on working underground
artists are pressured to make compromises so early that they may not understand what they really wish to accomplish in their work. it is pushed upon them to appease something other than their own interests in order to develop bland styles to appease market interests. even in the practice of improvising, improvisers are encouraged to not fully develop their own ideas, processes, or methodologies. instead we must be tethered to ideas of energy, spirituality, social commentary. things that fit the mold of a “moral” art form.
the great benefit to working in a diy framework is freedom to ignore this. i do not have to play to grant funding, markets, or even a mass audience. the music becomes about what i want it to be and i have complete freedom.
those who take the other road are met with the obligation to appealing to the interests of others. on the massive scale of popular music: historically, we see the artist meeting the demand of labels compromising original intention.
however, in modern times this functions differently. there are no massive labels to listen to and so the market is decided upon by other means. what it means to become a musician shifts to a weird ambiguous identity that is laced with the past nostalgias of the 20th century. we don’t know what it is currently so we like to play pretend. we dress up to promote past images such as a so called “spiritual”, “serious” musician that is socially aware and creating in the interest of changing the world. we take out the blemishes of their personality deemed impure, imperfect, and uncomfortable to create a plethora of individuals obsessed with image.
it has seeped into the crevices of my own art form, transforming a music that is naturally underground, imperfect, and impure into a means to an end for aspiring young professionals. it has become marketable to become an improviser. we have learned how to use particular words to promote our music in a vague enough way to signify liberal and moral ideas, so when the audience consumes it they feel better about themselves and the world around them. we have to write liner notes promoting a false prophecy that this will make the world more tolerable, easier to live in. it is no different than buying organic instead of consuming an unholy banana. the music MUST have "practical" meaning and if it does not fit in this framework, it has nothing to say.
i am certainly not against an artist saying something in their work. my critique of most modern music here is that the work actually has nothing to say. we are dressing up music in words to make it seem more complicated than it is. the con artists have mastered the use of language.
the lack of discourse and critique has also led to this phenomena. we have created a weird post-warhol obsession with the artistic identity, making it impossible to meet the work at its face value. even if the work is derivative, critique is met with an uproar of peopling claiming its power and therefore critique is not warranted. it’s like we feel guilty for a missed opportunity in the past. albert ayler is gone, before many could see him so we must make it up by praising those ripping off his very original identity and concept of music. musicians take without taking it further. audiences receive the signifiers and are comfortable with sitting with a worse version of things they’ve heard before. our audiences should be better equipped to meet work by itself, and not by dress up associated with it.
if i function in an underground, built of contemporaries who make serious work without nostalgia jargon tied with it, i can avoid this. i can become a musician in my own definition of the words. i can pull from the past and interpret it in a different way. a way that may be impure and uncomfortable. i can create on my own terms with no other way being pushed upon me. i do not need grants, funding, or anyone to be looking at me. i simply need to be making it and that is enough.