First of all, Ziggy Stardust is easily one of the greatest songs of all time.
I will face you in Mortal Kombat to decide this. Only the games though, as I am a lover at heart. Not a fighter.
On top of all that I've recently been pondering the conflicts that often seem to arise when one works in a creative industry. Not only am I gainfully employed at a radio station, but my room mate and several of my friends are. It seems to be a constant battle for all of us from a creative stand-point.
We want to do this segment. The bosses say no.
We want to play this song. The bosses say no.
We would like to have this event. The bosses say no.
This leads to a massive moral problem.
All we ever seem to want to do is to try some new stuff or maybe do something to make the station better. All we ever seem to get is shut down. As one person put it so eloquently, "Why the fuck should we ever try anything if they're just going to shit all over it?"
As a creative person (no way to say that without sounding elitist or arrogant) I've often felt the same kind of pressures. I fell slightly short of an A+ in high school drama because too many people didn't get what I was doing or what I tried to do. On the flip side of that, the teacher would let me do pretty much whatever the fuck I wanted because he knew there would be something more to it then a cut and paste script. I wouldn't say I can do better then anyone else or that I am better then anyone else. My mother leaving the mark of horrible neurosis upon me aside, I just figure I view the world without that haze of what you can and can't do. To truly reach something fresh and creative you need to erase all lines. Not just those set by the genres that have come before, but all lines.
I've never been a believer in the term 'genre'. There isn't really any such thing. The best movies, plays, books, what have you, that you've ever experienced have likely blended multiple 'genres'. The fact of the matter being that a comedy can make you cry, a romance can make you hate, and a horror film can make you love. I admit that last one doesn't have that many examples yet but there is still time on the clock. In any case, thats my creative dilemma and philosophy paraphrased into a niche.
When it comes to working at a 'creative' job, you have to understand your position. Everyone thinks their job is creative these days. I hand the thanks for that over to the "Happyhappy-Dr.Feelgood-Youarespecialandrock!" philosophy that has penetrated our culture in the past. The simple fact is that most jobs aren't creative. Even those that hide behind the wafer thin veil of a genre. You'd assume DJs would have to be creative. Listening to your local morning show hosts can often deter that line of thought. It is thought of as almost an art industry though. Much like television.
The simple fact of the matter is that DJs represent the anus of the industry. An industry designed to make money. Much like the television industry, the whole point becomes one of sell sell sell. The fact of the matter is that if you don't sell sell sell you don't get paid.
Its hard for creative people to accept that the money-men may just know what they're doing. What does that make the supposedly 'creative' industry people the world around?
Not that creative really.
If art truly imitates life then, in the words of the ingenious Dr.Ian Malcom. "Life will find a way."
To really express art in these modern times it has to be so subversive that you can't see through it. It almost must hide behind an air of mediocrity to succeed in its goal. Its a sad fact that the world and all the people in it won't be brilliant. But that is never how it was. Lowered standards don't make art worse or creativity lost. It doesn't make decent things look amazing. It just makes it so that the really good shit is so subtle and so deep that we miss it completely.
That my friends, is irony.
Now stop fucking mis-using the word.
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Drew MC