Is technology causing society to regress intellectually and spiritually? Does anyone think or feel for themselves? Why should they with Wikipedia, spellcheck, and PS3 always close at hand?
aye yae yae!!! yes. this is a topic that keeps my mind churning. as a musician peddling songs on iTunes, cdbaby and a host of other digital outlets, the whole 'accessibility' thing is really a big double edged sword these days. sure, it's great to be able to make a living without leaving your living room...it's great to be able to cultivate your art at home and catapult it into cyberspace for the taking, but with SOOO much accessibility, comes an even higher level of responsibility, dontcha think? now-a-days, kids can use a free program (ala garage band) to make bootleg tracks in their basements and get record deals! now, i'm not hating on the kids and their efforts to be creative and express themselves and get paid AT ALL...but where does that leave the 'serious' musicians?? i'm talking about the ones who study, practice, bear their hearts and souls and grind it out for the love of what they do? is 'soldier boy tell 'em' sitting pretty off of the money that was earmarked for some talented singer/songwriters record deal??? hmmm.... ok...i could go off on a tangent here (but i wont! haha).
then we get into the whole issue of 'life imitating art' or 'art imitating life'...when we talk about accessibility, this quote comes to mind because there is SO MUCH GARBAGE OUT HERE FLOATING AROUND THE GUISE OF 'ART' and folks are doing their best to imitate it ALL! in the era of REALITY tv where actors are being replaced by washed up celebrities and foul mouthed, promiscuous teenagers and when our biggest selling superstars are decided by how many times we txt or call in to vote for them (again, from the comforts of our own living rooms)...in a world like this, it's hard to gain perspective on what's REAL and what's 'ART'...but WHATEVER it is, just know that you can download it at the speed of light on your cell phone! grrrrr...
but lemme stop rambling and answer the actual questions: is society AS A WHOLE regressing? absolutely. look at our government and it's policies. look at the degenerative nature of the moral fiber of our country. look at our public school system. look at the billboard top 40 chart.
does anyone think or feel for themselves? absolutely. with all this nonsense floating around we almost need to create a 'forcefield' around ourselves in order to preserve our thoughts and feelings. that forcefield is cultivated by exercising our right to choose. if we are serious about our love for the arts or our commitment to being PROGRESSIVE (as opposed to REGRESSIVE) human beings, we are almost FORCED to seek out the good stuff in this world. there used to be lots of GOOD STUFF available to us in mainstream society, on tv, in the movie theaters, on the radio, etc. but now, we have to do the UNTHINKABLE and THINK FOR OURSELVES! we have to spend time on iTunes SEARCHING for those diamonds in the rough...we have to support independent films and music so that we can maintain the RIGHT to think for ourselves. we have to show the powers that be that WE ARE NOT GONNA BE FORCE FED THE GARBAGE ALL THE TIME. grrrrrrr!!!!
bottom line, if my life is gonna imitate art, at least let it be something GOOD! lol...and if that's my mantra then as an artist, i have a responsibility to make sure that whatever i put out here in the accessible atmosphere is WORTHY of imitation as well:-)
1 comment:
aye yae yae!!! yes. this is a topic that keeps my mind churning. as a musician peddling songs on iTunes, cdbaby and a host of other digital outlets, the whole 'accessibility' thing is really a big double edged sword these days. sure, it's great to be able to make a living without leaving your living room...it's great to be able to cultivate your art at home and catapult it into cyberspace for the taking, but with SOOO much accessibility, comes an even higher level of responsibility, dontcha think? now-a-days, kids can use a free program (ala garage band) to make bootleg tracks in their basements and get record deals! now, i'm not hating on the kids and their efforts to be creative and express themselves and get paid AT ALL...but where does that leave the 'serious' musicians?? i'm talking about the ones who study, practice, bear their hearts and souls and grind it out for the love of what they do? is 'soldier boy tell 'em' sitting pretty off of the money that was earmarked for some talented singer/songwriters record deal??? hmmm.... ok...i could go off on a tangent here (but i wont! haha).
then we get into the whole issue of 'life imitating art' or 'art imitating life'...when we talk about accessibility, this quote comes to mind because there is SO MUCH GARBAGE OUT HERE FLOATING AROUND THE GUISE OF 'ART' and folks are doing their best to imitate it ALL! in the era of REALITY tv where actors are being replaced by washed up celebrities and foul mouthed, promiscuous teenagers and when our biggest selling superstars are decided by how many times we txt or call in to vote for them (again, from the comforts of our own living rooms)...in a world like this, it's hard to gain perspective on what's REAL and what's 'ART'...but WHATEVER it is, just know that you can download it at the speed of light on your cell phone! grrrrr...
but lemme stop rambling and answer the actual questions: is society AS A WHOLE regressing? absolutely. look at our government and it's policies. look at the degenerative nature of the moral fiber of our country. look at our public school system. look at the billboard top 40 chart.
does anyone think or feel for themselves? absolutely. with all this nonsense floating around we almost need to create a 'forcefield' around ourselves in order to preserve our thoughts and feelings. that forcefield is cultivated by exercising our right to choose. if we are serious about our love for the arts or our commitment to being PROGRESSIVE (as opposed to REGRESSIVE) human beings, we are almost FORCED to seek out the good stuff in this world. there used to be lots of GOOD STUFF available to us in mainstream society, on tv, in the movie theaters, on the radio, etc. but now, we have to do the UNTHINKABLE and THINK FOR OURSELVES! we have to spend time on iTunes SEARCHING for those diamonds in the rough...we have to support independent films and music so that we can maintain the RIGHT to think for ourselves. we have to show the powers that be that WE ARE NOT GONNA BE FORCE FED THE GARBAGE ALL THE TIME. grrrrrrr!!!!
bottom line, if my life is gonna imitate art, at least let it be something GOOD! lol...and if that's my mantra then as an artist, i have a responsibility to make sure that whatever i put out here in the accessible atmosphere is WORTHY of imitation as well:-)
ok, rant OVA!
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