Sunday, October 24, 2010

Passion over Plastic

I was thinking over the weekend about my second draft of my essay about the music industry, and came across an interesting question: what fuels the music? This seems like such an obvious question at first, considering the lyrics and personalities you see present everywhere in the business. I mean, what are people's motives? Anyone can sing a song for money...anyone can sing a song for fame....for love...for an experience they've never had....but what about passion? It seems like when you confront these people who seem so invincible behind their "look-at-me-im-better-than-you" lyrics, they cower in the idea of not knowing how to do that. Now, don't get me wrong, plenty of artists out there have passion behind their music, but there is a very distinct difference between passion and greed. You can hear it in the music, you can see it in how people carry themselves. After coming across this question in my mind, I had to sit back and marvel at the fact that most of the industry is a fraud. Look at the companies willing to give contracts to anyone who is easy on the eyes. After all, they can supply the vocals, the lyrics, the dance moves, the attitude, even the words that come out of their mouths. It's all a big scam for money, in the end. What would these huge companies be with record sales? Nothing. And they know that, so they continue to play along with popular interest to basically make human Barbies that everyone will be head over heels for. And for what?? So someone will spend $13 on a record that is made of plastic, lyricists, and choreographers? Where is that pure, heartwrenching passion? When I write a song, I spend hours upon hours working on it. I let my soul write for me, not a corporation. I profess to only being myself, not some perfect, plastic, above-human-kind personality that no one is good enough for. When it comes down to it, my music is passion is it's simplest form. My music is a picture of who I am, inside and out, nothing concealed, everything on the table. That is what passion IS. Now we have to bring that back out of the industry. Those people who sing for more than just a job, but for a feeling of release, a feeling of joy, a feeling of  being totally consumed and caught up in that moment with every note that is coming out of your instrument, every word that is spilling out of your mouth at that moment, every passing second that couldn't be any more beautiful, in complete rawness. THAT is passion.

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