift in paradigm is eminent. nope. music and art being made simply because that’s what we do goes back forever. it’s the idea that we MUST be paid for it that’s new. and it’s an idea that crumbles under the pressure of the creative urge.
how many people who want to be the famous author at the book signing go to the trouble of actually writing that novel? not many. meanwhile, how many people who want to tell a story give it away on a blog or issue on-demand or limited printings? more than a few! what artist balks at a web gallery to show off the latest paintings sitting in the studio? it seems that someone who is motivated to produce something will almost always have a desire to share it that at the very least meets the compulsion to create.
it doesn’t feel like there is much of a future in the world of music for money. the radio, long dead to most of us, has been replaced with the comfort and control of an mp3 player. let’s just be honest and say iPod. from the perspective of the listener, everything that one could want is available at the touch of a button. CDs and records purchased years ago can be digitized and mixed in with random songs given away on the internet or purchases from any online music store. all of these are equal under the eyes of the almighty shuffle function. what power for the listener. what a blessing for the creative mind.
knowing that a track that i have posted and finds its way somehow to someone’s iPod is now essentially equal to all other music there puts me in a place of honor. eventually, whether it was selected for a playlist or simply favored by the random seed, my song will pop up. i won’t hear a “cha-ching” noise when it does, but if i’m completely honest, it doesn’t matter. i made that music because i was compelled to do so. because that is what i have chosen to do with my time on this earth. the exchange of currency loses all meaning and is replaced by the potential for the passing of some beautiful energy.
it sounds like i’m degenerating into hippie-speak, and maybe i am. dust off your crystals and break out the wind chimes my earth children!
the fact remains that although there are many, many artists who are making their work available for no monetary exchange with the hope that someone will take notice and offer to allow the artist a chance at the “big time,” all of them, presumably, enjoyed doing the work for its own sake. it would have been made anyway. i know of many musicians with no desire to “hit it big” who spend untold hours producing meticulously crafted work simply to be able to point to it and say, “i did that!” in that very real sense, music is indeed becoming a natural product of modern life. and what an amazing proposition that is.
the ubiquity of the internet has radically altered the game for creativity and in this time of change that never seems to stop or slow down we are seeing the death of the tried and true methods of business. many have posited that within 5 years newspapers will be a thing of the past. as hulu and youtube expand to make on-demand viewing of television programs from anyplace with a network drop a common activity, one must wonder about the future of broadcast television. the book publishing industry is under incredible strain and may turn to the kindle or other ebook readers as its best hope for surviving. but if the kindle becomes the iPod of books and periodicals, there is the very real possibility that publishing will fall to the same fate as the music industry. again, if ‘zines and the latest best seller can exist in the same package and draw the same attention, what does that mean?
sharing creative output as a part of daily life seems so brilliant and vibrant that it’s hard for me to turn it over and examine what we will lose in the process. right now, there isn’t a whole lot that comes up as a loss to my eyes. some things that have been a long time coming are here and we should enjoy them while we can.
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