Is it a reflection of society more generally, or do the arts play a role in defining the social and political attitudes of the public? Traditionally one aspect of art is to play the role of antithesis to institutional establishment and stand opposed to aspects of society that hem us in and control certain aspects of our lives. Since finishing university and finding myself faced with the ‘real world’ I have been asking a lot of questions about what I want to do with my life and where me as a musician, songwriter and artist fits with this. I’ve spent much time thinking about why I write music, where I want to go with it and what motivations lie behind my efforts.
When looking both outwardly at the music industry and inwardly at what I am doing myself, it becomes painfully clear that, for me at least, music has lost something in my life and is about getting noticed by the right people, becoming or discovering the next big thing (getting famous and pertaining to artists’ success – until they achieve too much) and getting as many essentially meaningless friends, fans and followers on social networking sites as possible. It seems that everybody and their mums are having a go, releasing singles and coming up with unique and absurd ways of self-promotion. With the speed at which the technology has become available to record and release albums, videos and even gigs from your own bedroom, it seems that both producer and consumer have become self-obsessed and isolated from one another, at the same time embracing the illusion that barriers of social interaction between artist and audience are actually being desecrated. We haven’t really had chance to take a step back and assess what we are doing. Instead we have put business first and allowed it to dictate what we should be producing rather than questioning its relevance in our art.
The purpose of this blog is not to try to give answers and opinions on complex social issues, but to ask questions and hopefully find outward, societal relevance for independent music and song writing in a post-modern, individualistic and very inward focussed culture. There have been murmurings of musical revolutions in this time of transition within the music industry (the digital age). We have a window of opportunity, as independent musicians to really take the bull by the horns and rattle the music industry while it sleeps off the self-imposed hangover, the cocktail of piracy (a scapegoat they have to adapt to and not fight against), the demise of physical formats and the rise of the potential power for independent musicians.
The ‘product’ of music is in a state of flux and while the big labels carry on fighting their lost cause against piracy we can really implement the new models of music business that are actually going to succeed and get people caring about and desiring what we do again. It is no longer just about songs, you can get them for free, it is about something bigger, something unique, and something experiential. It is time for us to feel the relevance of music and art in society and not just see it as another commodity in a world already saturated with meaningless, pointless and wasteful products that all of us could quite happily live without. We need music and we need to find fresh ways of creating and performing that excite our audiences again. I want to explore the role that independent music can have in educating and mobilising social and political action in a culture that really needs it. There are many others thinking down these lines and I will be collecting thoughts and ideas from different places in order to work through some of the issues that I have with music today.
I am writing for independent artists who think beyond themselves as the creative motivation, who want to engage with social and political ideas in a meaningful way through where their art takes them and who want to make a genuine difference in other people’s worlds. To change the world is both a big and small thing, it is to impact the life of one person. I can’t remember who said ‘one mind less means one world less’ but it is something I have never forgotten. Every mind is a different world because the world is in perception; to change a world is to change a mind and in order to allow this change to happen we need to open our minds to change.
