COMMENTARIES:
The Death of Cool
The Single Standard
The Real Chicken Grease
The Digital Haze
A Warning 2 Music Lovers
4 The Love of Music
Work 4 Hire?
What Should B Souled?

The Single Standard

Is Jimi Hendrix alive 2day?

He most definitely is. In fact, he’s more alive than ever — more alive than he used 2 b.

He’s an artist who’s selling millions of CDs every year, after all. But more importantly, rather than a rock’n’roll icon who can “move product”, he is a recognized artist. Tens of thousands of people world-wide are listening to his music every day. Tens of thousands of people are feeling this ENERGY jumping out of his recordings.

It is becoming quite clear 2 more and more people that, in fact, Jimi Hendrix will live 4ever, bcuz his work will b with us 4ever. An artist is his work. People r what they create. They live thru their works of art — and the fact that those works r TIMELESS means that they will live 4ever.

Is Miles Davis alive 2day?

He is. He is still present with us. The influence of his work is spreading wider and wider. However, we also get the feeling that, right now, he’s not quite as alive as he could b.

Opposing 4ces

Y is that? It’s all a matter of ownership. Bcuz artists r what they create, bcuz their work is alive, they cannot b owned. The reason y we get the feeling that Jimi Hendrix is more alive 2day is not just that more and more people r recognizing his work — it’s also that his work is free, that more and more people have ACCESS 2 his work in a way that they feel is faithful 2 what he was about. Thru the family-owned Experience Hendrix, L.L.C and Dagger Records, his music flows.

But it was a long road 2 reach this point where the vibrancy of Jimi’s soul can freely resonate throughout the music world and beyond. It was a long struggle that basically boils down 2 the essential battle between 2 OPPOSING 4CES: the 4ces that work towards improving universal enjoyment of an artist’s work, and the 4ces that work against it.

Right now, there r still 4ces working against universal enjoyment of Miles Davis’s music. There is confusion regarding who “owns” his recordings and in what 4m they should b released. There r live releases available in Europe which r considered bootlegs in North America. We have yet 2 reach the point where the world will enjoy universal access 2 his art as he intended it.

A Chance 2 Listen

Similarly, there were (still r?) many things with Napster that were wrong, that worked against universal enjoyment of music. It essentially enabled people 2 access music without compensating artists 4 their work. When asked whether they were bothered by the loss in revenue, a handful of artists who make millions thru regular record sales answered that they didn’t really mind. Strangely enough, the media didn’t really bother 2 ask the many artists who do not make millions thru record sales. The media obviously failed 2 rise 2 the challenge of trying to educate people about how artists need 2 b compensated 4 their work.

One undeniable fact, however, is that Napster also contributed 2 furthering many people’s enjoyment of an extremely wide variety of music, and was probably a significant factor in the increase in music sales.

A recent Reuters article reads:

U.S. music product shipments fell 4.4 percent to $5.9 billion in the first half of 2001, the Recording Industry Association of America said Tuesday, despite the industry's success in stifling its nemesis Napster… The RIAA had claimed that the popularity of Napster would depress music product sales.

Either the so-called “recording industry” is in complete denial, or it knows something about the future of music that no one else does. As far as we know, many (most?) people buy music after they have had a chance 2 listen 2 it. In an age where the vast majority of music radio stations r restricting their playlists 2 a handful of songs being played 2 death, is it any wonder that many music enthusiasts turned 2 the Internet 4 their chance 2 xplore and discover new music? Is it any wonder that, now that they have basically been denied access 2 that new source of xploration and discovery, they r actually purchasing less music? Does the recording industry really xpect music audiences 2 continue 2 grow and diversify when all its actions r designed 2 achieve the xact opposite goal, i.e. 2 have as many people as possible listening 2 a range of music that is as narrow as possible?

Like it or not, the fact that radio playlists r becoming so restricted is clearly a 4ce that is working against the enjoyment of music.

Similarly, the fact that the recording industry continues 2 operate on the premise that its “bread and butter” must come from a handful of disposable, renewable acts, whose multi-million sales r primarily intended 2 make up 4 the many “losses” incurred by other artists, is a 4ce working against the enjoyment of music.

