When I think back to being a teenager, the first image that comes to mind is of sitting alone in my room after school and experimenting with my Tascam 4-track.
Dear Liam, Great post. So interesting your subtle longing for the days when music was etherial sound made on your 4 track. I’m from another generation and as a visual artist I was delighted to be able to “see” the music. I had been struggling with 4 track cassette and then spent a painful amount of money on 8 track reel to reel etc.. When I saw the computer music with "colored blocks that were stacked and staggered on top of each other” I was done with tape. (Fortunately I kept my 8 track, and it is still working!)
I agree that where/how we play/publish our music/art it does influence the forms that our music/art takes. David Byrne has written a whole book about this phenomenon (mostly about venues where bands play) called “How Music Works.” Nice book about how cool venues, being on tickets with other cool players, cool record labels, cool music communities, all force the musical forms to be… cooler!
I think the apps and streaming services have robbed us of some of that cool inspiration and motivation. Also they have created pressure to produce “content” all the time. To be able to post our music/art instantly to the “whole world” is magical, but somehow leaves us in an odd vacuum. We still desperately need community to grow and thrive as artists. Thank you Avalon Lounge.
Obviously giant corporations and now our own government leadership have turned into surging demonic empires driven mindlessly by power and greed. My only hope now is that a new underground “rebel alliance” will form, and somehow someday we can take down the Death Star that is now running our tiny smoldering planet.
Please keep writing and stay with "what is real, what is possible, and what is to be valued.”
Thanks for sharing these thoughts. The social media thing got us all. For a certain type of person, it's great, perhaps even healthy, but for most people I think it is all the bad things we have assumed it to be psychologically and yet most of us continue, either for practical reasons or reasons perhaps unconscious or, worse, due to addiction (for which I like the simple definition of "continuing to do something even though you know it's bad for you").
The companies are evil but it's not what informs my desire to not use social media (much anyway, I post once or twice a year for movie related things). What informs it is the psychology of it. In our deepest moments of suffering, we are most empathetic and as I work through the suffering I have the deepest reflections, ones I often feel compelled to share with others. Something that might be helpful to someone out there, maybe even multiple people. The thought forms and then I begin to imagine sharing it with the world and then I feel a strong signal that social media is not the place for it. At the very least Instagram is not. It's not for thoughtful reflections or substantive discussion. It's for pics and cat videos and "check out what I ate at the picnic" and, generally speaking, "isn't my life great?." I remember back around 2008 my good friend from college going on a Europe trip and posted a Facebook photo album of him climbing mountains and so on and he titled it "Your life sucks". This was the very awful next train stop after "isn't my life great?" and I'm grateful, at least, that he's the only person I know that got off there.
The reality is that the internet is great for reaching many people you know. Theoretically we could all feel tremendous freedom and excitement to express things in a way that feels authentic and healthy and useful and reasonably free of judgment, but the norms that form around the apps are generally not conducive to that. I do know one somewhat older guy in town who does long-form Facebook posts on a regular basis (ranging from reviews of movies or TV to reflections on eras of history to experiences he had walking his dog in Catskill) and these posts keep coming whether they get acknowledgement or not. I love reading them and it is the only reason I go on to Facebook, so I now call Facebook "Kurt's Blog" in my head. So, some are liberated from the norms, but I think most feel pressure to adhere and posting is more calculated than casual.
Instagram is kind of like TV where every channel is your friend. Whereas I think what I want is more akin to a really good letter from a friend every once in a while (and of course good time spend together in person). In other words, ideas, not snapshots. Which is why I think the substack thing is great. I am curious how the experience feels for someone like yourself who is, of course, used to the dopamine of a quick post and flood of likes.
As someone who has been much more of a lurker than a poster, I am happy that now when I mindlessly open instagram on my computer, I see the page and just close it because I don't care and it's not what I want. I've been reading books for the first time in years and have been writing some stories. I think that the less I engage with the internet outside of the work I need to do on it, the more space there is for ideas to spark and ideas to grow. When there is room enough to get a little bored, there is room for something unexpected to come in. I suspect for most of us that the best model is, simply, do your own thing and every now and again share something meaningful (as opposed to share often and have that sharing be built into the rhythm of your life).
More to say but out of time. I will say it is much easier to post a cat pic than to write this long reply to you, but it feels much more meaningful. Thanks for writing and I will keep tuning in.
