There's nothing quite like writing music to make people question your status as an artist. So often, people conflate "art" with "painting and drawing people and animals" that everything else gets swept under the carpet: certainly music, but also acting, writing, other visual arts like photography and graphic design, and other audio arts like foley and sound-mixing. This, incidentally, is the basis by which generative AI operates; people don't have time to engage with any art other than visuals, so barf up something for content engagement and I mean now. That's beside the point, however.
The irony is, the very same people who don't consider music to be art simultaneously refer to songwriters and performers as "recording artists". As far as I can tell, this use of the word "artist" is simply a label with no actual force behind it, rather like "gluten-free rice"; they don't consider high-profile musicians to be artists any more than they consider me to be one. Or, if they do, their definition of art only extends to songs with lyrics.
"This is a great start, when are you going to finish it?" What do you mean 'finish it'? "Like, when are you going to do the words?" [thousand-yard stare]
I've tried other forms of art. I've tried painting, I've tried drawing, I've tried beads, clay, toothpicks, all of it. The fact is this: the only art-form in which I exhibit any competency at all is music composition. I've heard more people say, "oh, I thought you said you were an artist", more times than most people do in a lifetime. Since I work exclusively in electronics, I've been accused of clicking a UI element labeled "Make It Sound Good" exactly 11 times, and have had my skill as a musician derided as a result of it. Truthfully, it wouldn't matter if I had the City of Prague Philharmonic on retainer, it wouldn't make me any more of an artist to them.
Them. Who is "them"? I suppose I'm talking about... everybody. I don't know really. I guess what I was talking about in reference to AI art before actually is relevant after all. AI art was designed for quick consumption, so people on coffee breaks could be assured of a constant stream of unique content on their Twitter timelines. Content as an end unto itself is exactly why we are where we are in the Gregorian year 2024; I'm kvetching about not being called an artist, but the fact of the matter is that there are no more artists in the corporate feudal state. According to the marketing overlords, all of society can be distilled down into two groups: facilitators and consumers. Facilitators used to be called "artists", until it was decided that the things they made could be commodified.
My music theory professor put it best when he said, "paintings decorate space, music decorates time". Listening to a piece of music requires a number of commitments on the part of the receiver: first, you have to stop scrolling. Second, you have to either click or tap a Play icon. Third, you have to resist scrolling until the song is done, which can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes, depending on how long the song is. Fourth, you have to be in the correct brainspace to receive the music; a song can't make you relax, you have to want to relax. If your brain is telling you to be stressed and agitated, there's no amount of music I can play for you that will make that stop. Most people can't be bothered to stop scrolling, so the rest of the formula breaks down immediately.
Since a video takes mostly the same commitments as a song, TikTok has been attempting to commodify music lately, leading to an upsurge in songs that last 02:15. While I personally am of the opinion that a song's optimal running time is 3+ minutes, I'm not going to fall down the same rabbithole as everyone else and say that TikTok musicians aren't really artists, simply because of experience. I have written songs of that length before—not for TikTok, but I've done it—and it took me anywhere from 25-65 minutes to finish. That's another thing about people on social media; they don't seem to realise that it may take 02:15 to listen to the song; depending on the setup and how many people are involved in production, it can take days to actually compose, record, and master the piece. I'm one woman with a MIDI controller; it takes me about an hour to write a song. Sometimes, you gotta wait to get the band back together, rehearse for a few hours, then record everything.
If music were not art, why did it make you close your eyes and dream?
--28 May 2024--