One-Hit Wonders, the Wave of the Future

I alluded to this in one of my pointless musings, but the current state of the music world is really starting to bother me. Due to numerous factors, many of which I'm admittedly not even familiar with, the quality of albums and singles in general seems to be declining. In fact, I'm finding myself tuning to classic rock stations more often in an attempt to get away from the audible crap that is being piped over our airwaves.

As I mentioned in my pointless musing, the great Bob Dylan even pointed out that modern music is mostly crap. Now, while he went so far as to say the last 20 years have been mostly crap, I'm only going to claim the last four or five. Mostly, since the turn of the century.

Before everyone starts jumping on me, I'm not claiming that all music is garbage... just a lot of it. A higher proportion of it than there used to be. Yes, we still have our superstars knocking out decent to great hits, we still have our "rookies of the year" blowing us away with startling debuts, and we still have our underground movements pushing the mainstream to the brink of experimentation. But... we also have a lot of crap. A lot of it. Usually it goes by the moniker "emo" or some such variation, but they're hardly the sole culprit, and some of it is even quite good.

Here are some of the problems my barely educated opinion has identified:

The proliferation of digital downloads. This is actually coming to a head with the recording industry, as various musical artists are arguing that the art of the album is disappearing from mainstream music. "Albums tell a story" is usually what is said, but again, this statement normally comes from established, "artistic" musicians. The digital era lets us buy music one song at a time, making the necessity of creating 10 to 12 solid tracks less necessary. A band can shoot to stardom with one solid single, and quite a bit of the time, newer bands seem to release "albums" with one absolutely kick-ass track, a couple of good to okay ones, and a ton of crap (OK Go comes to mind, and I'm actually a fan). And, because of the digital era bringing in digital distribution, more and more bands can pull a Kinks on us and just release a ton of stuff, hoping that a few of the songs catch on (sorry, Kinks, I love you, but it's true).

Here's the biggie... I have a lot of friends who are in bands at the moment, several of them signed, close to being signed, or otherwise on their way. Their main problem? They can't read music. Seriously. Now, I understand that talent and "ear" go a long way towards making a rockin' song, but not being able to read music? This is, most likely, the single most predominant reason that modern bands become one-hit wonders. They can knock out that one rockin' song, but lack the musical knowledge to create a distinctly different follow up.

See, how it normally works is that "jam bands" improvise their songs together. But after a while, their improv loses variety (as improv usually does) and everything starts sounding the same. Take my favorite band, U2. Early on, they weren't all that great at reading music, and most of their stuff sounded the same (the stuff that didn't benefited from having Steve Lillywhite onboard). By the Unforgettable Fire album, however, they took the time to learn formal music, and soon gave us The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, two very different albums that benefited from studying music, not just emulating it.

Jazz and Blues fans know what I'm talking about. The stuff that's "jammed" usually sounds the same, and it takes performance and talent to give it that nuance that makes one Jazz/Blues song different from another. But... it still sounds quite a bit alike. However, for Jazz and Blues, this is usually the point, as John Fogerty has testified to. For modern pop and rock, this only leads to disaster. That one hit, followed by a slow fade into obscurity, playing local bars and colleges to your fans who are probably your drinking buddies anyway.

So, come on, people now, smile on your brother and learn how to read music. Learn how to properly write music. Study the shit... that's what will let you avoid being some flash in the pan. That's what will make you great.

Advice for Artists

1. A friend of mine recently relayed a quote to me: "Amateurs do it for the art, artists do it for the money."

While you and I and your grandmother's lesbian cousin can argue the literalness of the above quote, what we can't argue is the cold hard truth that underlies it. The only people who can write, act, paint, sculpt, film, or sing for a living are those who can afford it. What's the joke? Oh, you're an actor? What restaurant?

The point: don't do whatever artistic endeavor you're trying to do unless you're doing it for the money. Sure, have the "love," but don't do it FOR the love. Not unless you're rich. Otherwise, you'll just sit idly by creating your unique artistic interpretations of life while the jackass who hacks out commercialized formula pieces gets rich and famous (and is recognized as an artist when he or she dies). While you... well, while you just disappear in obscurity, occasionally popping up in conversation at the dinner tables of your grandchildren.

2. "That which has been is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 1:9

For contemporary artists, this quote from the Old Testament defines both the bane and the bliss of artistic motivation. Artists are usually so vain, that they try to not only be unique, but original as well. Well, guess what, buddy? What you create is unique by definition, but nothing you EVER create will ever be original.

Bullshit, you might say. But, let's use writers as an example (as I, myself, am a writer) to prove my point. There's a common maxim in the literary world that there are only seven stories. Seven. One more than six; one less than eight. Seven. ALL OTHER STORIES are rip-offs of these seven, no matter how hard you try to make your story "original." Sorry, it's just not happening.

Side note: Those stories, by the way, are Achilles, Cinderella, Circe, Faust, Orpheus, Romeo & Juliet, and Tristan & Isolde.

My point? The sooner you realize and accept that you're creating something derivative, the sooner you'll become a true artist.

3. "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." - popular maxim

This is both an entirely true and an entirely false statement. It is false in that those arrogant prima donnas who use the quote to ridicule teachers and editors have no idea what this quote actually means.

I've often said that there are three things to every thing: an art, a craft, and a science. From tying your shoes to having sex, from driving to cooking dinner, there is an artistic way, a practiced way, and a scientific way. Artists do something through talent and intuition. Craftsman do something through experience and comprehension. Scientists do something through research and procedure.

What am I getting at? Artists: leave the editing and the critiques to the editors and the critics (or, for those of you clever enough to follow along, the craftsmen and the scientists).

There's a reason that "artists" attend classes given by editors and critics. The editors and critics know what works. They know where to direct an artist's raw talent. Why? Because they read, they listen to music, they watch films, they observe the process of creating art, and they study the finished product. So the next time you feel like busting on somebody who's never been published, or never made a movie, or never released an album, keep in mind that he or she is one that will ultimately judge your work, study your work, and decide if your work fails or succeeds (by buying it).

4. "I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him." - Galileo

This last point, for those of you that are still reading, is my justification for writing this little article. Basically... who the fuck am I to be giving such advice? While it's no secret that I am not the most popular published writer in the world, I do, unquestioningly, feel that I am qualified to say what I'm saying. Why? Well, even though I fancy myself a writer, the truth of the matter is that I'm far better at editing than I'll ever be at writing. There's also the matter of having studied creative writing, communications, literature, business, film, professional writing, and history. At any rate, one can boil my advice down to this: learn from everybody, even the "untalented." Expect comparisons, even to other artists that you don't particularly care for. And, for fuck's sake, create something you can sell. After all, what's the point of making a statement if nobody ever sees it?