How important is mainstream music still as an instrument of change?

[OmniNaut]

 In the olden days, music was used to unify and sent a message across, was it through a vibe or a statement.

60's Hippie/flower power
70's Prog Rock
80's/90's Hip-Hop/Rap/Pop (certain songs)

Nowadays it seems social media (and memes) have taken its place.
The problem of social media is, it's fast it's an algorithmic overload, you can have a post that sends a message and triggers you and 2 seconds later you scroll to the next one when your emotion is replaced with another.

Growing up with this music, it shaped me and it sticks. Social media does not stick, it's not intended to stick, it's intended to get you to the next one.

Is music still a medium for mass change, or does it have the same faith as books? Only for certain niche groups.

 

Edited Saturday at 05:40 AM by OmniNaut

[LoneWonderer]

2 hours ago, OmniNaut said:

 In the olden days, music was used to unify and sent a message across, was it through a vibe or a statement.

60's Hippie/flower power
70's Prog Rock
80's/90's Hip-Hop/Rap/Pop (certain songs)

Nowadays it seems social media (and memes) have taken its place.
The problem of social media is, it's fast it's an algorithmic overload, you can have a post that sends a message and triggers you and 2 seconds later you scroll to the next one when your emotion is replaced with another.

Growing up with this music, it shaped me and it sticks. Social media does not stick, it's not intended to stick, it's intended to get you to the next one.

Is music still a medium for mass change, or does it have the same faith as books? Only for certain niche groups.

 

Have you listened to the MJ SWG extended mixes? If you're a fan of Michael Jackson highly recommend:

 

 

 

[OmniNaut]

@LoneWonderer Thanks will check it out. 

If I may extend your extensions with more in depth.
Chris Liepe, is an online vocal singing coach, who has original studio masters of many different MJ tracks. (He also does a lot of other artists)
He does an in depth analysis on instrumental and vocal performances, it's really awesome to hear all the different layers that goes into making songs like this.

 

The whole playlist

 

But this topic is more intended to discuss if music is still a valid mass-medium for spreading a message.

Edited yesterday at 05:37 AM by OmniNaut

[Nivsch]

Lady Gaga helped (and still helps) a lot to the LGBTQ community with her music and messages.

Edited yesterday at 12:26 PM by Nivsch

[OmniNaut]

54 minutes ago, Nivsch said:

Lady Gaga helped (and still helps) a lot to the LGBTQ community with her music and messages.

Good example.

But I'm not talking about the artist, I'm talking about music itself.

[enchanted]

The 20th century unleashed humanity's highest creative musical potential for the first time in human history. It was truly an momentous time. It was also just the boomers enjoying the most abundance the average person has ever experienced and they were having fun. The music was a reflection of this good time. There can never again be another Beatles and another 60 70 music revolution and we are now at the tail end of this era. The modern person doesn't have it as good as the boomers did and the music reflects this sentiment. It will have to happen in another faucet of human life I predict. 

[oOo]

Negative Zero.

Music has shifted from exter-personal and intra-personal to inter-personal (I.e. someone mentioned gaga - all about personal empowerment), but mostly a very dumbed down version of the inter-personal.

Exter-personal is the fight for an external cause, distinguishing it from 'the collective' or collectivist music which are two categories that miss the point. 

This is the first time I am actually characterising it this way but it is fitting.

Exter-personal music, and even just music of old though, is what occupies most radio stations rather than new music. 

The modern day artist cares too much to be liked, or from being doxxed.

The progress of an artist these days is now inter-demographic and exter-demographic, not just demographic; its not the movement outwards in terms of trying to spread one's music its the movement inwards towards a demographic and attracting people towards that demographic.

It's the only abstract fitting that still allows an artist to be an artist, this is in part just to bat briefly for present day artists, why they stay away from exter-personal music because of just how divided people are that the only exter-personal music that can be made is music that is in service to a very niche crowd. Moreover, music is not only divided more than ever by demographic, it also is by airing time, hosting, brand control and brand anxiety by the hosts themselves. 

All of these divisions for an artist make it harder than ever for them just to be themselves, because their demographic is narrower and narrower. 

