I was listening through Vampire Weekend's new album and came to the realization that many of their songs are just bits and pieces of other people's music, cut & pasted together. I have had mixed feelings for blatant sampling in music for years. Is it creative to build a song around a piece of someone else's song, or is it cheap and taken out of context? Some artists pull it off well and make it still sound original, but I can't shake the feeling that something about the process is disingenuous. I want to hear music pulled from your soul, not out of your Spotify playlist.
I think once you make art for money, it becomes perverted into a product; it becomes all about the business of making what other people want to hear/see.
Look at how they are exploiting nostalgia right now. With the hype of the live-action Pokémon movie, comes a Sonic the Hedgehog movie. With the success of the original Disney movies, comes an overwhelming amount of cheap over-produced remakes. Even Stephen King movies are all being remade. (Why weren't the books enough?)
We have enough pretty teen boys singing songs about heartbreak.
We have enough sexy models on Instagram.
I know I shouldn't obsess over the material world. This isn't meant to be a post to complain about the state of commercial art; this is a call to all young artists to try something new! Don't mimic pop singers because that's what gets likes; find your own voice.
Don't dress up like the people that get all the attention on social media; find your own style.
Create something truly unique! Break the restrictions of popular. Break the restrictions of making something that is safe and shovels in the money. They aren't artists anymore. They are business people and marketing strategies.
We are told to fit in. We are told follow a formula. They don't want thinkers and dreamers; they want quiet conformity, pretty pastel, and white bread with the edges cut off.
Fight back against the dulling of art and the numbing of our minds!
Artists have a responsibility to connect people to the universe around them, to connect people to themselves and the people around them.
Maybe I'm taking things too seriously. Maybe I am too pretentious.
I am just so tired of every song blabbing on & on about needing to get high to forget about their ex.
I'm so tired of all the remakes. I'm tired of tribute bands and fan fics.
I'm tired of people being afraid to trust themselves. I'm tired of people being afraid to try. I'm tired of people being afraid of messes.
I'm not calling for a revolution and I don't want you to feel bad for writing your own Star Wars story. I just want you to not be afraid of creating something new.