There’s something very strange happening with the way we write, produce and consume music. The change / deterioration in the quality of music since the internet arrived is something well documented and talked about. Recording has become cheaper and easier. You don’t need to spend years honing a craft… and everyone can broadcast… so it’s not a massive surprise.
But there’s something deeper.
I think the issue is space, or more acutely, emptiness.
The internet fills every void of space in our lives. There is less silence, less meditation, less flow state. When it’s on, it’s just drawing us in constantly. Sometimes we even sit on the toilet with it.
This is reflected in the way music is produced these days, and to a large extent, written.
We write with the help of out-of-the-box sounds and tools, so that crafting and producing a song can happen in tandem with its writing, or even prior to. The computers drive the song.
In today’s noisy world a simple guitar or piano with a melody sounds empty, unfinished, and can even be considered amateur. Some see it as a reflection of a writer/singer’s inability to use the multitude of computerised tools so readily available.
As a writer, it’s becoming harder to get in the ‘zone’. We are distracted by processing, tweaking and editing. It’s an ever-frictionless teleportation to a different headspace.
Not to mention ‘looking’. Our eyes are engaged with the screen, sucking our sensory processing capacity away from the ears, or the feelings.
For the next 4 days, I’m going offline. I’ll lean into a deep creative space, a lyrical and musical realm. I won’t become a recluse. I’ll just become more like a person in the 90s, interacting with the real world. I’ll interact with things made of trees like a guitars, pianos and books. I’ll have real conversations in coffee shops and bars.
Check out theoffline-club.com for a great community of people who get this, and might be able to help you engage more with the real world too.
A Switch in the right direction.
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