Ogre speaks....
Words to consider about the current state of commercial music, from Mr. Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy:
"There’s this huge marketing campaign right now having music on phones and having it so available and so throw-away that people aren’t even really listening to the music anymore. They’re just like the T-Mobile commercial with these guys talking about “Rock the Casbah,” and they’re totally getting the lyrics all wrong. They’re almost marketing it as, "Alright, this is really shitty quality music that you won’t be able to understand but it’s cool." And I think that the thing that I’d like to get across, which is idealistic, but if you don’t support the music that you like at an early level, that music will eventually disappear. Either that, or bands and young people will make desperate decisions about their music to be successful that probably won’t follow their hearts. And then as a result, that music will again change drastically. Then you’ll be caught in this world where music is being kind of formed for you through a lot of things that people have to do in order to survive in this business." [Emphasis added.]
As a musician myself, I could not possibly agree more. If you're going to listen to music, listen to music. Oh, we all use music as "background noise" to provide a soundtrack to our everyday lives while driving somewhere, writing something (such as this post!), gettin' bizzy, and so forth. But sit down sometime with your head encased in a pair of noise-cancelling, high-quality headphones and just listen to the music pouring out of the speakers and into your brain. Take the time to appreciate the rich salad of tones apparent in even the most minimalistic Aphex Twin ambient piece. Savor the artistry of an Eric Satie piano etude or a 20-minute-long Rush masterpiece. Steep yourself in the emotion (good or bad) of a Roger-Waters-era Pink Floyd jam, or the title track to the latest My Chemical Romance album. Let the energy of a vicious pounding oldskool industrial piece light your nerves up like neon tubes, or let the ineffable calm of an Enya ballad chill you out to a few Kelvin above Absolute Zero.
And then make your own. Sing in the shower! Hum! Bang some spoons together, Spoon Man! Scrape some jagged pieces of metal together and pretend you're Nurse With Wound! Noodle around on your guitar or your piano or your alto-sax! Fire up Renoise or Sony Acid or whatever Digital Audio Workstation you like--or just pop a cassette into a tapedeck--and jam away! But remember one thing only:
Do it for you. Not for the iPod Crowd with their overpriced trendy toys and their DRMed corporate shit squeezing through those idiotic little earbuds into their idiotic little heads. Not for the girl or the guy you want to impress with your songwriting skills. Not for your drinking buddies down at the Upstage, or the groupies chasing after your bus. Do it for yourself, goddamnit--because you want to make something yourself that has never existed before! Even if you're just stitching together samples of other folks' stuff, you are still the creative force assembling those sounds according to your whim. YOU are the creator. And when you create something for the sheer joy of creating, even the simplest little four-on-the-floor dancebeat...congratulations, small human person--you've become a god.
