in Pencil Music

in Pencil

"Smile…..it's free."


No one lives in a vacuum. What you like is at least in some way influenced on what others around you like (or don’t like). Everything you’re little brain digests needs context. Someone or [shudder] some brand is out there to help dictate what to like. Remember that real bad-ass kid in high school that listened to old OC Punk tapes in his parents’ station wagon? You know the one who everyone was scared of? Whether you knew it or not, you went out to Sam Goody and started your own Social Distortion collection as a way to toughen up, to become who you thought you wanted to be. 

But that’s just adolescence, right? No one above 21 years old actually choses music that way. WRONG! Apple has been selling us this feeling of being young, cool, tech savvy, hipster/yuppies for like 8 years now, by slapping an ironic indie-electronic band or a retro-rock track against an otherwise low-budget commercial for an overpriced walkman that will last less than 6 months. 
The point is, needing to feel good about yourself knows no age, and art, particularly music, is the quickest way to identify yourself with something or someone else that you aspire to emulate. Record labels have been all over this phenomenon for years, creating or molding artists, and then ripping off their most successful creations until the dead horse is beaten to a pulp. As the labels fade quietly into the sunset, advertisers have taken the reigns with Apple being one of the most successful.
What a dismal thought. Is nothing pure? Can’t we just like something because we like it? Are we doomed to be manipulated into listening to every tired track that U2 puts out (and when they’re gone, Coldplay) because advertisers have decided (via focus groups) that they reach the largest demographic of potential consumers, and are, therefore, “The Biggest Band in America?
Actually, I take it back. It’s not so dismal I suppose. If you like U2′s latest record or Coldplay or, hell, even the “new” Black Eyed Peas CD, that’s your prerogative. If it makes you feel good, or cool, or connected, then mission accomplished. But know this: now more than ever you have a choice in what you listen to. Music is everywhere, and most of it is free! And it’s only going to get free-er. What a beautiful thing! And it’s that phenomenon that will help to weed out the fakers: the in -studio creations. Because if you’re not going to buy their record, what are you going to buy? Oh…perhaps an iPod.

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