The word "artist" has a certain stigma of pretention attached to it. If someone tells me that they're an artist there is a certain sociological programmed response in the back of my mind that goes, "Ooh, an artist! Whoop-dee-do! Why don't you go make some art, artist?" This must be a strong cultural perception because I'm an artist and it's still imprinted on me.
I don't have that reaction to musicians, however. If someone tells me they're a musician I'm all like, "That's cool." Now, musicians are artists. The only difference is in the label.
I think my mind separates them because when I hear "artist" I am reminded of classical works. Rembrandt, Piccaso, etc. The word "musician" makes me think of commercial performing artists (see, the word is still there but its power has been lessened by its modifiers), like Peter Gabriel or They Might Be Giants. Has the "download era" reduced the importance of musicians in our minds, to the point where we have no qualms about taking what they produce for free? Yes and no, in my case. I'll download music without thinking twice, but I'll also buy an album when I can afford to.
Anyway, there are two people responsible for why I've been thinking about this issue lately. The first is this crazy lady.
The second is Brian Joseph Davis. Davis is an artist who works mosty in the medium of music and sound. He's not exactly what I'd call a musician, though. Rather than a recording artist who releases one album after another, Davis releases limited edition stand-alone conceptual albums. These aren't your average "Pet Sounds" concept albums.
Take this one, for example. Davis takes an entire album by an artist, and mixes every song from that album into one track. That's the concept behind Greatest Hit.
In 10 Banned Albums Burned...Then Played he takes 10 albums that have been banned by someone at some point...and it's pretty self-explanatory, actually.
How about a punk music EP based on the memoir of exhiled Marxist theorist, Theodore Adomo? That one's kind of over my head, but anyone can appreciate:
Yesterduh, in which he pays strangers to sing the Beatle's "Yesterday" from memory.
That's it for his musical projects, but I want to point out one more thing. Davis was commissioned to create a piece for the Art Gallery of York University. He strung together a bunch of movie tag-lines into a narrative, which was then read by that voice over guy we all love and recognize. It's a lot of fun to listen to for any movie buff.
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6 comments:
Interesting News from Microsoft
Sort of off topic, but you need to read this. I say sort of because I could come up with a way to meld it into an argument about games being art, but I don't care. Any way, I doubt I will be downloading 100s of games from xbox live made by random people, but I'm sure there will be a few guys who make some MONEY doing this.
~Brian
Quite interesting, indeed!
As a musician myself, I even kind of shrug it off when people introduce themselves to me as musicians. Maybe it is partially snobbery... part of it is also that, in this day and age of a computer in every lap and the capability to mix sounds and therefore "make music"... the most talentless hacks consider themselves musicians. People who craft "music." I think you can tell what I think of these people.
I think it's the same thing that has cheapened photography. Now with an overabundance of digital cameras that take pretty good quality photos, the true art of a manual camera that you have to really focus and learn... it's gone. There are still those that can do it, no doubt. But there are certainly a million and one nitwits running around with their Canon or Sony digital camera trying to be the next big artist using a black and white setting.
I equate this with most self-proclaimed musicians. I'm very picky and particular about my music and my art.
This post was pretty pretentious.
But don't you see, Zhubin? The pretentiousness of the post was itself an ironic commentary about art. It's totally meta.
Well Joe Shmoe isn't running around with his cannon putting up picture spreads for Vogue or in the great art galleries of the world so I'm not sure why it matters. Frankly, technology making it easier to produce music and pictures is a great thing because it brings a dying medium to masses. People can develop an appreciation for the fine arts without having to become a professional in a dark room, or understanding what a basic minor pentatonic scale is.
In terms of bands and music, the great producers have been turning OK music into hits for generations so nothing has really changed there. DJ Bobby, from his mom's basement with his apple powerbook, isn't exactly mixing the next classic...he's posting them on his blog so his friends can download it.
~Brian
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