This increases the likelihood that an artist is going to shift into just turning it into a business where they're overly focused on their audience more than the medium between the two worlds in the midst of an ever-changing cultural environment, the latter being the sole purpose of turning artistry into an intellectual medium, so that we can learn and grow from artistic productions, not just treat it as some artistic prostitution where you're just feeding the hungry in a demographic. 

The role of an artist at its core, is to reflect and grow a demographic, not just be its bitch. Thisbecomes increasingly more difficult when people's ability to think critically, be open to new experiences and be prosocial at the very least towards their demographic, is shrinking towards more insular living that isn't even more individualistic as a whole, its to submit to choosing between external mediocre slop from YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, etc, because its what makes these companies more money, not a nation of artists trying to turn the dial in ways that do not serve their social interests.

I honestly think these days its impossible to be an exter-personal artist these days unless you want to be called a nig***, Zionist, fraud, a weirdo, Jesus, a preacher and a Nazi all at the same time from different demographics. I struggle to believe that the same Michael Jackson would make it in this music environment, or at least as easily as he did, and to create the amazing music that he did; the same with Elvis, moreover its a question of "how well-known" they would become. We don't have a lack of amazing artists, we lack the environment to allow an amazing artist to grow without also having to be good at business, market analysis, philosophy, understanding their demographic all at the same time, without being fucked in the ass by P-Diddy. And on that note I hate to say this, but you almost have to be a cult leader of their brand or towards that in order to make it in todays environment given I did say, its inter and intra demographic now. Because the more niche it is, the more of a leader you're asked to be, sociologically there's just no way around that, because the smaller we go the more we go to tribe and comparison to the original artist, this is when the Simulacra Simulation dynamics change. And that's a good way to look at it actually when you're comparing music changes over historical periods, refer to it in terms of their Simulacra Simulation dynamics; not a formal term, just one I created now that fits the terrain.

This doesn't mean that its not worth it, but you have to be very intelligent or just very lucky these days to make it as an artist; especially in the rise of AI. Madonna, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift are all examples of this, moreover, our environment rewards narcissism monetarily, because of the Simulacra dynamics, which is why Taylor Swift has been disproportionality rewarded more than anyone else, she just makes the same copies of music that feed back the ego of her demographic. There's nothing wrong with that in a business sense, but if you're someone that wants to be an artist and become known for your music, I would recommend that you seriously re-think that choice and not make it some moral or philosophical creed that you use to justify your pursuits. The person gifted in these areas or any artistic area including public speaking needs to recognise that all of these pursuits have now been turned into an Avatar of their original purpose while keeping the outer shell that keeps people engaged. What is the role of an Avatar? To provide a reflection of a truth of meaning, to be turned into a symbol like the statue of liberty, which is all proportional to the level of dissonance and complexity that can be withstood by the interpreter of that Avatar. This means that an Avatar or statue of liberty cannot simultaneously be a statue of slavery in the symbolic sense. To make it as an artist then financially, is not about being true to oneself, it never has been, ever-ever-ever, its always a negotiation among and between demographics and patterns of awareness across the exter-personal, inter-personal and now, what is actually no more the intra-personal, but what your intra-personal depth can handle when you're torn between those two worlds while only ever having a voice that is heard between and within demographics (the new exter-personal = across relatable not un-relatable demographics). These are the Simulacra dynamics, a movement of an avatar relative to the temporal dynamics that govern its reflection; and in our present environment, if you don't choose your niche wisely, you'll be quickly either chasing or trying to squeeze yourself into the avatars shadow quicker than you can click the button on your camera to keep your brand captured and unmoveable in time.

Across all fields now outside the arts, we have shifted from "Brand communism" to "Brand capitalism" to "Brand autocracy", and now potentially, "Brand feudalism", unless greater equality is brought across the entire planet; but our artists of today no longer have the voice of yesterday in the ways described above, to do that for our tomorrow. This is now far more regulated by genuine individualistic growth, where you think more and more of people as your peers, not your tribal members, that's now shifting as well. We still have relationships, however only the most developed one's genuinely last across domains and time. Because remember, artists are always in part a reflection of our cultural relationships, thus you as a person are already being turned more and more into a narcissistic brand, an avatar, where your true self is shrouded and replaced by how you're represented in a persons memetic avatar space. Thus you're either forced into greater introversion for your personal growth and or forced into deeper relationships, the middle ground must only be seen as a negotiation space these days to look at it in a healthy way, gone are the days of "Oh yeah Jimmy down the street is my best mate, he mows all the lawns round ere!", as priests, uncles and aunties are all paedophiles, Jim may just f#ck yo wife and all the while the gov be spying on all of it as it happens! That's the level of sauce that's across too many categories now, its too much for genuinely good hearted yet simple-minded people, so they're forced into dogmatism and its not their fault, then the people gifted with more intelligence are just like "look at all these idiots", forgetting that it was never completely all this way per se at least not as much as it is now, they were just forced into that preoccupation. This all interconnects, and in part its all to foster a low trust society in the way you gotta be in the cyber security sense, but right now is a conversational bridge that I don't have any further time to speak on at this moment @OmniNaut .