Dear Liam, Great post. So interesting your subtle longing for the days when music was etherial sound made on your 4 track. I’m from another generation and as a visual artist I was delighted to be able to “see” the music. I had been struggling with 4 track cassette and then spent a painful amount of money on 8 track reel to reel etc.. When I saw the computer music with "colored blocks that were stacked and staggered on top of each other” I was done with tape. (Fortunately I kept my 8 track, and it is still working!)
I agree that where/how we play/publish our music/art it does influence the forms that our music/art takes. David Byrne has written a whole book about this phenomenon (mostly about venues where bands play) called “How Music Works.” Nice book about how cool venues, being on tickets with other cool players, cool record labels, cool music communities, all force the musical forms to be… cooler!
I think the apps and streaming services have robbed us of some of that cool inspiration and motivation. Also they have created pressure to produce “content” all the time. To be able to post our music/art instantly to the “whole world” is magical, but somehow leaves us in an odd vacuum. We still desperately need community to grow and thrive as artists. Thank you Avalon Lounge.
Obviously giant corporations and now our own government leadership have turned into surging demonic empires driven mindlessly by power and greed. My only hope now is that a new underground “rebel alliance” will form, and somehow someday we can take down the Death Star that is now running our tiny smoldering planet.
Please keep writing and stay with "what is real, what is possible, and what is to be valued.”
Musho
I will seek out that Byrne book! I loved the one he wrote about bicycling around different cities
Thanks for sharing these thoughts. The social media thing got us all. For a certain type of person, it's great, perhaps even healthy, but for most people I think it is all the bad things we have assumed it to be psychologically and yet most of us continue, either for practical reasons or reasons perhaps unconscious or, worse, due to addiction (for which I like the simple definition of "continuing to do something even though you know it's bad for you").
The companies are evil but it's not what informs my desire to not use social media (much anyway, I post once or twice a year for movie related things). What informs it is the psychology of it. In our deepest moments of suffering, we are most empathetic and as I work through the suffering I have the deepest reflections, ones I often feel compelled to share with others. Something that might be helpful to someone out there, maybe even multiple people. The thought forms and then I begin to imagine sharing it with the world and then I feel a strong signal that social media is not the place for it. At the very least Instagram is not. It's not for thoughtful reflections or substantive discussion. It's for pics and cat videos and "check out what I ate at the picnic" and, generally speaking, "isn't my life great?." I remember back around 2008 my good friend from college going on a Europe trip and posted a Facebook photo album of him climbing mountains and so on and he titled it "Your life sucks". This was the very awful next train stop after "isn't my life great?" and I'm grateful, at least, that he's the only person I know that got off there.
The reality is that the internet is great for reaching many people you know. Theoretically we could all feel tremendous freedom and excitement to express things in a way that feels authentic and healthy and useful and reasonably free of judgment, but the norms that form around the apps are generally not conducive to that. I do know one somewhat older guy in town who does long-form Facebook posts on a regular basis (ranging from reviews of movies or TV to reflections on eras of history to experiences he had walking his dog in Catskill) and these posts keep coming whether they get acknowledgement or not. I love reading them and it is the only reason I go on to Facebook, so I now call Facebook "Kurt's Blog" in my head. So, some are liberated from the norms, but I think most feel pressure to adhere and posting is more calculated than casual.
Instagram is kind of like TV where every channel is your friend. Whereas I think what I want is more akin to a really good letter from a friend every once in a while (and of course good time spend together in person). In other words, ideas, not snapshots. Which is why I think the substack thing is great. I am curious how the experience feels for someone like yourself who is, of course, used to the dopamine of a quick post and flood of likes.
As someone who has been much more of a lurker than a poster, I am happy that now when I mindlessly open instagram on my computer, I see the page and just close it because I don't care and it's not what I want. I've been reading books for the first time in years and have been writing some stories. I think that the less I engage with the internet outside of the work I need to do on it, the more space there is for ideas to spark and ideas to grow. When there is room enough to get a little bored, there is room for something unexpected to come in. I suspect for most of us that the best model is, simply, do your own thing and every now and again share something meaningful (as opposed to share often and have that sharing be built into the rhythm of your life).
More to say but out of time. I will say it is much easier to post a cat pic than to write this long reply to you, but it feels much more meaningful. Thanks for writing and I will keep tuning in.