What they don't want you to know

The state of music today is simply put chaos. Economically and artistically it is all going down the drain. I don't know if that is the reason for it, or if there is something else going on but the decline of musical quality have been severely lacking for some time. Personally i believe it has to do with a fixation with image and a dull crowd. The problem that rises from all of this is a concerning loss of identity. Naturally i am not speaking about the really commercial stuff because that is simply put without any sort of merit orquality per definition. What i am talking about are the little smaller acts that play at festivals etc... I am talking about all the fleet foxes, Arcade Fires of the world. All those acts that have been praised about their smarts, social conscious and just general ''cleverness''. Problem is, it is not proper art, or rather it is not music as an art form. There is too much from the brain and too little from the heart and soul. Maybe they're just afraid?

If you have listened (not heard) to a bit of music, what you start feeling is the decline of real honesty in the craft and art. Just because you have a nice melody line to go with those chords doesn't mean you should. Music is a language and what you feel today is that you have already heard all the arguments, or rather, no one is actually willing t

o have an argument. People are only interested in having nice discussions about the general beauty of nature or something along those lines. Listening to the wonderful Michael Gira, what i feel is that personal expression is dead. No one is willing to take a risk and do something different. It is a bit like movies, all the best ones are about humans and ideas. Without those, you would just get an empty shell.

I think most good artists hear a lot of stuff they love, and all the good ones pick from a lot of varied places and spaces. Take all your influences and ask yourself what do I want to do? How can i make noise that sounds distinctly me? And most importantly, w

hat do i want to say?

If you listen to a lot of music you should naturally feel pretty much at home in a number of different genres. Take all those and ask yourself how you can combine the different parts you like into something interesting. What is it that you enjoy about metal and what is that you enjoy about dubstep? Distill those down to their essence and you will be able build something.

What I am looking for when i hear an album. Three easy points:

1. What are you trying to tell me about?

2. How are you telling/showing it to me?

3. Why are you trying to tell/show me?

These three points show clearly how a popular group like The Police had moments where they could genuinely transcend into something far greater than just pop music. It combined genres and was actually about something. Sting once upon a time actually wr

ote tunes with really interesting content and mood and all the members of Police brought it their personal touch. It was genuinely about music as a means of communication.

The explanation to why almost all of the good music is a bit odd is quite simple. We are all human beings and therefore we are all different. We all have a unique identity and personality and if you are truthful in the music you make, that will be reflected. Hence to a start, people will see it as sort of weird because it is you. The beauty of other people lie in their personality and you can't truly love another human being until you've spent a considerable amount of time with them.

See what I am getting at?

People

The spotify playlist above have bands that are connected and sound sort of similar, but the more you listen to it the more you feel that they are all truly individuals. It may sound weird at first, but that is because you are listening to the stuff of people, not accountants.

then again, guys like Richard D. James can get a bit overkill...