Edited 13 hours ago by oOo

[oOo]

To add (directly above), the situation isn't completely hopeless though, in fact, relative to the last 20 years, it could become better than eva!

Music now is brand/memetic economics.

Music was only ever a system as a mirror reflection of a larger system, that's literally it.

So it's able to be easily gamified with enough intelligence and power. And thus, that's precisely what has happened but to societies detriment. 

That's a part of a project I am working on.

I am creating a safe environment for musicians and artists to move back to creating solely exter-personal or exter-personal enriching music.

Aka, either cultural enrichment or more towards being a cultural critic.

That was the element of true rap and anything with extensive consciousness flavour. 

Artists can't be doxxed when they're protected by an environment that solely lives off the very architecture that defines an artist. 

This is a cultural war, and you gotta pick your side; if you're pro your own personal development, then you're pro-artist architecture of consciousness.

The problem was never music in and of itself, but the jukebox that was able to define the limits of the intelligence that came out of it.

I will create a new jukebox, a new system, built for artists to stimulate a virus worth being infected by.

All it takes is one brand, protected hosting, and intelligent system feedback loops between architect to artist, artist to end sentience, and sentience back to architect.

A single artist shouldn't have all of that weight on their shoulders in todays environment, they need protection. 

People are begging for exter-personal music, but they also need the rest of the system that creates and maintains brand integrity with its corresponding vision to ensure it survives both competition and status preoccupations inherent to human nature. So it has to come from a brand that isn't just a label, but system designed to positively infect society. 

It'll be its own mini-society, and that's not a choice, I'd much prefer just being an artist, but unless someone else does it, its actually one of cultures only hopes. To vex a degrading society, it must compete with one purpose built for regrowing from societies roots. 

[Ves]

I think people still try to send a message with songs (at least sometimes), but there are so many genres and people have really fractured into listening to things from the genres they like best.

I saw Weird Al say this; he said he makes parodies so rarely now because everyone has kind of fractured into their own musical bubble. Apparently (I wasn't around for this), in the 80s an 90s things were very different: tons of people watched MTV and everyone was aware of the top songs on the Billboard Hot 100. It seems like you could push an idea to a much larger group of people if this was the case.

[OmniNaut]

@oOo Thank you it's an interesting read.
One thing we didn't talk about yet, that before social media you had the record companies pushing for commercialisation of the music industry. At first you had the push back from the artists but now the new generation, commercialisation is baked into their identity.

Famously the band Talk Talk is famous for trying to rebel. After their success with "Such a Shame" and "Life is what you make it". They wanted to create a more pure and experimental album (I think it's called the "The spirit of Eden") This was so non-commercial the record label tried to sue them, the record label lost. But from then on in every contract that an artist signed with an record label there is a clause that there must be an commercial intention when creating music.

So it's in every contract to make music with commercial intent.

@oOo
I'm really interested in your new idea. Really punk of you to do this 🤘🏼 haha

@Ves 

2 hours ago, Ves said:

I saw Weird Al say this; he said he makes parodies so rarely now because everyone has kind of fractured into their own musical bubble. Apparently (I wasn't around for this), in the 80s an 90s things were very different: tons of people watched MTV and everyone was aware of the top songs on the Billboard Hot 100. It seems like you could push an idea to a much larger group of people if this was the case.

Yeah I was sparring about this very thing with ChatGPT. MTV as a platform but also gatekeeper, was trying to understand where the similarities are between MTV and Spotify/Youtube, as platforms and gatekeepers.

[Basman]

We don't have the same monoculture anymore because everyone is on they phones. Appealing to a specific niche is what works now.