Somewhere in the sea of websites, streaming, videos, vlogs, blogs and Facebook live, I have to lift my head up to ask an important question: does music belong in the music industry?
It seems to be getting along fine without it. The fashion, the stances, the scenes, the jeans, the sunglasses, the liquor sales, the branding, the scrolling. I mean, who needs music, anyways?
Music is a dusty concept. It belongs in some empty symphony hall. No, I don’t need music, I’ve got Instagram. Let me put my headphones on and wallow away the day to some bleeps and blops.
Dynamics are a word, right? Is it singular? Plural? I don’t even know what that means. Everything is compressed to fit into a tiny digital signal that comes through the ear piece and oh, I have to take out my ear buds, were you saying something?
No, I don’t need that. When I shop in those…stores…I hear music — it’s up in the distance, in the rafters, coming out of speakers. Mu-zac, I think it’s called. Is that what you’re referring to?
I’m purchasing brands, I am shopping, I am streaming, I am friending, I am connecting.
I’m clicking, I am scrolling, I am searching, I am googling, I am talking to inanimate objects.
My search history and my community of peeps is online, who needs music? My soul is made of plastic and wrapped in cellophane I bought on Amazon.
I heard you play guitar, violin, piano, a drum. I heard you gathered to hear each other do this thing. I heard that you had voices, spirits and minds.
Instruments are so…yesterday.
Software is so…today.
The future is…empty.
Who needs music? I do, we do.