Jeremiah's Music Blog: No More Music

No More Music

Bill Drummond (formerly of the KLF) hits it right on the head:

Although I stopped making music, to all intents and purposes, in 1992 and have even stopped listening to it for great chunks of time since then, I have never stopped thinking about music. Thinking things like 'All music is shite' or that we are in this rut so deep with music, it's like we have spent all our lives at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, unaware of the world beyond.
I have tried different tactics to re-engage with music. In 2002 I decided to listen only to albums made by artists who had never released an album before. As soon as a second one came out, I would stop listening to them.

The ubiquitiousness of popular, contemporary music has been eating at me for some time, too; a nagging feeling that fundamental originality has been sacrificed for "commercial viability." Like Drummond, I've been mining recordings cataloged prior to my birth, yearning for a turning point to be revealed (see Emitt Rhodes.) Also like Drummond, I've flung myself into the recordings of first-time producers, hoping to catch some originality before all that creativity is "molded" (multiple meanings there) into a less-than-spectacular "product."

All is not lost, however. In our new modern age, the Internet has made it possible for artists (original or otherwise) to publish unadulterated works, giving the listening public a change to engage artists in the most wide-open mental terrain (unmarred by pre-release publicity/promotional videos, etc). The challenge is getting these new artists exposure.....and that's where people like me come in.

...because at the heart of it, my ears are really acting as filters. Not everyone has the time/capacity to sift through thousands of amatuer mp3's seeking gems. But for those of us that do, our handy RSS feeds can keep subscribers alerted to interesting (and original) work that may otherwise be unavailable to the public at large.

Photo by Alana Jonze.

Posted by Jeremiah at November 22, 2006 12:31 PM | Tag This Post | Digg It!