PressPausePlay on Netflix

[mathias]

Watched this documentary tonight while rebuilding my pedal board.

The basic idea is that never before has it been so cheap and accessible to make art: music, film, fine art, etc.

They have all these people saying how great it is, how can anyone can go record an album or write the next great novel or make a great movie. Most interesting of all is that almost all of this is due to the personal computer being so cheap and ubiquitous. People saying how great it is that isn't just old white guys with capitol that can make this stuff. Instead, incredible talent can simply work on their own; do their own thing, and not work for big record labels or movie studios or whatever.

Then there's a backlash towards to that idea of democratizing art; people saying that we're headed towards dark ages. Or at the very least, an age of mediocrity: where all the art and music is mediocre and nothing is great anymore.

thoughts?

[greyscales]

I watched this last weekend actually.
They make a lot of good points about how easy it is to make art and distribute it. Personally I think the democratization is good. You might get a lot of mediocre stuff, but you get a lot of killer things as well. Take the good with the bad.
Obviously it isn't totally democratic. Pop music, film, and art is still very much run by elites. Sure, you get a few small people in, but on the whole you just get into the game a lot of the time. Same with politics.

[sonidero]

That movie drove me nuts... Moby needs to shut up, he's got his money and no one cares anymore that he's vegan and blah blah blah...

What are we doing with all the Tech though??? Bitching about how other people use it and how you could have done it better...

Most Music / Art Tech is a big ol circle jerk that has nothing to do with MUSIC or ART... It's about companies making money and having a new product for next season...

Major Movies still suck and so does Major Radio so where is the flood of all these fantastic Artists that used the easily accessible Tech we've had for over a decade to change the World???

Oh I forgot Amanda Palmer...

Right on Greyscales...

[snipelfritz]

Most Music / Art Tech is a big ol circle jerk that has nothing to do with MUSIC or ART... It's about companies making money and having a new product for next season...

I think this is true but the circle-jerk also exists on a highly pedestrian level.

With the access we have to various forms of art things become ghettoicized, separated and exclusive. I think this, combined with what I personally have considered to be highly selfish and exclusivist ideals behind the punk ethos, contribute to a dwindling sense of local community in music scenes. Artists often only perform for other musicians. There is a seeming resistance to outsiders in a lot of scenes, whereas one would think a greater audience is better.

Of course I'll stop short of saying music should be entertainment and we should all be trying to make people dance because that's stupid.

Not that I don't love intelligent, dancable music (that's kinda my niche)

[CBA]

Or at the very least, an age of mediocrity: where all the art and music is mediocre and nothing is great anymore.

The modern world since the mid-90s. And it's only increased exponentially with the onset of digital media.



But I'll have to watch the doc, too.



C

[01010111]

I'm of the opinion that we are heading into a cultural dark ages. If art becomes increasingly easy to make, the parameters judging them will likely degrade as the technology to make music becomes more diverse. Instead of searching out these new and awesome indie groups people will just be overwhelmed by the amount of content being produced, and instead latch onto what sounds the most like the music the already know. So, instead of artists being judged on their own merit, they will be judged against how much they resemble historically good artists.

Possibly within a certain locality new art will be made, but because it's new and without strong similarities to the past it won't spread very widely. Perhaps we'll see a regionalization of culture, and instead of becoming more united as a world culture we'll slowly fall apart because of increasing differences and varieties of local cultures.

[metalmariachi]

We have been in an age of mediocrity for a while.
Hollywood won’t release a new movie because people won’t watch something they haven’t seen before.
Blah is beautiful and the everyday is “AMAZING”
People are called heroes for doing what any decent person would do in the situation.
Bands I would walk out on if they played my local bar are raved about on late night TV.

Yes it sucks.
BUT THERE IS HOPE!!!!!!
There are great bands making music and great movies being made.
You have to hunt for it but it’s out there.
MM

[jrmy]

Wait, what? Age of mediocrity?

Maybe I'm still wearing rose colored glasses, but I was just at a three day music fest last weekend, and every day was filled with bands that blew me away. Sure, there were a few that made me think "meh," but those bands that were blowing my mind were total random local or regional bands that I'd never heard of before. And all of them are making music & distributing it using those newfangled computers and that gosh-darned internet.

I think that we're dealing with just plain MORE of everything - more access to make great stuff, but just as much access for the mediocre stuff.

Further, because we all have similar access, we're gonna find more stuff that's not in OUR wheelhouse... but those other folks right over there are totally jazzed about.

So yeah, more = more. That's all.

[MSUsousaphone]

I haven't seen the movie, but I've been of the opinion since getting my bachelors in music a few years back that we're not so much heading to the "dark ages" but more of a renaissance. An age in which there really aren't that many huge world wide acts like we've been used to for the past few decades but more large regional bands.....or the world wide phenomenons will have careers that span only a few years instead of a few decades. A return of the troubadours.

In my opinion, the superstar will become extinct and we'll only see people who can flash in for a year or two until their novelty wears off. While more and more talented local bands make a name for themselves playing at clubs and hitting the streets. Few will get rich but more will make a living.

We'll see.