Thursday 23rd February, 2012 – Confusion Harms The Arts

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Jay

I’ve touched upon my ideas on communication in the arts before in my blog post ‘Objectivity in Art’ last December. Among other related ideas, I talked about the use of objectivity to enable an artist to see their message from the outside. I believe this enables efficient targeting of an audience and therefore efficient communication.

I still see art as a method of communication and art’s main purpose, whether you are communicating the beauty of your subject or, for example, some kind of abstract message on nihilism and it’s relevance to today’s society: if the message is lost then what has been created is just an object or sound like any other and therefore deserves the same amount of attention as any other sound or object.

However, I don’t think that poor communication is always the lack of ability to see the bigger picture. Sometimes people use the arts to just make money or gain respect among their peers and, for me, this is an area where a message can get confused: intentions become part of the message no matter how far removed they are. I think that it is hard to hide the real intentions behind any action, and even if this intention is being cloaked by an artistic ideal, the real intention will still be subtly visible. Those looking for inspiration or just soaking up experience will take all aspects of a revered source on board, and such aspects will only serve to detract attention away from the real message that is being given. Such aspects may even harm the production of future art if, for example, people start to see money-making as a factor in the making of relevant art.

I cant really comment on why she started out but take Lady Gaga as an example. The image she seems to project is one of sticking to values and not caring what others think of you while saying that it’s OK to be yourself. These are very worthy ideals but the message is mixed: is being yourself continually re-inventing yourself? A cynic may say this a great way to keep your brand fresh but a fan may say that’s just how she is. If this is ‘just how she is’, her music, her main method of communication doesn’t seem to follow the idea of reinvention. The ideas may be in her lyrics but her craft is song-writing, not being a lyricist. This leads me to not being able to take anything at all from her work, as the message given is not very consistent at all.

These very issues are part of the reason why I don’t really follow much music at all. A little strange for a musician, but it seems that most of the time the image comes first. Once the image is set in place, some music is made but this generally follows taste and not whatever message the image is striving to portray. Sometimes it is the other way around, some great music is made but to make it saleable an image is created on top of this. Again this generally seems detached as the music and image are two are separate entities. This could very well be an odd quirk of my personality but I believe that if you should have something to say, every part of you should be saying it, otherwise all you give out are mixed messages. Of course, not all bands and singers (and artists etc) are like this and many marry all aspects about them to enable great singular communication of their ethos. Personally, it turns out that things interesting to me generally aren’t attached to genre or a certain media outlet so most of the time, i just cant be bothered to wade through it all!
This shows just how these mixed messages could damage art: I am probably missing out on a lot great experience by not investigating further, and I may find that there are some messages out there that I could have a valuable contribution to. If I feel this way, I’m sure many others do too…

Thursday 11th November – How to make it in music?

Posted on November 9, 2010 by transientmusic

You may or may not be aware of the weird state that the music industry is in. Basically, the rise of the Internet and file sharing has meant that making money from music based on the sales models of the latter half of the 20th century is getting harder. Recording and publishing companies have therefore been finding things increasingly more difficult and this is pretty bad in some ways…. but quite exciting in others… Musicians that try to pin their hopes on sending demos out to these people have things harder than ever too as recording/publishing companies wont risk spending money with no definite return (like any good business!). Also, it means that the associated companies will try anything to make money just to survive. X Factor and the like are associated with this point as they are a way to guarantee sales through reaching a massive audience . (I put these shows in the ‘bad’ category as, in my opinion, they are quite damaging for the industry due to the influencing of public opinion on what music actually is – more about that another time but how will the industry grow without the continual influx of new ideas?).

So, the worrying parts are that a lot of labels and publishers are struggling and shutting the door on a lot of music (although some are starting to realise the money they can make from shows/gigs). In fact, a couple of publishers I spoke to after I sent my first round of demos out told me that they don’t actually know how they, or the industry, is going to make any money in the future. Worrying… and a disastrous lack of insight considering these people should live their jobs.

The good points…? Well, as a musician and a lover of music, it is obvious that there is so much wonderful music out there now. Cheaper, good quality recording gear, and the means to reach the public have helped this along, and a trawl through MySpace will bring this great music to your attention (as well as some that’s not so great!). There is no lack of great music! But also, the competition is immense! Thousands and thousands of bands are all pitching for the public’s attention to such an extent that it is all pretty much meaningless: You get one mail, MP3 etc, you have a listen. Another, and you do the same… but hundreds…? The human attention span just wont cope! The natural order of things is usually for a few individuals to actually poke their heads above the rest… (yeah great songs should do this… but, like I said, there are many great songs out there!). I believe the difference will be made by good old fashioned business sense. A knowledge of marketing, etc, etc will enable those with great songs to actually reach the people that are more likely to be a fan. Then, a good use of all this knowledge will ensure that these fans are kept interested, get more personally involved in the music and eventually buy into it. The musician is effectively an entrepreneur. So, I’m convinced the opportunity is out there for musicians to actually grow some sort of business from their love for music. They just need to follow the rules that any business enterprise has to follow to guarantee success (sales jobs are all the same, only the product changes). So, my final positive point? Well, anyone can learn these techniques and anyone can utilise their common sense to build a business! Whether or not anyone has the energy and daring for it is another matter….

Thursday 30th September – Audio/Visual Work and the Importance of Calm Thought.

