It's clearing house time, ladies and gents!
Lily Allen has apparently quit her fight against piracy. And music. And… Good riddance.
She, like some other recording artists (not shockingly, a lot of country singers), have been very outspoken about online music piracy and how downloaders are stealing from them. Well... Can't really disagree with that. It's a finished product and we're downloading it for free, regardless of how we justify it for ourselves. I saw a statistic somewhere; the majority of youth from this generation does not equate music piracy with theft from - say - a retail store.
As far as I'm concerned, art is life. It can not be a controlled commodity. The more you control it, the more you corrupt it. Art is thought. Art is creation. The packaged, finished product is simply marketing. Make money from the marketing, the packaging and the shows… Fixating on making money from the art is hypocrisy 2.0.
I'd do it for free.
Many artists of much higher caliber would agree with me. If you're an artist, what would you prefer? Getting paid $70k/year to work an office desk or $70k/year being left in peace to create your art?
Many artists of much higher caliber would agree with me. If you're an artist, what would you prefer? Getting paid $70k/year to work an office desk or $70k/year being left in peace to create your art?
That’s the question one should ask him/herself when deciding whether or not to embark on this path: Do I want to live the life of art, creativity and emotional freedom or do I just want to be rich and famous?
If you’re in the former group, you’ll gladly bust your ass on the graveyard shift, serving tables at Denny’s just so you have your days free to work on your paintings. If you’re in the former group, you’ll daydream about being rich and famous but it won’t be your absolute drive, it will just be more emotions to use in your story.
If you’re in the latter group, you don’t care what you do. You’ll apply for every reality show that comes to town, you’ll sell yourself to the right people on every ethical casting couch and finally, when you’ve made it, you’ll publicly bitch that people are ‘stealing’ from you.
I’d gladly do it for free.
Is it ethically wrong to pirate music? Sure. I’m not arguing that at all. I, however, question the sincerity of an artist who looses motivation and drive over it. Especially when that artist gets a never ending supply of free clothing, free jewelry, free travel and free accommodations all over the world, not to mention the massive paychecks that come from advertising and endorsements.
I’d fucking GLADLY do it for free.
It's clearing house time, ladies and gents!
This is the future of the art ‘industry.’ By that I mean music, film, everything… Those who have the passion and the talent will produce. The technology is more easily accessible and art marketing has evolved to social networking because people want to feel like they’ve made the discovery and not been sold on it. The markets will flood. There will be way too much shit out there. People will not know where to look. Then, they’ll get used to it and discover their own niches. Instead of 3 billion people watching the same summer movie, 9 or 10 different, smaller movies will be watched by a respective audience of 500,000 each; audiences from different social classes and subcultures. Instead of EVERYONE listening to the new Black Eyed Peas album, some will listen to the new Diego Brown Project and some the new Psycho Realm.
Non of this is a jab at pop culture. I LOVE pop. I love to have fun, to let go and I love “I Got A Feeling.” I’m going to be fucking sick of hearing it in a week but I love the song after a couple of shots of Jaeger.
Just the other week, I was at work, assisting DJ Marc Thrasher at Whiskey Girl in downtown San Diego, and we were taking in the irony that the pre-Fergie Black Eyed Peas used to perform on that exact stage to the right of the DJ booth in which we were standing. Back then, a prolific and respected Hip Hop group, the Peas were struggling and working the local scene. Flash forward a few years and there we are, watching the crowd go nuts to a post-Fergie Peas’ “I Got A Feeling,” literally dancing on that exact stage they used to perform on every Thursday night to an audience of 40-50 drunks, back when the building was occupied by Buffalo Joe’s. I love that track, it’s a lot of fun. It’s just that the pre-Fergie Peas were like a juicy Filet Mignon while the post-Fergie Peas are more like 39cent cheese burgers from McDonalds. Man, I do love me those cheese burgers: Processed cheese, imitation meat, that delicious chemically tasting ketchup and onion mix… But is it a juicy Filet Mignon from Flemings? The real question is: If the peas got their start today, developed a following and made a respectable living doing what they absolutely love, would they have ever become the quintessential poster boys for “selling out” today?
The problem with commercial Hip Hop and pop R&B is that it’s junk food. There is a lot of amazing Hip Hop artists out there whom you’ve never heard of but who are also making a respectable living while continuing to be respected. I think they sleep easier at night. The crap you hear on the radio is a result of directions given by executives; the fat, bald white men on the 60th floor. I’m all for taking influence from different genres but what they do is this: Locate a style of music that kids today aren’t familiar with and rape and pillage it till the kids get sick of it! A few years back, it was disco and funk. Today, they’re raping European electronica. The sweet irony of it being that when I listened to this stuff in high school, people called me gay. Now Pit Bull "raps" over it and OK!
There is a natural progression to things. With the rise of the music video, the uber-corperitization of the studio system and the Clear Channel Communications monopoly factory, the 80s and 90s definitely saw the peak of uber-mass consumption. The internet, and the peoples’ progressive second nature reliance on it, have opened doors for artists who may have never even been allowed on to the studio lot.
Light a candle for the end of that era. The talent-less hacks who’ve been shoved down our throats and the greedy motherfuckers who have lost their artistic vision and are only in it for the paycheck shall not be welcome anymore. It's clearing house time, ladies and gents.
Because we’d fucking GLADLY do it for free.
No comments:
Post a Comment