Saturday, September 8, 2007

Is Mindless Creation Allowed in Music? Guess not!

Mindless Creation Inspired by Prof. Aishman

In the early 1900’s, circa 1916-1920 during World War 1 lived an art movement called ‘Dada or Dadaism’. This movement at its time, and even now looking back at it was powerful because of its lack of a message and of course inadvertently having one. The Dada movement existed in various forms such as visual arts, literature, theatre, and graphic design, but the intent behind the movement was to go against the grain of what was considered acceptable forms of art, creating what was called anti-art. The movement was displaying its disapproval with the war, and the manipulation of the ruling classes to make this war exist.

Before this movements manifestation it was as if arts only purpose was to appease those looking by giving them something they could connect with or understand. Knowing that art could not exist without a purpose unconsciously limits its diversity. So to have a movement that says were going to make art and be aware of all the rules and intentionally not abide by any was unheard of.

So a few days ago I was reading the blog of one of my professors and the first line of his blog posed the question, “Whatever happened to mindless creation?” What was even more ironic was early that day before I began to read his blog, I was speaking to a few peers and they were all enthralled about the hip-hop culture but disenchanted by its current state. NO ONE wants to hear another lean with it rock with it, do the heizman on that Ooo, Crank that soldier boy, or anything about doing the cupid shuffle song. But honestly that’s the problem with current hip-hop, it parallels the issues of art during the early 1900’s, people were forced into believing that arts only function had to pertain to aesthetics, or some type of implied or covert message, but how about Not! What if hip-hop doesn’t always have to be saturated with a fight the power message, or the need of one voice, one person, and one mic to make a change? What if you just make music to make it? Allowing the listener to interpret what he or she wants from the music, or not even interpret anything at all just listen, and accept what is heard at face value and it be ok. Don’t get me wrong, I’d choose Naz’s first LP over some of this pop music any day but that’s not the point I'm trying to make. My gripe does with us not understand this current form of music’s importance to the movement as a whole, you can still have fun making music, and you don’t have to instill some profound message in your song for it to be worth listening to. You can make music simply because you love it and you’ll still be accepted as an artist in your own right. Your mindless creation is what makes you an artist and because you’re not doing what some, maybe even most feel you should be doing with your music, it doesn’t lessen your caliber as an artist it simply makes you an individual, and what’s so bad about that?



Credits: wikipedia<---- quick research of factual info Steve aishman <---where the inspiration derived from photoawesome <---a website worth going to!

3 comments:

Juke said...

I think that you have made a valid point. The bottome line is we romnaticize alot of the HipHop that seems to make statements (past and present) but in all honesty, we don't realize not much has changed. Different people approached HipHop in different ways. Boogie Down Productions did conscious rap, Sir Mix A Lot did Booty, some artists promoted drug sales and partying...but people had their own takes on what it was, and they stayed in that arena. That's the beauty of music...there is no right or wrong way to approach it.

Anonymous said...

mindless creation...that's so what i needed to hear, man. i spend too much time not creating because my creations aren't accepted by the masses or the underground, for that matter. damn. it's that simple.

thank you for the thoughts and words.

Unknown said...

I remember buying a Dead Prez cd (RFP i think it was called) This was during my black power racist stage in my life. The first two songs, I was ready to grab a gun and shoot every white person I saw. By the middle of the CD, I was so damn tired of black power, I almost wanted to be white. They were just too heavy all the way throught the CD...I was stressed out and I needed a break. Thank God for MP3's. As my music changes from one genre to another on my MP3, so does my mood. I can appreciate Hip Hop in its inifinite and vast occupying space. I need a message when I need it...not when it's repeatedly shoved down my throat. The same goes with booty shake ( i grew up on booty shake, I did not know no better thangs-Andre 3000, Growing Old) love, and bullshit. Hip Hop is one of the fortunate genres that can cater to anyone. The choice is on the buyer or in my case, the downloader. Good words.