Posted on September 30, 2010 by transientmusic

As promised a few posts back, here is some information on the photographer Lesley Flower and the project we are working on… as I may have mentioned, Lesley has had an interest in photography from a very young age and also studied Fine Art Photography at university. Take a look at some of her work at: www.LesleyFlower.co.uk.

As I’m sure you will see from her website, Lesley’s photographs ooze atmosphere and the themes that she uses practically climb out of the picture and envelope you. At the root, on a basic level, her current work concerns calmness, particularly that to do with nature. Being a person that finds an affinity with the outdoors life, this all comes very naturally to her and because of this, the atmospheres that she creates are very vivid. It is this vividness that draws me in to her work and this is all very relevant to me because this enveloping atmoshere is something that I am aiming towards musically (which is by no means accomplished yet!). As with Lesley, I believe this sense of calm is very important in modern society. Many, many people forget how to relax and forget that the causes of stress are very rarely a life or death situation! It may be idealistic but I believe that if people paid more attention to this many of the world’s problems might be more easily sorted due to the dissipation of confrontation stress causes. Abstract (ie. effectively imaginary) concepts bring about these stresses and ironically enough, these imaginary ideas are actually what causes physical conflict and strife. Think about all of the murders that have been committed due to pride and perceived pressure.

For a while now, Lesley and I have been talking about a possible project collaboration bringing together our ideals into an audio-visual experience, our interest in dreamy atmospheres and a need to envelope the viewer/listener sensually and conceptually being a main starting-point. With my current research into sound design and sound as art, this project is proving very interesting for me and very fruitful for my musical ideas as well as honing my more conceptual goals too (as I have been ranting about in previous posts).

The next step for us is to show a few friends what we have come up with so far and to see what reactions we get… We need to see if our work is getting the desired effect, and if it isn’t we will look at how we can refine what we have to get to the very essence of what we want to say. I’ll keep you all updated on how it goes!

Thanks for reading.

Thursday 14th September – You can actually make a difference

Posted on September 13, 2010 by transientmusic

This post mainly relates to the changes currently happening in the music industry but I feel the power
of the internet and current thought against those with money/power make this relevant to anyone with a yearn for change…

So…..at the moment, what do I see around me?

I work for people that openly put their own needs to climb corporate ladders above the basic needs of their colleagues; I see people working for banks that justify their heinous greed, take handouts from those they screwed and then effectively go back behind the bike-sheds for a smoke; I see governments built on democracy fueled by the interests of career politicians making terrible decisions; Charity street teams are hired to collect money for the profit of private companies; People are famous for being famous, justifying self-promotion at any cost which is seen as a path to riches and adoration; Extremists use religion to vent emotional rage; I see lots of suffering at others’ expense…

Hold on though…… there’s nothing new about that right…..?

Office politics is nothing new; greed has always influenced the powerful and it certainly isn’t new to abuse political power. Money and power corrupts etc, etc. Same old….

Idealists and new age hippies complain that things weren’t like this when man lived off the earth and say these abuses don’t occur in less developed ‘spiritual’ countries……Nice thought….. It might be easy to blame western society but who made it the way it is….? Well, we did….Take ownership. And are people from ‘spiritual’ countries any more enlightened and less likely to commit these abuses? Check out the Thai government, for example. Pretty corrupt. Don’t look to others for what’s right.

But this is all a bit pessimistic and misanthropic! There must be a brighter side to human nature too…..? Of course, it is also very true that good things do happen: People do act with sincere compassion to help others even at their own expense. I would say these acts occur all over the world. People can be very kind, even the rich and powerful…

So what then?

Well, people moan; people hide in their own moral cause mounted upon a rather high horse and just stay there. Up until recently this was me, but now I feel an urge to actually act upon my thoughts. I won’t be chaining myself to railings, or blowing up animal testing facilities, or even camping out on Parliament Square. It’s no good annoying people with a ‘righteous’ message but to be effective you have to live your life assuming respect and mutual care are the norm. Live life how it should be then maybe a self-fulfilling prophecy will work it’s magic….

Personally, I will permeate positive ideals throughout my music, trying to create an enveloping atmosphere to carry them rather than just writing about my own problems. No, I’m not the first musician with a desire to do this. In fact it’s actually quite a cliché as I’m sure you have realised. But we live in exciting times; the internet and the arts have reached a point where the big players and searchers of wealth in these areas are slowly but surely having less and less power. Independent musicians, artists, writers etc. are getting the playing field leveled. More people have a voice. But unfortunately this is at a cost…… These millions of voices still have no focus (if you’ve seen the plethora of bands on Myspace trying to get somewhere you’ll know what I mean). What is needed is a general support of morally sound values that seem to be bubbling in this crowded sea of voices.

I’m no expert or authority on anything but I do have ideas on how I would like things to be done, just the same as you who are reading this do. The internet and the freedom of information currently revolutionising the music industry will hopefully allow people like you, and me, to help spread the nicer ideals in life. If enough people speak as one, their ideas will become the norm and those nasty little self-obsessed ideals will be reduced to some weirdo dribbling in the corner. Even if you have no desire to be creative with such ideals, you have something very important: Your freedom of choice as a consumer and the supportive or critical role that you can play with those that have something to say. You have the power to agree with anyone you like as well as disagree, and the wonderful medium of the internet allows others to witness this. Live life as if empathy and kindness are the norm, let this permeate through all your words and actions. And just wait.