The fact that the music industry has been treating music as a product rather than an art form, causing audiences 2 behave as consumers rather than listeners, is a 4ce working against the enjoyment of music,

A Symbol of Ownership

Is it a coincidence when the typical phrase used 2 describe a successful artist is… “HOT PROPERTY”? Art is no one’s property. No one on this earth owns art. If anything, art actually owns us.

A Jimi Hendrix CD is not a piece of iridescent plastic that u own. A Jimi Hendrix CD has NRG — an NRG that enslaves u 2 its soul. Jimi Hendrix is not a success bcuz he’s “hot property.” He’s a success thru the sheer power of his art.

In this case, however, music is nothing but a symbol 4 something more encompassing. The current state of the music industry should serve as a lesson 4 all of us about ownership in all aspects of human life.

The fact that music has a power that transcends its physical xistence, the fact that it simultaneously enraptures and eludes its apparent “owners” is the big taboo of the music industry. The power of music is what drives true creators, but the industry that those creators r part of is driven by anything but. The music industry behaves as if it owned the artists’ creations, when the creators themselves know that even they don’t own them! How can such a situation lead to anything but a dialogue of the deaf?

The fact of the matter is that the entire history of the United States of America — and of most so-called “developed” countries if u care 2 look at them closely enough — is based on such double standards, on people saying one thing and doing another.

In that respect, the slave trade in America is important 2 study, bcuz it xemplifies the double standards that our societies have thrived on — and continue to thrive on.

This country’s very foundation is based on a text, the Declaration of Independence, that asserts that:

We hold… that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Yet this is the same country where entire states — and, indeed, the nation as a whole — continued to thrive, 4 at least another century, on the fact that some people owned other people.

Even worse, it is well-established that, even though institutional slavery was at the root of all the problems that led 2 the Civil War and the subsequent abolition of slavery, the debate about slavery was, 4 both southerners and many northerners, a question of money and power much more than a theoretical, moral or ideological issue at all. And abolition didn’t bring moral resolution.

A Planet of Power

It is hard not 2 draw parallels between such historical double standards and 2day’s continuing hypocrisy at all levels of power. Everywhere u look, the official claims of honesty, democracy, generosity, equality, etc. r most often CONtradicted by on-going behaviors and actions — or inaction — that clearly demonstrate that political powers act, not as if they had been instituted by the people 4 the people 2 secure their “unalienable rights,” but as if their responsibility were 2 protect other 4ms of earthly power.

Rather than acknowledging a single, universal reality — a planet that is warming up and drying up, an entire continent that is dying of incurable disease, stock markets where kids in suits enjoy roller-coaster rides on other people’s hard-earned money, unproven technologies that r imposed upon people by private corporations, cattle that is being fed foods made out of the remains of their own — historically, and 2day more than ever, the “reality” is whoever is in power (politically, financially, militarily) at the time.

The real reality, however, is that, as long as people claim that they own other people’s creations, claiming, thus, thru those creations, that they own other people, those SYSTEMS of power will remain in place, 2 the benefit of a handful of “owners” and the detriment of everyone else.

A Single Standard

The full text of the Declaration of Independence also states that:

… to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

In other words, we need 2 abolish unjust powers.

We need musicians who put their soul — rather than their wallet, or their computer’s instruction manual — in2 their music.

We need audiences who refuse 2 consume junk musical products and choose 2 listen 2 the wide variety of good music that is left unnoticed by most.

We need journalists who put their journalistic actions where their journalistic mouths r, who stop promoting junk and echoing hypocrisy, and instead start trying 2 guide their audiences thru r societies’ history and diversity.

We need leaders with ethics, who don’t make promises they can’t keep, who make commitments they will keep, who respect what they didn’t create and reject those who claim 2 own it.

We need people who know the process of creation, who know that they r what they create, that other people r what they create, and that creation is the driving 4ce that brings joy and happiness 2 everyone.

Above all, we need 2 abolish double standards. We need a single standard that applies 2 everyone and everything. We need diverse unity and unique diversity. We need LOVE 4 ONE ANOTHER. We need love 4 creation and creative love. We need a world with a purpose. We need a world with soul.

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